A stone monument recognizes the post office’s multiple awards at Osan Air Base, South Korea, April 6, 2026. (Alejandro Carrasquel/Stars and Stripes)
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — For years, a stone monument outside Osan’s post office stood as a small marker of pride, commemorating decades of recognition earned by the base’s postal workers.
Then, after more than a decade without a major award, it was removed, placed into storage somewhere and forgotten.
Now, following a new honor in 2024, the stone has been returned to its place outside a unit whose work has long served as one of the military’s most personal links to home.
The monument was first installed in June 2008, after the unit was named “Best in the Air Force” the previous year, Osan postmaster Jerry Prowant said in an April 2 email.
The post office won the same distinction again in 2012 but then went 11 years without another top-level award.
The stone was removed in August 2023, because it had been so long since the post office had won the award, Prowant said.
That changed in 2024, when the post office was named “Postal Operations Flight of the Year,” an achievement that prompted Prowant to begin trying to restore and update the monument.
Prowant shared the stone’s history with Col. Jeff Elliott, commander of the 51st Mission Support Group, who helped initiate a search that led to the stones’ recovery with support from the Civil Engineering Squadron.
“The stone is a visible permanent display of the Post Office lineage and heritage,” Robert Clark, historian for the 51st Fighter Wing, said in an April 2 email.
The monument was reinstalled on March 16 and formally unveiled during a ceremony honoring postal airmen from 1993, 2007, 2012 and 2024.
The stone was first updated after the post office’s Air Force-level win in 2012, but its significance stretches back much further, Clark said.
Postal operations at Osan, he said, date to the Korean War, when the Army Post Office system became a crucial emotional tether for deployed troops and helped reinforce a familiar military saying: “no mail, no morale”.
The Osan post office also collected three “Best of PACAF” awards from 1991 through 1993, when it was recognized as the top-performing postal unit in the Pacific, Clark said at last month’s unveiling ceremony.
During that period, postal teams were cited for managing heavy mail volumes, maintaining customer service and meeting inspection standards across multiple evaluation areas, Prowant said.
