Marines Save Camp Pendleton Crosses

With fires raging in southern California, US Marines based at Camp Pendleton took the time to rescue crosses memorializing their fallen comrades:

First Sergeant’s Hill in Camp San Mateo, California, is home to nearly two dozen wooden crosses memorializing fallen Marines from Pendleton, a sacred site created by and for Marines to remember lost comrades. When new Marines arrive at Camp Pendleton units, more senior troops will often take them to the site and explain its significance.

The fires ultimately overcame the hills, but the memorials were saved.  For Cpl Marvin Arnold, the crosses were something the Marines could “call their own” to remember their own:

“The Gold Star mothers [and families of the fallen] are the ones with priority to receive memorabilia. They take first priority,” he said. “For us, [First Sergeant’s Hill] is really one of the only ways of making some kind of landmark.”

The memorial crosses will ultimately be returned to the hill.

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One comment

  • These may be symbols, but important ones; ones which reflect the foundation of American values, laws, and expectations. Taking them down is a reflection of the painful changes occurring in our society, and that is NOT a good thing, it NOT a liberating condition. The destruction of the symbols correlates to the destruction of Christian values and practices in our society, which is precisely what the amoral, the immoral, and the blatantly perverse desire.