Maricopa County officials ask to rename Phoenix mountain peak after Navy hero
Dec 8, 2016, 8:56 AM | Updated: 11:52 am
U.S. Navy file photo of Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV, 31, of San Diego. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)
(U.S. Navy photo/Released)
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors want to name a mountain peak near Phoenix in honor of a Valley military hero who died in battle.
The board on Wednesday asked the county Parks and Recreation Department to help petition state and federal officials to name the Estrella Mountains peak in honor of Navy SEAL Charles Keating IV.
Keating, 31, who grew up in Phoenix, was killed May 3 in Iraq during a battle with Islamic State fighters.
He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in Iraq during a March 4 fight.
Keating was posthumously promoted to chief petty officer.
He attended Arcadia High School and graduated in 2004. He was engaged to be married in November and lived in the San Diego area.
Keating’s grandfather, Charles H. Keating Jr., was the financier who served prison time for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure of the 1980s.
The mountains are southwest of Phoenix. Most of the range sits on the Gila River Indian Community.
Should the name be approved, it would mark the second time this century an Arizona mountain peak was named for a state resident killed in wartime.
Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains was renamed Piestewa Peak in 2003 to honor solider Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die serving in the U.S. military.
The move made by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, was met with some controversy because Napolitano pushed past objections that required a five-year waiting period for posthumous renaming of geographic landforms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
