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Inwood Post Office Set to Be Renamed in Honor of Fallen Solider

By Lindsay Armstrong | September 16, 2014 3:45pm
 The post office at 90 Vermilyea Ave will be named after Corporal Juan Alcantara.
Uptown Post Office Will Be Renamed in Honor of Fallen Solider
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INWOOD — A Vermilyea Avenue post office may soon be renamed in honor of a fallen soldier who was raised in Washington Heights and killed in Iraq.

Army Cpl. Juan Mariel Alcantara, who was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York City at age 5, was killed by a homemade bomb while serving in Iraq in August 2007. He was 22.

Alcantara, who was not a U.S. citizen at the time of his death, was granted citizenship posthumously at his family’s request, with help from Rep. Charles Rangel

Rangel introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to officially name the post office in his honor. The bill passed in the House on Sept. 8, though the Senate has not yet voted on it.

"We are naming a post office after a man who did not come to the United States to be a soldier, but nevertheless jumped at the opportunity to serve in the United States armed forces," Rangel said in a statement. "It is important to remember that this is more than naming post offices, it's about all the sacrifices made to preserve America's legacy and commemorating those sacrifices and our soldiers."

Alcantara joined the army to raise money for college and hoped to someday become an NYPD officer, the Daily News reported.

At the time of his death, he had a two-month-old daughter, whom he never got to meet, reports said. He is also survived by his mother, two his sisters and the mother of his child.

More than 20,000 noncitizens currently serve in the U.S. military, according to the Department of Department. Alcantara was the 103rd noncitizen soldier killed in the war in Iraq, and the 12th from New York State, reports at the time said.

Wadsworth Avenue at West 185th Street was also renamed in Alcantara’s honor in 2009.