MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — Officials on Saturday held a dedication ceremony for the Rio Grande post office, now known as the Carlton H. Hand Post Office Building.
Local officials, U.S. Postal Service representatives and members of the Hand family were in attendance.
Hand, a lifelong resident of the Rio Grande section of the township, was born Oct. 14, 1917, and served during World War II in the Army’s 88th Infantry Division.
On Oct. 4, 1944, near Campo Di Vanino, Italy, then-Technical Sgt. Hand assaulted German positions under heavy fire, according to biographical information provided by the Postal Service. With snipers shooting at him from the windows of one of the buildings and grenades being hurled at him, Hand abandoned his radio, secured grenades from one of his comrades, ran to the house and threw his grenades into it, killing two Nazis.
When Germans began running from the next building, Hand seized a rifle and opened fire on them, killing two and wounding one. When he was shooting from alongside one of the buildings and Germans above him in the house dropped grenades on him from one of the windows, Hand hurled the grenades at a Nazi emplacement beyond the house. Bursting into the building to search out the remaining Nazis, he captured two of a total of 20 prisoners taken in the seizure of the ridge.
Hand, who went on to become a first lieutenant, was awarded two World War II Battle Stars, a Combat Infantry Badge, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, a Battlefield Commission, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart.
Post offices in Middle Township will be named for George White, the founder of Whitesboro, and for World War II veteran Carlton H. Hand.
He died in 1960.
The Hand post office is one of two in the township to be renamed for a local historical figure. The other, in Whitesboro, will be renamed for George Henry White, a former congressman and one of the founders of that section of the township, which started as a planned community for Black residents.
White was elected to represent North Carolina’s 2nd District during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, before Jim Crow laws disenfranchised Black voters. After serving in state government in the 1880s, White served in the House of Representatives from 1887 to 1901, elected as a Republican, and at one point was the only Black member of Congress.
Township officials have said the post office dedications come after years of advocacy by local interest groups and elected officials led by U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd. In June 2024, Van Drew announced the passage of bills renaming the post offices, with support from all 12 members of the New Jersey delegation.
Post offices are usually named for the communities they serve but in some cases can be named for local people of note. In most cases, they cannot be named for a living person, but there are exceptions, including for former presidents or vice presidents, for some elected officials over the age of 70 and for wounded veterans.
Votes to rename post offices are common, with one congressional study showing they make up a significant portion of votes in each session. In the 110th Congress, during the presidency of George W. Bush, acts renaming post offices made up close to a quarter of all votes, at 23.7%.
Contact Dan Grote:
609-272-7234
dgrote@pressofac.com
X @ACPress_Grote
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