U.S. Senate signs off on Joseph G. Demler Post Office

The Port Washington Post Office is one step closer to being named the Joseph G. Demler Post Office.

The U.S. Senate on Nov. 18 approved a bill changing the name of the post office, the first hurdle in renaming the office.

The bill will now go to the House of Representatives. If it is approved by the House, it will head to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

The bill is being sponsored by senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson to honor Demler, a World War II veteran who spent much of his career working at the Port Washington post office, where he became the assistant postmaster.

“Joe Demler bravely served our country during World War II, and deserves to have his service and sacrifice to our nation honored,” Baldwin said, citing Demler’s work with the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight and the post office. 

“It is fitting that this building will bear Joe’s name so that his contributions to his community and country will always be remembered,” she said. “Today, more than ever, we remember Joe’s motto that he shared with us after being liberated from a Nazi POW camp: ‘Every day is a bonus.’”

“We think it’s awesome,” Port Postmaster Cindy Hron said of the proposed name change Tuesday. “The service he gave for our country and the sacrifice he made — it is very fitting.”

Demler, who died on Feb. 5 at his Port Washington home, was the face of the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight, which adopted his motto as its slogan.

It was a mantra Demler followed after surviving life in a prisoner of war camp for three months after he took part in the Battle of the Bulge. When the camp was liberated, doctors estimated that Demler was three days from death.

A famous photo of an emaciated Demler lying in a cot taken when the camp in Limberg, Germany, was liberated was published in Life magazine, and for many people it personified the cruelty of the war. 

Baldwin’s office said they did not know when the House would take up the bill.

If it isn’t approved by the House by the end of this year, a new bill will have to be reintroduced for the new Congress to consider next year, Johnson’s office noted.