thedrifter
08-14-07, 08:26 AM
South 40th post office named for Marine killed in war
By JILLIAN KRAMER
A Pine Belt man who served and died in the Vietnam War was memorialized in Hattiesburg after a post office was named for him.
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Roy Wheat, a Moselle resident and graduate of Jones County schools, died in 1967 after he threw himself on top of an enemy mine to protect two fellow Marines, according to the U.S. Navy's Web site.
Wheat was 20 years old when he died.
The Marine received several military decorations and awards posthumously, including the Medal of Honor, Purple Heart and the National Defense Service Medal, in 1968.
And the U.S. Postal Service Hattiesburg branch on South 40th Avenue named its building after him on Oct. 6, 1994.
The post office named its building in honor of Wheat because Congress told it to do so, Postmaster Richard Heider said.
"How the post office arrives at naming a post office ... the name has to be proposed in Congress and passed there," Heider said. "It usually starts with a grassroots campaign."
In this case, the "grassroots campaign" came from local Marines, who petitioned Congress. Heider was uncertain the names of the Marines who worked on the petition - only that they were retired and knew of Wheat.
After the Marines' petition, a bill was passed through Congress to name the post office after Wheat, Heider said.
In the post office's lobby hangs a large display containing Wheat's Medal of Honor and his military garb. The medal of honor was donated by Wheat's family, who received the medal after his death.
U.S. postal offices are only named for well-known, deceased individuals, Heider said.
"You have to be dead," he said, "like you have to be to get your name on a stamp, too."
Ellie
By JILLIAN KRAMER
A Pine Belt man who served and died in the Vietnam War was memorialized in Hattiesburg after a post office was named for him.
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Roy Wheat, a Moselle resident and graduate of Jones County schools, died in 1967 after he threw himself on top of an enemy mine to protect two fellow Marines, according to the U.S. Navy's Web site.
Wheat was 20 years old when he died.
The Marine received several military decorations and awards posthumously, including the Medal of Honor, Purple Heart and the National Defense Service Medal, in 1968.
And the U.S. Postal Service Hattiesburg branch on South 40th Avenue named its building after him on Oct. 6, 1994.
The post office named its building in honor of Wheat because Congress told it to do so, Postmaster Richard Heider said.
"How the post office arrives at naming a post office ... the name has to be proposed in Congress and passed there," Heider said. "It usually starts with a grassroots campaign."
In this case, the "grassroots campaign" came from local Marines, who petitioned Congress. Heider was uncertain the names of the Marines who worked on the petition - only that they were retired and knew of Wheat.
After the Marines' petition, a bill was passed through Congress to name the post office after Wheat, Heider said.
In the post office's lobby hangs a large display containing Wheat's Medal of Honor and his military garb. The medal of honor was donated by Wheat's family, who received the medal after his death.
U.S. postal offices are only named for well-known, deceased individuals, Heider said.
"You have to be dead," he said, "like you have to be to get your name on a stamp, too."
Ellie