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Fw: SDUT Article about the Camp Pendleton Memorial Crosses



Forwarded.

Semper fi,
Don Greenlaw
----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Hollenbeck
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 3:55 AM
Subject: RE: SDUT Article about the Camp Pendleton Memorial Crosses







I am pleased to report that the atheist extremists FAILED in their mission to have the 1st Marine Regiment’s memorial crosses removed before Christmas. Both crosses dedicated to Marines killed in battle are still standing proudly on the top of Microwave Hill above Camp Horno. According to my military sources close to the issue, the Camp Pendleton Base Commander supports the crosses and has sent his recommendation up to Headquarters Marine Corps that the memorial crosses be allowed to stay. Now the Commandant of the Marine Corps or his boss, the Secretary of the Navy, will likely make the final decision about the crosses sometime in the next month or two. Thank you to everyone who called and emailed Col. Marano, the base C.O. You obviously helped him make his decision and recommendation to leave the memorials alone.

Now we wait and see and hope that politics does not play a role in the final decision which will be made back in Washington. Marines must be allowed to memorialize their fallen comrades on Marine Corps bases. The civilian God and religion haters need to butt out of military matters that don’t involve them.

Good new article below on the fight to save the memorial crosses.

Semper Fi!

Jeff Schwilk


USMC (Retired)


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/26/memorial-to-fallen-stirs-controversy/


Friends and families of Marines who died in battle have placed memorials in the hills above Camp Horno in the northwestern part of Camp Pendleton. eduardo Contreras • U-T

The Marine Corps will soon decide whether two crosses that sit atop a remote hill in Camp Pendleton as a memorial to fallen troops should be removed. One of the crosses was placed on the hill in 2008, about 60 feet from where another had been for four years but burned in a wildfire in 2007. The second, a 13-foot cross made of a fire-resistant material, was erected Nov. 11, Veterans Day. A controversy started after the Los Angeles Times wrote a story and published photographs of it being carried up the steep hillside. Atheist groups read the story and complained. They said the separation of church and state dictates that religious symbols should not be allowed on public land. Base officials have conducted a legal review and have sent their recommendation to Washington, where a final decision awaits. They declined to say what that recommendation is.
Should the crosses be allowed to stay, a lawsuit is likely.
This is just the latest battle in San Diego County over crosses. After receiving two complaints, Caltrans quietly removed three crosses from a roadside pullout just south of Julian in August. The largest of those three crosses is back now, near where it once stood, but this time on private land. The Mount Soledad cross in La Jolla has been a legal issue for years, its fate still unknown. The Camp Pendleton crosses, unlike the one on Mount Soledad, cannot be seen from any freeway. They sit on a hill near Camp Horno in the northwestern part of the base. The cross carried to the mountaintop Nov. 10 and erected the next day replaced the one that burned in 2007. That original cross was placed there in 2003 by seven Marines from 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines as a memorial to their fallen comrades. The new cross is dedicated to three of those very Marines, who all died later in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to a fourth. Two of their widows were part of the entourage that carried the new cross up the hill on Veterans Day. A group called Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers saw the Times story and filed an objection with the base. Jason Torpy, the president of the association and a West Point graduate and former Army captain, said he has received hate mail and threats since his objections were made public. He said he has no doubt that legally the crosses are unconstitutional, adding he has no problem with a memorial on the hill as long as it doesn’t involve a Christian symbol. A flag, plaque or a wall would be appropriate. “I’m not saying (the crosses) should disappear, they just shouldn’t be there. It shouldn’t prefer one religious group over another,” he said. “In a case where federal officials allow to stand a prominent Christian cross as a representation of military service, atheists, humanists and all non-Christians who have fought and died for our country are relegated to second-class citizenship.” A week after the cross was placed on the hill, base officials issued a statement that “the memorial cross activity ... was conducted by private individuals acting solely in their personal capacities. ... The leadership is aware of the memorial cross emplacement, and the activity is currently being reviewed by legal staff.” Several other atheists groups have joined in objecting, and Torpy said it is likely, should the crosses remain, that one of them will sue.
Others have taken the opposite stance.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, sent a letter on Dec. 13 to Col. Nicholas Marano, the commanding officer of Camp Pendleton, urging him to let the crosses remain. “Honoring the nation’s military with symbols of faith is a tradition that is on display in national cemeteries from Fort Rosecrans to Arlington, as well as other places that pay tribute to the Armed Forces,” Hunter wrote. “Legal challenges are not only a disservice to our military, but they undermine generations of personal sacrifice on behalf of a nation committed to protecting individual freedom.” Hunter served as a Marine in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and knew one of the men the cross honors. “These Marines — Major Douglas Zembiec, Major Ray Mendoza, Lance Corporal Aaron Austin and Lance Corporal Robert Zurheide — also served in 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, which was one of the main combat units in the fight to reclaim the city of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004,” Hunter wrote. Torpy is also asking for a separate investigation into what he says have been recent “pilgrimages” to the cross by various Marine units. The Thomas More Law Center, which has championed many pro-cross fights, also wrote a letter to Marano on behalf of the widow and son of Maj. Zembiec. “For the family members of the deceased Marines, the memorial cross holds deep significance and is forever attached to the memory of their loved ones. Removing the cross will no doubt cause great pain for them — pain that can and should be avoided,” said chief counsel Richard Thompson.