Dispute over cross casts light on four fallen Marines

[High_Gravity]

Dispute over cross casts light on four fallen Marines

Reporting from San Diego— In the early days of the U.S. battle with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, the four Marines from Camp Pendleton were among those troops on the front lines in Anbar province.

The two enlisted Marines would not survive those violent days in the spring of 2004: one was killed by "friendly fire" when a mortar round went awry and one was mortally wounded while hurling a grenade to repel an enemy assault, bravery for which he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

The two officers survived, only later to be killed in other battles in other parts of the country: one by gunfire while leading a raid in Baghdad to kill or capture a "high-value" target in 2007 and one by stepping on a buried bomb while scouting an attack position near the Syrian border in 2005.

Now the four — Lance Cpls. Robert Zurheide and Aaron Austin, and Majs. Douglas Zembiec and Ray Mendoza — are the focal point of a legal dispute about how best to honor their service and sacrifice, and that of other U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Veterans Day, a retired Navy chaplain — who served with Zurheide, Austin, Zembiec and Mendoza with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment — led a small group of Marines and family members up a steep, rugged hill at Camp Pendleton to plant a 13-foot tall cross in their memory. No one informed the chain of command or asked for permission.

Zurheide, Zembiec and Mendoza had been among those Marines who planted a cross in the same spot in 2003 before the battalion deployed to Iraq.

In the years after the deaths, Marine "grunts'' adopted the hill as a place to leave messages in remembrance of those killed in action, including coins, medals, dog tags, and bits of sand and dirt brought back from distant battlefields.

The cross was destroyed by a brush fire in 2007. A replacement was raised in 2008, without news coverage. When a second cross was erected on Veterans Day, a story in The Times told of the cross and its meaning to Marines.

Within days, two groups petitioned the Marine Corps to take down the crosses as a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. Two other groups took the opposite stance.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), who served with the battalion in Fallouja, urged the Marines to leave the cross alone. The American Civil Liberties Union, although not directly involved in the dispute, said it hopes the Marines will "follow the law."

"The legal test is whether from the perspective of a reasonable observer this would be perceived as government endorsement of religion,'' said Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the law school at UC Irvine and a constitutional scholar.

The cross, Chemerinsky noted, is an inherently Christian symbol. But an argument could be made that because the cross is not visible to the public and that the only people who see it are Marines, it does not serve a religious purpose but rather a reminder to Marines of those who have fallen in combat, he said.

"My own sense is that a cross by itself on a military base violates" the Constitution, Chemerinsky said. "But whether a court will see it that way is uncertain."

The colonel in charge of Camp Pendleton has sent an undisclosed recommendation about the cross to Marine Corps headquarters, where the issue is being studied by lawyers and generals. A decision is expected within weeks.

So who were these four Marines and why, years after their deaths, do Marines feel it important that they be remembered?

Austin, 21, had joined the Marine Corps after graduating from high school in rural Texas. He loved parties and football but quit the team in solidarity when his cousin had a run-in with the coach.

Two days before he was killed in a firefight, Austin told The Times: "There's no place I'd rather be than here with my Marines. I'll always remember this time."

Dispute over cross casts light on four fallen Marines - latimes.com

 

[whitehall]

Not just Marines. The left wing judicial system ordered a half century old Korean War memorial bulldozed because some dumb agnostic claimed he was offended by the Cross.

 

[High_Gravity]

Not just Marines. The left wing judicial system ordered a half century old Korean War memorial bulldozed because some dumb agnostic claimed he was offended by the Cross.

Thats just some bullshit right there.

 

[AmericanFirst]

Some busy no gooders need to keep their noses out of Marine business.

 

[whitehall]

All those Crosses on the side of the road and so little time. The ACLU must be falling down on the job.

 

[KSigMason]

Even in death the liberals attack the 1st Amendment, the right to worship. To take down these crosses is to attack how they sought to be buried and be marked. It is their marker to show them, not the government. God, I hate liberals sometimes.

 

[Unkotare]

Some of these atheist activists are truly petty, small-minded, self-absorbed shits.

 

[Obamerican]

And the article doesn't even say who the two groups are that complained. Figures.

 

[The Infidel]

Even in death the liberals attack the 1st Amendment, the right to worship. To take down these crosses is to attack how they sought to be buried and be marked. It is their marker to show them, not the government. God, I hate liberals sometimes.

They want to be called 'progressive'now