A post office in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia was renamed on Monday for a U.S. airman who died while serving in Afghanistan in 2015.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Peter Taub, who grew up near the post office in Wyncote, Pa., was killed in a suicide attack while on patrol near Bagram Air Field.
“Taub was a shining example of the best our country has to offer,” Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan Boyle, who led efforts to rename the post office, said in a statement. “In his service to our nation, he exemplified unwavering patriotism and heroic bravery.
“Renaming this post office in his home town is the least we can do to honor him.”
President Donald Trump approved legislation in March to rename two post offices in Pennsylvania after fallen servicemembers. The other post office, in the small northern borough of Liberty, was named after Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Ostrom, who died in 2005 from injuries sustained in Iraq.
On the day of Taub’s death, he and several colleagues with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations had met a village elder a few miles from Bagram Air Field when an Afghan on a motorcycle drove up and exploded.
Five other OSI servicemembers were killed in the attack, while two airmen and an American interpreter were wounded.
Taub’s wife, Christina, was pregnant with their second child when he died at the age of 30.
Taub, who had served in the Air Force for eight years before deploying to Afghanistan, was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Force Combat Action Medal.
“I’m so honored that this is happening to keep his name alive, but at the same time, of course, it goes without saying, I would much rather that this was not happening,” Taub’s mother, Arlene Wagner told the Philadelphia TV station NBC 10 before Monday’s renaming of the post office.
“I hope that when they see his name that they will wonder who he was and that they’ll do a Google search and find out about him,” Wagner said.
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