The origin of APS dates back to 1856 when the first field post-office (FPO) accompanied the expeditionary forces to Persia. The FPOs continued to be requisitioned by the Army from the Department of Posts to accompany the expeditionary forces till World War I. It was during World War II that volunteers were drawn from Department of Posts as combatants to run the FPOs. In 1947, when the Indian troops were rushed to Jammu and Kashmir, a handful of volunteers who remained with the occupation forces in Japan were sent to Jammu and Kashmir to provide postal support. This group of volunteers later became the present APS.

The APS functions as a part of country-wide postal set-up. Though a part of the Army, APS also extends its range of services to Rashtriya Rifles, Indian Air Force, Border Road Organisation. Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Central Reserve Police Force. These forces use "C/O 56 APO" or "C/O 99 APO". The Army Postal Service in the past has extended postal cover to Indian contingents on overseas missions. In the recent past, APS has provided excellent postal cover to troops during operation Pawan and also to the Indian contingents deployed in UN Peace Keeping Missions like UNTAC (Combodia), ONUMOZ (Mozam- bique), UNOSOM II (Somalia), UNAMIR II (Rwanda), UNAVEM II (Angola) and UNAMSIL (Sierra Leone). The APS has the distinction of providing uninterrupted postal cover to troops in foreign countries with a breathtaking speed.

What Department of Posts is to the civil population, APS is to Army. It operates Scheduled Despatch Service (SDS) to convey the official mail within the defence establishments. With its motto of "Meil Milap", the Service conveys the sentiments of soldiers to their near-and-dear ones. On an average, over seven lakh articles are handled every day by APS.

In order to transmit moneyorders through satellite, APS has two VSAT stations and four Extended Satellite Moneyorder Stations (ESMOS). Efforts are on to open a few more ESMOS. Saving Bank facilities have been computerised at 56 APO and 99 APO. There are 95,000 saving bank accounts and 2 lakh recurring deposit accounts as on date. Speed post is also available at all, FPOs. Besides, APS handles, on an average, 5000 telegrams daily.

The troops need not depend on any outside agency for Postal Life Insurance (PLI) cover and supply of newspaper and periodicals. PLI work is fully computerised. The troops deployed in the far-flung areas but near the airports receive the national newspapers published from New Delhi the same day through the field post office functioning at their location. Similarly, the magazines published from regional centres reach the defence establishement within a day of their publication through the vast network of Army Postal Service.