Marines race straight toward a memorial site with 22 wooden crosses

Group of Camp Pendleton Marines race toward wildfire to save crosses
Crosses honor fallen Marines
10 News
Michael Chen
May 23, 2014

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - On this Memorial Day weekend, an inspiring story is emerging of a group of Marines racing toward the flames of a Camp Pendleton wildfire in a desperate bid to save wooden crosses honoring fallen Marines.

One of those 22 crosses memorialized Pfc. Victor Dew, the best friend of Cpl. Marvin Arnold. Dew was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.

Last Friday, the memory of Arnold's friend would come rushing back, fanned by the flames of wildfires on Camp Pendleton.

Arnold saw the fire charge up a hill on First Sergeant's Hill -- in the northwest section of the base -- and straight toward a memorial site with 22 wooden crosses, some 10 feet tall.

He knew Dew's mother was visiting the base on Memorial Day weekend to see the cross for the first time.

"I knew that it would be kind of a heartbreak if she wasn't able to see it. There was a sense of urgency," said Arnold.
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