And they're the ones who inspired this field of crosses, which grows year after year as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on. The final stretch is so steep they have to push it, drag it, a foot or two at a time, until they reach the top. They carry the cross on their shoulders up until almost the end. So Radetski and six others - two officers, two riflemen and two medics - become the first to do just that. He thought, maybe the pain and suffering of carrying this massive cross up the trail could create a bond, and they'd leave the cross itself on top as a memorial. The Marines already trained on the ridge. He finds some sections of old telephone pole and bolts them together. And that death? It still hung over them.īOWMAN: One day, the chaplain gets an idea. Months later, those Marines were back at Pendleton, preparing for yet another deployment to Iraq. In the spring of 2003, his unit lost a Marine in Iraq, killed just minutes after the invasion began. And hopefully, the lingering that takes place on the hill is part of that - that you can move past the horrific things that you've maybe seen or done.īOWMAN: Chaplain Radetski got the hilltop memorial started. When someone dies and you don't, the grief that's there - survivor's guilt. More important are the unseen burdens - the sorrow, the sadness. He doesn't like the messy piles of empty bottles and cans, but he knows they're only part of what people leave behind on the ridge. SCOTT RADETSKI: I mean, everything from a coin to a wedding ring to, you know, a medal, a Purple Heart, to, I don't know, bottles of liquor that were poured out, you know, a drink for their fallen comrade. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of keepsakes and mementos. Scott Radetski has climbed Horno Ridge many times. G SMITH: The hike up is steep and rocky, with two false summits and, at the top, a small field of crosses and memorials, dozens of them of all sizes, some pieced together from tree branches or lumber, some weighing hundreds of pounds, each one carried up by Marines and sailors. And over the last 20 years, it's become a place of pilgrimage, where Marines sweat and suffer to honor their dead. On its edge, there's a sharp hill covered with scrub trees and bushes that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. And we're talking to Marines, so there's a lot of cursing.Ĭamp Pendleton in Southern California is the West Coast home of the United States Marine Corps - 200 square miles of hills and wetlands and long stretches of beach just outside San Diego. Before we get started, you should know that this podcast contains graphic depictions of war.
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