National Guard to rename Fayetteville center for fallen soldier
The home of a Fayetteville-based North Carolina National Guard unit will be renamed on Saturday in honor of a fallen soldier.
Senior leaders from the National Guard will join local officials in dedicating the Fayetteville Readiness Center for Maj. Jason George, who was killed May 21, 2009, in Baghdad, Iraq.
George, 38, of Tehachapi, California, was an Army Reserve soldier assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 252nd Armor Regiment.
He joined the unit for its 2008 deployment to Iraq, officials said, and was one of three soldiers mortally wounded after enemy forces attacked a dismounted patrol with vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.
The Fayetteville Readiness Center is located at 3555 Owen Drive and is home to the battalion with which George served in Iraq. A ceremony renaming the building the Maj. Jason George Center will begin at 2 p.m.
According to officials, George graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1994 and received a graduate degree from the University of Michigan. In addition to his military job, he was also working in the Chicago office of a consulting firm at the time of his death.
Fort Bragg Stories is a collaboration between The Fayetteville Observer and WUNC’s American Homefront Project to commemorate a century of history at Fort Bragg through personal narratives. If you’d like to share your Fort Bragg story, you can email fortbraggstories@wunc.org.