Post Office to be renamed after local veterans advocate  

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A longtime Santa Clarita Valley resident and a Vietnam veteran who spent years advocating on behalf of those who served is now going to have a federal building named after him. 

William Reynolds, who died in 2021 at age 74, was a U.S. Army veteran and member of Charlie Company of the 4th/47th, 9th Infantry Division, which was chronicled in a book and National Geographic documentary. 

U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, authored House Resolution 292, which designates the U.S. Postal Service office at 24355 Creekside Road, Valencia, as the “William L. Reynolds Post Office Building.” The bill was presented to President Joe Biden for his signature on May 1, according to Congress.gov. 

Biden signed HR 292 on Tuesday. 

“It’s such an honor to have Bill’s name be forever a part of Santa Clarita, the city he tirelessly dedicated so much of his time to ensure our veterans and fallen heroes are never forgotten,” his wife Meg Reynolds, said in a prepared statement shared by Garcia’s office. “On behalf of the Reynolds family and from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for this truly incredible honor.” 

During his time as The Signal’s director of veterans affairs, Reynolds combed through the newspaper’s archives and worked to share veterans’ accounts of their experiences. Through these efforts, he helped tell dozens of stories involving veterans’ service. 

When Reynolds met Garcia in 2019, he was seeking him out for one of these veteran profiles, which Garcia initially rebuffed, the congressman said in a phone interview Thursday.  

“That’s when I learned about him and his story and (‘The Boys of ‘67’), his unit in Vietnam, and I realized what a hero he was, and his service to this country and what his unit had gone through, which was pretty amazing,” Garcia said, adding that Reynolds died too young.  

The legislation also recognized the fact that Reynolds was the head of every local veteran organization in the SCV, Garcia said. 

One of Reynolds’ efforts, while president of the SCV Veterans Memorial Inc., saw him successfully advocate for the Fallen Warrior Monument at Veterans Historical Plaza in Newhall. The memorial wall honors the SCV’s military veterans, both known and unknown. 

The story of Reynolds’ unit is told in “The Boys of ’67,” a 2012 book by Andrew Wiest. It also served as the basis for the 2014 National Geographic documentary “Brothers in War.” 

Reynolds also met with President Donald Trump at a Vietnamese hotel in Da Nang for the signing of a proclamation recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. 

“America was founded on courage to fight for freedom, and that’s what the veteran community does — they take pride in that,” Reynolds said in a previous Signal interview. “Once you served, you’re in a brotherhood for life, and we honor each other. There’s no better family than the veteran community.” 

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