Isakson, Chambliss praise Senate approval of legislation to rename post offices in honor of fallen soldiers

Published 3:15 pm Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Submitted by the offices of Sens. Isakson and Chambliss



WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., praised Senate approval of legislation to rename two U.S. Post Offices in Georgia in honor of fallen soldiers.

“These men served without desire for credit, but on behalf of their country and everything that we stand for,” Isakson said. “Naming these post offices after them is one small way to honor the sacrifices they made to make the United States and Georgia a better place.”

“These men are true heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and democracy,” said Chambliss. “This is such a special way to honor their service and sacrifice to our country.”

The U.S. Post Office at 801 Industrial Blvd. in Ellijay, Ga., will be renamed the “First Lieutenant Noah Harris Ellijay Post Office Building.” The U.S. Post Office at 101 Tallapoosa St. in Bremen, Ga., will be renamed the “Sergeant Paul Saylor Post Office Building.”

First Lieutenant Noah Harris Ellijay of Ellijay, Ga., was assigned to the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning. While returning from a successful mission in Buritz, Iraq, on July 17, 2005, Harris was killed when his Humvee was attacked by two rocket-propelled grenades. Harris was a December 2003 graduate of the University of Georgia. A member of the university’s Army Reserve Officers Training Corps, Harris went to Fort Benning following graduation to train for his January 2005 deployment to Iraq.

Sergeant Paul Saylor of Bremen, Ga., served in Iraq as a member of the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment. He was killed on Aug. 15, 2005, while on patrol in A1 Matunudiyah, Iraq, when the vehicle he was traveling in rolled over into a canal and Sergeant Saylor drowned along with two of his fellow soldiers.

In 2006, Isakson and Chambliss, inspired by the story of Saylor’s family, introduced legislation to require the U.S. Department of Defense to improve the way fallen soldiers are cared for and how their survivors are notified and kept informed. Because Saylor’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition, his family was not able to have an open casket funeral as they had desired. The legislation was accepted as an amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act that funded continued operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of the ongoing global war on terrorism.