A ceremony dedicating a section of Highway 70 to former Durant resident Chief Warrant Officer Brady Rudolf, who was killed while serving his country in Iraq, was held Tuesday on the north side by Cardinal Glass.

The section stretches west of Cardinal Glass to the Bryan/Marshall County line. Rudolf, 37, died serving his country in Iraq on Sept. 18, 2008, when his Chinook helicopter crashed.

Kingston resident Cpl. Michael Thompson, 23, and five fellow soldiers also perished in the crash.

Rudolf, who lived in Oklahoma City, was a 1989 graduate of Durant High School, where he played football three years and was all-district his senior year. He also served on student council. Rudolf also graduated from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma School of Pharmacy. He left behind a wife and three children.

He served in the Army National Guard for 20 years, and comes from a family of veterans, including two grandfathers who served in World War II.

State Sen. Jay Paul Gumm was the principal author of Senate Bill 1713, which named three stretches of highway in southeastern Oklahoma in honor of Rudolf, Thompson, and Sergeant Clint E. Williams, Kingston, who died on Sept. 14, 2006, of injuries suffered in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations.

The three soldiers all hailed from the Senate district Gumm serves.

“For as long as drivers travel these highways, they will see the names of these heroes and remember the supreme sacrifice their fellow Oklahomans made for us and generations yet unborn,” Gumm said.