Tom Barrett

A bill was introduced to rename the Charlotte post office after Pearl Harbor hero Francis Flaherty.

Flaherty posthumously received the Medal of Honor for sacrificing his life to save fellow sailors.

The bill is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett and co-sponsored by Michigan's entire delegation.

Flaherty's remains were identified decades after his death and returned to his hometown in 2021.

The Charlotte post office would be renamed for one of the Capital area's biggest war heroes under a bill introduced by a Michigan congressman on Thursday, July 2.

Francis Flaherty was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the early morning attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. At least 31 Michigan service members were among more than 2,000 killed in the Japanese attack that day.

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, would designate the post office in Flaherty’s hometown as the Francis C. Flaherty Post Office Building. The rest of Michigan's congressional delegation signed on as co-sponsors.

“Ensign Francis Flaherty sacrificed his life while rescuing his fellow sailors during the attack on Pearl Harbor," Barrett said in a news release. "Naming the local post office after this Medal of Honor recipient will be a permanent and lasting tribute to his patriotic service and sacrifice.”

Flaherty was aboard the USS Oklahoma when it was attacked and stayed in his turret, holding a flashlight to help the rest of the turret crew escape the sinking ship. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1946.

Flaherty's remains were initally interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. They were not identified until decades later, and he was laid to rest in his hometown in 2021.

Part of M-50 in Charlotte was named in Flaherty's honor under a law passed unanimously by the state Legislature in June 2021.

Flaherty's final moments are by now well known.

Minutes after the Japanese began bombing the base, Flaherty, 22, stood knee-deep in water aboard the Oklahoma. Torpedos had exploded against the boat, and it was flooding. The order was given to abandon ship but Flaherty, flashlight in his hand, stayed, shining the light on a corridor exit so crewmates could escape as the water rose and the boat capsized, taking him with it.

A gravestone bearing his name is in Maple Hill Cemetery in Charlotte. It's flanked on either side by his parent's graves.