Marines need our support in times of sorrow

At some point, Newport Beach’s adoption of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines of Camp Pendleton was going to cease being just about hosting Mess Nights at the Balboa Bay Club, sending the Marines cigars and providing support for the families that those serving in Iraq had left behind.

At some point, with the U.S. at war and the 1/1 proudly on the front lines, the city was going to lose some of its adopted Marines.

Last weekend, the 1/1 and the city suffered that first agonizing loss.

A 24-year-old lance corporal from Illinois and a 22-year-old corporal and noncommissioned officer ? who was married with three children, including one just 2 weeks old ? were killed in combat while serving in Iraq.

“A tragedy like this ? there’s very little you can do, but we want them to know we’re standing by them,” Dan Marcheano, owner of the Arches restaurant, told the Pilot. Marcheano, one of many former Marines in Newport Beach, has been among the city’s biggest supporters of the 1/1. He has provided them meals, given care packages to family members and was an instrumental part in the city’s adoption of the Marines. Since news of the two Marines’ deaths, he’s been alerting friends and customers that the families of the two Marines are in particular need of aid.

That support will certainly be welcome in the coming days and weeks. In these trying, terrible times for the families and friends of the two Marines, we join the residents of Newport Beach in hoping that the city’s relationship with the 1/1 will provide some solace and some comfort.

Now is, after all, really the time that the city’s adoption of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines was created for and the time it really is needed. The fun of the Mess Nights and the money they raised are great for the morale and well-being of the Marines and their families, as well as for the residents helping them. But offering support in those good times is relatively easy and the rewards immediate. Providing it in these hard times is difficult and heart-wrenching, but the rewards are deeper and lasting.

And, as severe as these times are, we are sure that no one who has pledged support for the 1/1 would look back and wish the relationship with the Marines was one bit different.