Brandon Presley highway
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 21, 2015
Marine Corporal Brandon Presley was killed in Iraq in 2005.
Family members and friends gather near flag mounted at the side of the highway. Corporal Presley, as a part of a convoy escort team in Iraq in December, 2005, alertly spotted an incoming vehicle laden with explosives and engaged the vehicle with the gun mounted on his vehicle. The gunfire caused the vehicle to explode prematurely, before it reached the targeted convoy. Presley died from the injuries from that explosion.
Family members and friends at the newly posted memorial sign.
Another generation takes up the memorial.
Among special people in Presley’s life: (From left) Grandmother, Mary Presley; Mother, Pam Cousar, Aunt Melinda Ross and Aunt Lisa Heafner.
Mississippi Department of Transportation workers mount sign.
The Brandon Presley Memorial Highway was dedicated Saturday. A section of Highway 51 South at the intersection of Highway 51 and Pope-Water Valley Road honors the fallen Marine.
Presley, a Panola native, died in December, 2005, of injuries sustained from an explosion while he was serving in Iraq.
The Mississippi Legislature passed a measure in March to designate a portion of Highway 51 in Panola County as the “Corporal Michael Brandon Presley Memorial Highway.”
