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Post office will be renamed for soldier who sacrificed his life

BARBARAELLEN KOCH FILE PHOTO

Mary Langhorn stands beside a statue of her son Garfield, who won the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam.

The Riverhead post office will be renamed in honor of fallen Riverhead soldier and Medal of Honor recipient Garfield M. Langhorn, who was killed in action in 1969 during the Vietnam War.
Private First Class Langorn jumped on a live grenade to save the lives of his fellow troops.
President Obama is expected to sign legislation renaming the West Main Street post office the Private First Class Garfield M. Langhorn Post Office Building. The bill was recently passed in the Senate.
“Private First Class Garfield M. Langhorn is truly an American hero,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, who sponsored the bill with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “By renaming this post office after him, we are honoring his selfless and heroic actions to sacrifice his own life for the lives of his comrades.”
Legislation sponsored by Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) to rename the post office was passed unanimously in the U.S. House of Representatives in January.
PFC Langhorn, a graduate of Riverhead High School, served as a radio operator in the U.S. Army before he died in Pleiku Province.
“I think its beautiful,” said Mary Langhorn of Riverhead, PFC Langhorn’s 86-year-old mother. She added that the son of one of the soldiers PFC Langhorn saved had recently thanked her for his sacrifice.
“He said if it wasn’t for my son, he wouldn’t be here,” she said.
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