Of course, no good deed goes unpunished.
Because she had these packages and donations sent to her personal military postal address or to her squadron's address she is technically in violation of regulations for use of a military postal address. In fact an IG complaint has been filed against her. The email I received from her is below the fold.Thank you for your overwhelming response and interest in assisting our wounded service members at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The volume of responses, packages, and monetary donations has been unbelievable. I have been informed by the military postal service that it is against Air Force regulations to use my personal APO address to receive any items not for use by my immediate family. Unfortunately, this includes receipt of donations for the wounded at LRMC. This is also true of our official squadron mailing address. Items received at that address must be for official squadron use. Items sent through the military postal system are sent to JFK International Airport where they are sent by air to Ramstein at military expense. This means the packages of donated items are taking up space instead of the personal mail of military and DoD civilians stationed overseas. I could lose my military postal service privileges if shipments continue, as could our squadron. I did not realize this at the time I sent my initial e-mail. There has also been an official IG complaint filed, although I do not know the details of this complaint at this time.
Please immediately discontinue sending packages for LRMC patients to either my personal or the Ramstein Cadet Squadron address. For reasons of security I cannot use my local German mailing address, either.
I am truly sorry for any problems this creates for organizations that may have already collected items and are not now able to send them to us. It might be possible to arrange for the items collected to be donated to patients at some of the other military hospitals stateside.
Please pass the word of this important change, and thank you for your generosity and support.
Lori Noyes
I don't know what sort of punishment Lt. Col. Noyes might face due to her act of kindness, but I hope that the IG investigators will take her motinves into account. In the meantime, does anyone here have contacts in Germany who might be able to assist Lt. Col. Noyes efforts to help our wounded service members? Perhaps there is a church or service organization that can receive packages meant for troops at LRMC. Any assistance would be appreciated.