It was his mother who pulled the cover off of the new street sign at the baseball complex. It is now known as Specialist FJ Waterbury Drive. Waterbury was shot and killed by a sniper in Iraq last March.
He is the son of the Richmond's assistant police chief. Since his death, his parents have been working tirelessly on their own mission, to remember not only their son, but also the 3,000 plus soldiers who have died in Iraq. They want to remember and honor them by having streets across the country named after the fallen soldiers.
"I want our sons, our daughters, our husbands, our fathers, children to be spoken of every day to have their names remembered every single day, so that they will never be forgotten," said Waterbury.
"We are not making any political statement about the war or anything like that. We are just saying the brave men and women and there have been 3,921 as of yesterday that have lost their lives in Iraq alone and we want to honor them," said the soldier's father, Steve Waterbury.
The park in Richmond was chosen because it is a place where families gather. It's a place where parents can talk to their children and when they ask, Who was Specialist FJ Waterbury?' They can tell them that he was a hero and that he went to Iraq to fight for this country.
Waterbury's father is working on a website so that people across the country can have the tools and resources needed to help figure out a way to name a street after a fallen soldier. That website should be up and running in the next couple of weeks.
