WILMINGTON — Gov. Jack Markell announced Tuesday the state’s Armed Forces Reserved Center will be named after former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden. Mr. Biden, who had risen to the rank of major in the Army National Guard, died in May of brain cancer at age 46.
Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III
“Beau lived every day with a remarkable determination to making Delaware’s communities and our world a better place, from defending the country abroad to protecting children and our most vulnerable citizens as attorney general to his dedication to family as a model husband and father,” Gov. Markell said in a statement. “It is only fitting that his name will forever be associated with an organization of men and women who go to extraordinary lengths to serve their state and country.”
Mr. Biden entered the Army National Guard in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq for a year in 2008. Part of the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, he earned the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star.
“Nothing made Beau more proud than putting on his uniform and reporting for duty,” Hallie Biden, Beau Biden’s widow, said in a statement.
The center was dedicated in August 2014 after two years of construction. It houses the Army and Air National Guard as well as the local U.S. Navy Reserve. About 175 soldiers, airmen and sailors occupy it during the week. A formal ceremony in honor of Mr. Biden is set for the spring.