This year’s wreath-laying ceremony takes place at 9 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 at the campus War Memorial on Aztec Green. (Photo: Frank Villalpando)
This year’s wreath-laying ceremony takes place at 9 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 at the campus War Memorial on Aztec Green. (Photo: Frank Villalpando)

A wreath-laying ceremony is scheduled Friday at San Diego State University‘s memorial for Aztecs who died while serving in the military.

The annual Homecoming Week tradition is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the 20- year-old memorial, located just west of the Aztec Student Union. The ceremony is open to the public.

The granite obelisk contains 235 names, and four more are scheduled to be added, according to the school:

From left: Marine Capt. Jason James Paynter, Air Force Capt. Michael Jack Crawford, Air Force 1st Lt. Jason William Davis, Navy Lt. Christian John Hescock. Courtesy SDSU
From left: Marine Capt. Jason James Paynter, Air Force Capt. Michael Jack Crawford, Air Force 1st Lt. Jason William Davis, Navy Lt. Christian John Hescock. Courtesy SDSU

— Marine Capt. Jason James Paynter, a flight instructor killed in 2010 who obtained a SDSU management degree in 2001;

— Air Force Capt. Michael Jack Crawford, a 1964 graduate who died in a training flight in 1970 after serving two tours in Vietnam as a navigator;

— Air Force 1st Lt. Jason William Davis, a 2003 business graduate who died three years later in a jet crash during training; and

— Navy Lt. Christian John Hescock, an extended studies student at SDSU who died in 2007 in a helicopter crash in Guam.

Hescock had previously earned a computer science degree from the University of San Diego.

Adm. Scott Swift, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet commander and SDSU alumnus, will deliver the keynote address. Swift is this year’s honorary homecoming chairman.

The ceremony will be followed by a reception at the school’s veterans center. Both events are open to the public, according to SDSU.

–City News Service