West Richland Post Office named after marine killed in plane crash

WEST RICHLAND, Wash. — What was once known as the West Richland Post Office is now the Sergeant Dietrich Schmieman Post Office Building.

Today family, community members, government representatives and friends of Dietrich’s from the marine corps gathered to commemorate the renaming. Congressman Dan Newhouse says the sacrifice Dietrich and his family made to serve their country deserves to be honored.

"It's a reminder to all of us of the sacrifices men and women all around the nation who put on our country's uniform make,” said Rep. Newhouse.

Sgt. Dietrich Schmieman died in July 2017 in a military plane crash in Mississippi. Sgt. Schmieman was one of 16 marines killed.

Sgt. Schmieman, a 2009 Hanford graduate, was assigned to the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command stationed at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. The plane was headed to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma for pre-deployment training.

It takes legislation to rename a post office. Representative Newhouse introduced it in the House. It passed in the Senate and President Trump signed it into law.

Schmieman’s family hopes the post office serves as a memorial for all community members that have died while serving the country.

“Maybe in the future when people come up and see this name they'll think of their Sergeant, their mother or father,” Dietrich’s father Eric Schmieman said.