{"id":18667,"date":"2017-03-15T08:23:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T13:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=18667"},"modified":"2017-03-15T08:26:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T13:26:38","slug":"postal-inspector-serves-nation-on-two-fronts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/03\/15\/postal-inspector-serves-nation-on-two-fronts\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal Inspector Serves Nation On Two Fronts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\">\n<p><a title=\"U.S. Army Col. Herald Birchfield, who also is a postal inspector, is shown in Afghanistan in 2013.\" href=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/InspectorProfile_large-story.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[24040]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width size-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/InspectorProfile_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/InspectorProfile_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/InspectorProfile_large-story-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/InspectorProfile_large-story-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/InspectorProfile_large-story-120x80.jpg 120w\" alt=\"U.S. Army Col. Herald Birchfield\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\">U.S. Army Col. Herald Birchfield, who also is a postal inspector, is shown in Afghanistan in 2013.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 3\/14\/17 &#8211; Herald Birchfield has a unique perspective on what it means to serve and protect his country.<\/p>\n<p>For 18 years, Birchfield has worked as a postal inspector while also serving as a colonel in the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI consider the work I do for the Postal Service to be just as important as any other position in public service,\u201d Birchfield said.<\/p>\n<p>During the week, Birchfield is a program manager in the Inspection Service\u2019s technical unit, which provides the electronic equipment used in mail crime investigations.<\/p>\n<p>When duty calls, he transitions to his role as an officer in the Department of Defense\u2019s Office of Inspector General.<\/p>\n<p>Birchfield first began his double duty in college when he took a casual position at the Columbia, MO, Post Office while serving as an Army cadet.<\/p>\n<p>He later became a letter carrier and then a customer services supervisor, all while serving in the military.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that I could come back to the Postal Service and still be able to be part of the Army was like a dream come true,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Birchfield has advice for USPS employees considering a career with the Inspection Service, which is<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/03\/postal-inspection-service-accepting-applications-this-week-march-13-18\/\"><em>accepting applications<\/em><\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>this week for postal inspector positions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour knowledge is a bedrock of the Postal Service, and that knowledge becomes invaluable when you become an inspector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Army Col. Herald Birchfield, who also is a postal inspector, is shown in Afghanistan in 2013. USPS News Link &#8211; 3\/14\/17 &#8211; Herald Birchfield has a unique perspective on what it means to serve and protect his country. For 18 years, Birchfield has worked as a postal inspector while also serving as a colonel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18673,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667\/revisions\/18673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}