Fallen Troops Given Tribute

Eight Marines killed in Iraq from one of the Marine Corps’ most famous battalions were remembered in an emotional farewell Friday as “brave souls ... who fought and died because they cared about something greater than themselves.”

The eight, said Navy. Lt. Cmdr. John Dickens, the battalion chaplain, “are at peace; they have moved on.”

Seven of the eight enlisted after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, knowing “full well they would be called to the sound of the guns,” regimental commander Col. Lawrence Nicholson said in a letter read to hundreds of Marines and guests at a memorial service in the base theater.

Three of the Marines were on their third tour in Iraq.

All eight were part of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division -- the Darkhorse Battalion that fought with distinction at Belleau Wood in World War I, Guadalcanal in World War II, Inchon in Korea and Khe Sanh in Vietnam.

But in Iraq, the battalion has been snared in controversy. A dozen of its members are charged with abusing Iraqi civilians. Seven of them are Marines and a Navy corpsman kept in the brig at Camp Pendleton and charged with killing an Iraqi and trying to cover up their crime.

There was no mention of the pending court cases during Friday’s ceremony. But neither was there any attempt to hide the frustrations for American troops as the insurgency rages and the U.S. death toll mounts.

Nearly 300 Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force have been killed.

“It’s a dirty and dangerous fight with meaning and purpose even when success is hard to see,” Dickens told the crowd. Most of the battalion has returned within the last month, but some members, including the commander, are still in Iraq.

On the stage were eight rifles, eight helmets, eight sets of dog tags and eight pairs of combat boots. Each of the eight Marines was represented with a framed picture, and numerous relatives sat in the front rows, some sobbing openly.

At one time the eight had the hopes and plans of youth. Pfc. Javier Chavez Jr., 19, of Cutler, Calif., had married just days before leaving for Iraq. Lance Cpl. Rex Page, 21, had hoped to return to his native Missouri and become a recruiter.

Pfc. Sean Cardelli, 20, was an artist and a singer, and when he returned to suburban Chicago he wore his dress blue uniform to his high school -- the same school that later erected a memorial to him at the flagpole.

Staff Sgt. Raymond Plouhar of Lake Orion, Mich., the “old man” of the group at 30, left behind a poem for his family in the event of his death: “I have given up many things for you to be free/Do not feel pity for me, for this is my choice.”

Cpl. Jason Morrow, 27, of Riverside loved golf and surfing. He proposed to his wife, Evelyn, during a home plate ceremony at an Angels game at Angel Stadium.

Some had been wounded in previous skirmishes. Lance Cpl. Benito Ramirez, 21, of Edinburg, Texas, escaped one roadside bomb attack with only a concussion.

He was killed in a similar attack a week later.

Cpl. Ross Smith, 21, of Wyoming, Mich., was one of the first to die, killed Feb. 9 just after the battalion arrived at its base near Fallouja. Lance Cpl. Geofrey R. Cayer, 20, of Fitchburg, Mass., was killed July 18, days before he was scheduled to return home.

Family members asked that reporters not seek interviews. Deborah Smith, who traveled from her home in Orlando, Fla., to attend the ceremony, said she understands the families’ need for privacy.

Her son, Darkhorse Battalion Marine Lance Cpl. Antoine Demetrius Smith, 22, was killed in November 2004 during the battle for Fallouja.

After the ceremony she hugged family members and told them to stay strong, that it will take time for their grief to subside.

“Some days I’m fine,” she said. “But when I saw those boots, those helmets, those rifles, it was like Day One for me.”