Zach Smith's Name Now on Hornell Post Office
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A dedication ceremony was held Monday in honor of a fallen U.S. Marine from Hornell.
Nineteen-year-old Lance Corporal Zachary Smith died while serving in Afghanistan in January 2010.
The Hornell Post Office now has Smith's name on the building.
Congress originally approved the renaming of the Post Office in Smith's honor, but as part of a Post Office policy, Smith's name was not allowed to be placed on the building.
The Smith family petitioned the Post Office and succeeded.
"Every time a Marine would come that maybe served with Zach or was friends with Zach or who just came to pay their respects, they always wanted to see two things. They always wanted to see the cemetery and his stone and they wanted to see the Post Office and every single one of them that we brought down here would say, where's his name and we would say well, his name's not on it, so that was kind of our driving force," said Chris Smith, Zach's dad.
Congressman Tom Reed and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand helped the Smith family rename the Post Office.