What is an APO address or an FPO address?

  APO stands for "Army Post Office," and is associated with Army or Air Force installations.  

FPO stands for "Fleet Post Office," and is associated with Navy installations and ships.

The official definition of APO/FPO mail is (according to the Military Postal Service Agency):

APO/FPO Mail - domestic mail and international mail that bears a U.S. military delivery address or return address and that, in some stage of its transmission, is in the possession of the DOD.  This is mail that is being sent to or received from military installations located outside the Continental United States (CONUS).  This mail may be official or personal in nature.  This mail is centralized at certain locations such as San Francisco and New York for transport overseas.  When mail is received in the CONUS from these facilities, letter mail is normally received in sleeved half trays, flats are received in sleeved plastic flat tubs, and parcels are received in #1 sacks.

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Three Military "States":

AA, which stands for Armed Forces (the) Americas
AE, which stands for Armed Forces Europe
AP, which stands for Armed Forces Pacific

Two "City" equivalents:

APO, which stands for Army Post Office
FPO, which stands for Fleet Post Office

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By having all Overseas Military Mail conform to the domestic mailing addressing scheme, the USPS could easily sort and manage it using their sophisticated sorting and distribution machines, just like regular mail.

But there is more to these constructs than addressing schemes. The Military State designators mean more than "phantom" states. They represent the USPS mail processing facilities that handle the mail traffic to and from each Military State. In an analogous form, they represent the neck part of an hourglass. Picture mail flowing into a "neck" location from all parts of the continental United States, then from this "neck" out to all the Military bases and U.S. Embassies in the region of the world represented by the specific Military State.

These "neck" locations, the USPS mail processing facilities themselves, are located in cities that are conducive to getting mail to and from the overseas region of the respective Military State.

These Military State/City pairs are:

AA : Miami, FL
AE : New York, NY
AP : San Francisco. CA

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Since these cities already had ZIP codes assigned to them, it was decided to have the ZIP codes of the respective Military State be numerically close to the ZIP code of the city where the mail processing facility is located. This allowed the USPS automated sorting equipment to funnel the Military Mail to the proper city where the respective mail processing facility is located.

Once the Military Mail arrives at the respective mail processing facility, it is further sorted by Postal Service Center, APO/FPO and ZIP code. After that, the USPS "hands it off" to their Military equivalent in a branch of the Armed Forces after transport via contract air carrier and delivery to the overseas APOs and FPOs. For APOs, either the Army or Air Force provides personnel. For FPOs, the Navy does the job.

At each APO or FPO, there is an equivalent to "a-real-honest-to-goodness-Post Office" staffed by members of the respective branch of service. While the layout of each APO/FPO varies by location, suffice it to say they look and operate just like a "real" Post Office. In fact, they have to, since we are talking about U.S. Mail. Each APO/FPO address holder has a mail lock box in which their mail is slotted. Since parcels can't fit in these boxes, delivery or notification slips, just like "real" ones, are put in the boxes whenever a parcel arrives.

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Generic APO/FPO Restrictions

Most APO/FPO addresses have the following general restrictions:

Packages may not exceed 70 lbs. (Some zip codes have lower limits)

Packages may not exceed 130 inches in combined length and girth. (This means if you have a package that is 100" in length and 40" when you measure around it, you cannot send the item)

All packages must be sent via the U.S. Postal System. The post office also requires companies or individuals to hand deliver packages being sent to APO/FPO addresses. (This is one reason why many merchants won't ship to APO/FPO addresses.)

Firearms, alcohol, perishable foodstuffs and certain hazardous items also are restricted. Each zip code has a more detailed list of the restrictions for certain types of products.

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