CAMP ZAMA, Japan — In a small and solemn ceremony, soldiers rolled up the guidon for the 25th Adjutant General Postal Company for the last time Tuesday, placing it in a casing to officially deactivate the unit.

The ceremony marked the end of the company’s role in processing 2 million pounds of mail a year for about 5,000 soldiers and civilians in and around Tokyo.

Under the Army’s military-to-civilian conversion, the post office, now designated “U.S. Army Postal Service Center Honshu,” will be run entirely by civilians.

U.S. Army Garrison Japan Commander Col. Garland Williams told the small audience that deciding what to call the ceremony was difficult. A deactivation usually means the end of a unit and its responsibilities, but the mail still must be delivered. Instead, he said, it’s more appropriately a conversion, to civilian control.

“It implies the organization is going to change a little bit,” Williams said.

Capt. William R. Dailey, the postal company’s last active-duty commander, said everyone who ever clutched a dirty, crumpled letter in a uniform pocket on a deployment knows the importance of mail to soldiers. The conversion will not affect mail service, he promised.

For the 15 soldiers remaining in the unit, the change means new jobs. Some may remain as administrative workers but others might reclassify, said 1st Sgt. Cedric Davis. “It’s sad because we’re leaving something that we like to do,” he said.

Davis, who’s to retire after this assignment, will remain in charge of the postal operations until a new civilian chief is selected.

The military-to-civilian conversion program lets the Department of Defense fill certain nondeployable positions with federal employees, freeing soldiers for deployable jobs, officials have said. Across the Army in coming months, many postal, journalism and administrative jobs no longer will be filled by servicemembers, but by civilians.

Potentially hundreds of Army positions will convert in Japan by July 15. Many jobs, including at the post office, have already converted, Williams said. Many of the new employees are local hires and military dependents already familiar with military procedures, Dailey said; “they know how the military operates and have an idea of the environment and the community.”

There are a few differences. Civilians can’t be forced to work the same hours as soldiers but civilians also won’t have time off for training, so the post offices actually will be open longer hours, Dailey said.

The postal company handled mail for Camp Zama and Sagami Depot along with the U.S. Embassy, Hardy Barracks and the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo.

Williams said regardless who is working behind the counters, the mail center still will operate the same. “The actual function of the unit won’t change,” he said. “The change from a military to civilian unit should be transparent.”