FORT THOMAS, Ky. (AP) - A highway in northern Kentucky now bears the name of a local soldier who was killed in Afghanistan.
Army PFC Brandon T. Pickering died on April 10, 2011, after enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire and a rocket-propelled grenade.
Now, The Kentucky Enquirer (http://bit.ly/T16VEy) reports that a mile-long section of the road in Fort Thomas where he grew up will be called the Private First Class Brandon T. Pickering Memorial Highway.
"It's tragic that we've lost a life with so much promise," said State Sen. Katie Stine, who sponsored the resolution to rename the road. "And it's important, I think, that we have a constant reminder to all of us what sort of sacrifice the freedom that we enjoy requires and involves," she said.
Pickering, who received Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals, was remembered by his family as a funny, adventurous young man who enjoyed fishing.
"When he got out of high school, he was just like any other teenager: He didn't know what he wanted to do," said his stepfather, Mike Moore of Alexandria. "He just came home one day, and he had already signed up for the Army. There was no talking about it. He just did it. In a couple of years, he went from somebody who didn't know what he wanted to do, to somebody who - he found his home in the Army, I think."
Pickering was on his first combat tour when his unit came under attack and he was critically wounded. By the time his parents arrived, he had been declared brain dead.
"I feel like that was Brandon's day to leave the Earth, and the Lord let him go in a way that was honorable," said his mother, Tammy Moore. "Even if he had been in my lap that day, I wouldn't have been able to save him."
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