New OSU North Residential District honors fallen veteran alumni
Saturday is move-in day for thousands of incoming Buckeyes and many will find their new homes in the North Residential District. Development of the $370 million project began in August of 2013 and is scheduled to last through August of next year. Some of those facilities are already complete and incoming students will take up residence this weekend.
The development required the demolishing of eleven buildings. (Eleven new buildings will go up including residence halls and a new rec center.) Among the demolished were a street and four residence halls that were named after Ohio State student and alumni veterans in 1962. New buildings will be named after those folks. In addition, six more veterans will be honored with residence halls taking their names. Among those:
- Maj. Ray J. Mendoza, U.S. Marine Corps, 1968–2005 (killed by an IED during his third tour in Iraq)
- Col. Clotilde Dent Bowen, U.S. Army, 1923–2011 (first African American physician and female colonel in the U.S. Army, first African American woman to direct a hospital clinic, Vietnam War)
- Capt. Jon T. Busch, U.S. Air Force, 1941–1988 (shot down during Vietnam War in 1967, taken as a prisoner of war. Remains identified and returned in 1988)
- Maj. Robert H. Lawrence Jr. U.S. Air Force, 1935–1967 (first African American astronaut in the United States, killed in training when the F-104 he was copiloting crashed)
- Private First Class Omar Ernest Torres, U.S. Army, 1987–2007 (called to active duty during his sophomore year, killed in 2007 when an explosive detonated near his unit in Baghdad)
- Capt. John Hideo Houston, U.S. Marine Corps, 1949–1984 (killed during training exercises when his helicopter crashed in inclement weather)
(jj)
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