Absecon, NJ Post Office Removes Posted Killed In Action Photos

A resident of Absecon, New Jersey has reached out to us for our help with a disturbing situation involving the Absecon City Post Office.

It is our pleasure to try to lend an assist here because we strongly agree that the situation is unacceptable and that it must be properly addressed.

It is not our intention to only be critical of a recent poor decision made by the Absecon City Post Office. We would like to see the bad decision corrected.

Here’s the story …

Since the early 2000s, there had been a display at the Absecon Post Office (a bulletin board) that contained photographs of resident military members who were killed in action.

Last week, our reader/listener noticed that a wall had been painted and that the bulletin board with the photographs had not been put back up.

Our source asked the question, “will the bulletin board and photographs be put back up on display?”

The answer received was, “no.”

Our source advised that the postmaster said that their boss directed that it be removed and not displayed.

Our source asked for the name of the person that was responsible for this decision. The Absecon post office staff member said that they could not provide the identity of the decision-maker.

These are public employees and the taxpayers pay for their salaries. The local Postmaster is in a bad position, but, it’s still just plain wrong at so many levels.

Our source next asked, “where is the bulletin board?” At first, our source was told that the postmaster said that she didn’t know … but, later said that an employee (we’re not releasing the employee's name at this time) took it.

Our reader/listener thinks that this is disrespectful to the families who provided the photographs of their fallen loved ones.

Our reader/listener wants the bulletin board and photographs back, in order to do the right thing by all of the families affected by this horrendous decision.

Our source also believes that the decision-maker should be disciplined for taking this kind of insensitive action.

Since the United States (Absecon) Post Office is a federal government institution, we are copying both United States Congressman Jeff Van Drew and his chief of staff, Allison Murphy and respectfully asking for them to intervene.

We are also copying New Jersey Senator Vince Polistina and Absecon City Council President Nick LaRotonda to ask for their assistance.

LaRotonda promptly responded to our inquiry, telling us, “I find this deeply disturbing. I am presently working with my friend Congressman Jeff Van Drew and his staff to get to the bottom of this,” said LoRotonda.

We also encourage all military and veteran organizations to positively make their feelings known about this distasteful and disrespectful action.

This is an example of a very poor decision made by a government employee, who didn’t take into consideration the harm that an action like this causes.

This is an easy fix. Just put the military member killed in action photos back where they have been (on display) for the last 20 years.