North Babylon road named in honor of fallen soldier

A Suffolk County road in North Babylon is being ceremonially renamed in honor of a fallen soldier.

County Road 34 from Village Line Road to Route 231 will be renamed Spc. Jacob S. Fletcher Avenue. Fletcher, 28, was a paratrooper with the 173rd Airborne Brigade who was killed in 2003 when explosives struck a bus in which he was riding near the town of Samara, Iraq. Fletcher, who was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, was one of the first Americans to land in Iraq after the U.S. invasion and was the second Long Islander to die in the war.

Fletcher grew up in Babylon Village and was a graduate of Babylon High School. While serving, Fletcher often wrote home to his mother, Dorine Kenney, who sent him care packages. When Fletcher noticed some soldiers never received letters or gifts from home, he asked his mother to send items to them. Less than two weeks after her son’s death, Kenney formed Jacob’s Light Foundation, which sends boxes of supplies to soldiers every month. To date, the nonprofit organization states it has sent more than 500,000 pounds of supplies.

The legislation to rename the road was sponsored by Legis. Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills).

“Jacob answered the call of duty and in the most dangerous conditions ... though not only of his duty to country but of his fellow servicemen and women,” Stern said in a statement.

The dedication ceremony will be Nov. 14.