The boost for personnel deployed for six months in the deserts of Helmand is massively important, being so far away from home over Christmas.

Sergeant Iain Gilchrist, from 88 Postal Courier Squadron, part of 29 Postal Courier Movement Regiment, who runs the nine-man postal courier unit in Camp Bastion knows this only two well:

"It's been a hard winter," he says, "and mail is one of the top things. A Sergeant Major called the other day and said he could feel the difference in his guys cause there'd been a mail drop. The phone goes all the time with people asking if there's been a new delivery and especially at this time of year."

Sgt Gilchrist is based at Aldershot but is originally from Johnston near Glasgow.

Corporal Dax Arkle, who was the sole postal courier at Forward Operating Bsse (FOB) Lashkar Gah earlier this year and is currently working at the Bastion post office said:

"As soon as you've received a mail delivery and sorted it, you always get asked straight away when the next one is coming in. Mail is a real morale boost."

Cpl Dax, from Aberdale in South Wales, has been in the Army for 13 years. He actually left for s spell but rejoined in April last year saying he realised how much he loved and missed the Army.

A quiet day in the Bastion post office during the Christmas run is when just 200 bags of post are delivered. This used to be busy, but now it's become the norm. At other times of year the average daily post coming into Bastion would fill 80 bags.  Two days ago they received a thousand:

"I've not been in theatre at this time of year before, but the postal noise gets busy everywhere at Christmas. You know it's coming, you just crack on," said Sgt Gilchrist.

As well as the extra post from friends and families, Christmas welfare packages are being sent in abundance to the troops in Bastion this year from welfare associations and caring members of the British public. The fact the Royal Marines are currently deployed is also adding to the extra parcels.

"They get the most," says Sergeant Gilchrist, "they can fill a whole metal container and every second bag is probably filled with stuff for the Marines."

The post gets delivered to Camp Bastion, the main support base for British troops in Helmand province from Kandahar. The Bastion postal couriers are then responsible for sorting the mail for the different units at Bastion and also for those units based in the British Forward Operating Bases (FOBS) in the Province.

The Bastion postal couriers start their day at about 0745 hrs and end when all the post has been sorted and collected, which can sometimes be around 2000 or 2100 hrs.

When the post arrives, the team fly into a frenzy of sorting activity, divvying up the letters and parcels into the different unit bags.

The various Unit Post Officers at Bastion come into the post office two or three times a day to collect their mail.

The post normally takes about five or six days from being delivered in the UK to arriving in Bastion, although, sometimes the mail bags will sit in Kandahar for two or three days before being sent on to Bastion due to transport priorities. The amount of extra Christmas post of course also slows things down, though Sgt Gilchrist adds:

"We usually have a massive extra push at Christmas and put extra flights on to get the stuff here."

Getting the mail out to the FOBs also takes longer, as mail must fit in around operational transport priorities. Corporal Dax Arkle, also with 88 Postal Courier Squadron and currently in Bastion, was recently the sole postal courier at FOB Lashkar Gah, where the mail was delivered about once a week, although now, he says, there's a delivery once every five days and plans are afoot to speed this up even further.

With 300-plus bags a day coming in at this time of year, just getting the mail from the airfield to the office can be a problem. 100 bags weigh three quarters of a ton, making some 21 tons coming in each week. But everyone helps out - everyone, after all wants their post.

In Lashkar Gah, the post arrives from Bastion by Chinook. As the sole postal courier there, and with 120 bags coming in once a week, Corporal Dax Arkle especially needed help getting the mail to his office:

"Any one there that can help out mucks in," he said. "We'd get the mail off the Chinook in about one minute. It's done so quickly it's exhausting. You then have to lay on it, because of the downdraft from the helicopter, to stop it all flying off."

Back at his office Corporal Arkle would manage to sort the post in about four hours, with the Unit Post Officers coming in about every half hour to help distribute it.

But it's not all inward post that the postal couriers at Bastion and the FOBs deal with.  It's hard to believe but the offices are counter services too, providing customers - according to Sgt Gilchrist - everything a normal UK post office would.  They sell stamps, cash postal orders and cheques and of course send parcels and letters from the troops back home, with around ten bags a day going out.

They also deal with diplomatic and classified post and e-blueys, the award winning service from the British Forces Post Office which enables personnel, families and friends to write an email which is then generated as a letter, printed and posted in the UK or on operations from where it is delivered to the recipient.

The e-bluey machines at the Bastion and Lashkar Gah post offices automatically print the letters, fold them and put them into envelopes. The postal couriers then sort them into unit postal bags as per normal letters and parcels. Although the dust and weather at Bastion causes the e-bluey machines to break down fairly often, the system is well subscribed and well liked:

"The e-blueys, which are free, are very popular," says Sgt Gilchrist. "It's normal to receive just under a thousand a day and this is constant, it hasn't gone up for Christmas."

It's the cost of a normal UK stamp to send a letter home from Afghanistan to the UK, and it should take around five or six days to get there, but Sgt Gilchrist says that to get post home for Christmas, the troops should send it as soon as possible, as nothing can be guaranteed due to transport and operational priorities.

"I honestly think this is a real good service," though says Sgt Gilchist. "The working environment here is fine, we've got internet and all the equipment and space we need. They pull all the stops out to get the post delivered."

The one slight problem though for troops sending home Christmas presents, might be those who have purchased the popular carpets found at the local Afghani market that comes to Bastion once a week. Two kilos is the maximum weight of any parcel that can be sent home:

"Some guys buy carpets and ask how do they send them back," explains Sgt Gilchrist. "Cut them up and parcel them into squares," he advises.