Photo courtesy of Tom and Charon Rivers
Thomas Rivers
Lance Cpl. Thomas Rivers
The U.S. post office in Meadowbrook is being named after a fallen Marine from Hoover.
The facility at 1900 Corporate Drive is being designated as the Lance Corporal Thomas E. Rivers Post Office Building in a ceremony to be held on Tuesday, Sept. 18.
Rivers, a graduate of Briarwood Christian School, was killed in Afghanistan on April 28, 2010, when an explosive device detonated. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division of the II Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Rivers was the first soldier killed in action who was buried at the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo.
U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) sponsored a bill in Congress to name the Meadowbrook Post Office after Rivers, and President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on July 24.
Palmer plans to join officials from the U.S. Postal Service, members of the Rivers family and other invited guests at the dedication ceremony.
Rivers was survived by his parents, Tom and Charon Rivers, his sister Rachel Walters and grandparents Charles and Irma Jean Doke.
"We are very honored to see this happen," Charon Rivers said. "We are very appreciative to Congressman Gary Palmer for getting the bill through and for the president signing it. We're very excited about it and want more than anything for my son's memory to be kept alive, and I cant think of a better way for it to happen than to name a post office after him."
