Fw: SDUT Article about the Camp Pendleton Memorial Crosses

["Don Greenlaw" <dgreenlaw@cox.net>]

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.