Ohio House passes bill to rename a portion of Ohio 60 in honor of Sgt. Bradley Harper

A portion of Ohio 60 may be renamed the Sgt. Bradley J. Harper USMC Memorial Highway.

The Ohio House of Representatives has passed House Bill 269 in support of the renaming according to state Rep. Adam Holmes (R-Nashport). The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.

If approved by the Ohio Senate, the bill will name a two-mile section of Ohio 60 from its intersection with Main Street in Dresden to its connection with Ohio 16 in honor of Harper, who sacrificed his life while serving in Iraq.

  Harper was a 1998 graduate of Tri-Valley High School, where he played football. He studied criminal justice at Ohio University and then moved to Virginia Beach to become a police officer in 2004.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves on July 27, 1998. In January 2005, Harper was called to duty as a Marine Corps reservist and assigned to the 4th Marine Division in Norfolk, which was immediately deployed to Iraq. He served with the Lima Co.

The 25-year-old was killed on Aug. 3, 2005, south of Haditha, Iraq, when his amphibious assault vehicle was attacked during combat operations. Between May and August 2005, 22 Marines and one Navy Corpsman from Lima Co. were killed in action in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“There has been a lot of change in the world in the past 18 years, but some things never change and good things always endure,” said Holmes. “Sgt. Harper has never been forgotten and remains a permanent part of Dresden."