My Thoughts on Memorial Day
I wrote a piece for Business Insider which was published today. It’s about the memorial at Camp Pendleton and my visit there in 2007. There is a cross there, along with rocks signifying fallen comrades. I’m not a religious person, and the cross is not the real point of the memorial — at least for me. It is about the dog tags, the rocks, the liquor, and the left mementos.
At the top of the peak, they dropped their heavy packs. They dug out a small site. In a hole close to the edge, they placed the cross. At the base of the cross, they put down their rocks. Their friends would never be forgotten.
As combat in Iraq and Afghanistan swelled in the following years, the memorial grew. Marines started bringing new rocks to the memorial. A squad from 1/4 brought up the largest rock at the site for PFC Juan G. Garza. It weighed over fifty pounds. Other Marines brought bottles of liquor, drinking with their fallen brothers and leaving the rest for them at the site. Between rocks, there were dog tags, Purple Hearts, battalion t-shirts, and photos.
Three of the original seven later died in combat. Their brothers probably carried their rock to the top of the mountain for them.
It wasn’t constructed by an architect or an artist. The memorial didn’t have tourists coming through it like Arlington Cemetery or the Vietnam Wall. It was a closed site, built and maintained by Marines. Hundreds of rocks had been carried there. Each week, Marines would carry lawn mowers up and groom it.
After deployments, battalions would go there to honor their fallen warriors.
Quite inevitably, there are already comments left from dipshits who take issue with the cross and another who compares our fallen friends to nazis.
Category: Veterans Issues, War Stories
The only comments were deleted, well flagged. I’m glad they were. Pampered little asses never served cause Mommy wouldn’t let them. FUCK EM!
Remembering them all Rip guys!
Too bad they were flagged. I was feeling like expressing my rage today.
Great article, and my thanks for that poignant description.
I left the following comment there:
“They gave their tomorrow for our today, and the best way to honor them, to my mind, is to do everything we can to live our lives in a manner worthy of their sacrifice. All these years later, I can still remember the faces and the laughter of AT2 Gary Nesbitt, and AW2 Jim Piepkorn. Both were shipmates and fellow aircrew who were lost way too soon, way too young.
It’s a bittersweet day, and you are so very right that for those of us who have lost a shipmate, every day is memorial day. May God bless them all, and may the angels comfort their families.”
Great article, and what an amazing day today, I spent my Memorial Day with fellow Vet’s and Shriners, in a parade in Falls Church, and it was a BLAST! My debut as a Shrine Clown too!
Way to go, Hiram! I hope you had a wonderful time.
It was a blast Brother Tim! My bad leg feels like its going to fall off though hahaha its all good!