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                         April 12, 2002

Soldiers can forward AKO e-mail messages

WASHINGTON (Army News Service) -- Using an Army Knowledge Online e-mail address doesn’t mean soldiers must surrender their current military or commercial e-mail accounts.

In fact, with AKO’s forwarding rule, e-mails from "us.army.mil" addresses can be automatically forwarded to any other e-mail address a user selects, AKO officials explained. They said users can do this by clicking on the "personalize" button after they log on, and then choosing "user profile."

AKO officials set up the forwarding rule because they said they realized most AKO e-mail accounts complement, rather than replace, soldiers’ local post and AOL- or Hotmail-type accounts, said Harold Tucker, AKO systems architect.

"Considering how often soldiers move around," added David Hale, AKO webmaster, "it is a significant advantage for them to have one e-mail address that does not change as they move from post to post or from mission to mission.

"Having a ‘us.army.mil’ email address is much easier for soldiers’ buddies, families and colleagues to remember than the typical installation e-mail address string," Hale said.

The Army’s global e-mail directory doesn’t always have a soldier’s most current e-mail address, Hale added. However, he said, AKO’s global e-mail directory does.