The Navy is modernizing its method for sending emails to Sailors aboard submarines, effective June 30. The 25-year-old 'Sailor Mail' is migrating to the 'Direct Delivery' system as a necessary improvement, ensuring the Navy has a supported program in the future.

Under the older Sailor Mail system, emails would automatically be modified to include removing attachments with the sender receiving a notification of the modification. This will not happen with Direct Delivery and some attachments may be allowed, depending on mission and ship settings to control attachment size.

"The new system is bringing some improvements, but overall, families will see little change in the basic system for keeping in touch with their loved ones," said Master Chief Information Systems Technician Richard Okrasinski, Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic Force information technician. "Your Sailor's email address will not change, and emails should flow faster between you and your Sailor since we are eliminating a manual intermediate step."

As before, ship connection speed will still be limited by operational and environmental conditions; however, emails will flow directly to the submarine if the vessel is communicating.

"A significant difference from the old system is that instead of your email being moved to and processed on a classified network -- required by the old system -- it will be delivered directly to the boat via the unclassified network," said Okrasinski.

Follow these steps to ensure a smooth transition between services:

1) Do not send emails with large attachments. Remember words do not use a lot of bandwidth, but forwarding a long email thread can become a large file. Adding background pictures and images in the signatures also takes up space. By sending emails in plain text, you will help the email get on and off the ship sooner and more reliably.

2) If you do not receive a response daily, please be patient. While underway, the ship may have limited connectivity to the unclassified network and may not receive all non-mission essential message traffic. Additionally, as in the past, some operations will prohibit the transmission of unclassified email.

3) Remember, what you write is likely to be read by a human reviewer on board. The reviewer is a trusted member of the crew who has been trained on allowable content.

For more information, contact your prospective squadron office.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil/, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy/, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy/.

For more news from Commander, Submarine Forces, visit http://www.navy.mil/.