Camp Pendleton

Five high-ranking officers of the Afghan security forces finished a three-day visit to Southern California on Saturday after observing military training and civilian law enforcement operations in the U.S. One of the things that impressed them most during their instructional visit reminded them of home: a faux Afghan village constructed at Camp Pendleton to help train Marines before they deploy to Helmand province, a longtime Taliban stronghold....

Jared Verbeek had always wanted to be a Marine — like his father, who retired as a gunnery sergeant. As a kid, he sometimes wore his father's old uniforms. When he graduated from high school in the Central Valley city of Visalia , southeast of Fresno, he had earned a spot at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was offered a free education and a commission as a Marine officer. But family members said Verbeek was impatient to become a Marine and serve his country during a time of war. After graduating from Mt. Whitney High School, where he was a standout middle-distance runner and long-jumper on the track team, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to boot camp in San Diego.

Six-year-old Keegan Ramirez knows that his father, Marine Sgt. Rafael Ramirez, is in Afghanistan. But there is nothing unusual about that. The Ramirez family lives in base housing, where nearly all the fathers and some of the mothers leave home regularly for seven to 12 months at a stretch. Sgt. Ramirez, 27, is with an artillery battalion in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province. He has made three other deployments to Iraq to the insurgent-battleground of Anbar province.

After receiving a complaint from an atheists' organization, Marine brass at Camp Pendleton are reviewing whether to permit a cross atop a hill on the base to remain. The 13-foot cross was erected on Veterans Day as a memorial to four Marines killed in combat in Iraq and to veterans in general. Three of the four dead Marines had been part of a group that had erected a cross on the same spot in 2003 before deploying to Iraq. That cross was destroyed by a brush fire in 2007. After an article about the new cross appeared in The Times, the Military Assn.

Debating a cross Re "Marines restore memorial to fallen comrades," Nov. 12 As a Christian and a patriotic American citizen, I am offended by the installation of a cross on government property. Camp Pendleton is government-owned land, and the cross is intended as a memorial to "all military personnel sent to foreign lands. " But a cross, the universal symbol of Christianity, is an inappropriate choice to pay tribute because not all military personnel are Christians.

To honor the memory of four Marine comrades killed in Iraq and to show respect for all military personnel sent to foreign lands, a small but determined group trudged up a steep hill at Camp Pendleton on Friday morning as the nation observed Veterans Day. At precisely the date and time when World War I officially ended, giving rise to Armistice Day — the forerunner to Veterans Day — the group erected a 13-foot cross. The cross replaced one placed on the hill in 2003 by the Marines before they deployed to Iraq.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- The rain and cold were appropriate. "Somber weather for a somber occasion," the battalion commander said. It was a tearful morning of remembrance and mourning Friday as hundreds of Marines and family members paid tribute to 17 Marines from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment killed in a recently completed deployment to the Sangin region of Afghanistan. To listen to comments by Marines about the fallen was to learn of the shared dangers of the fight in Sangin, long a Taliban stronghold.

When the recruit staggered out of the Thunderdome pugil-stick arena, he had the early signs of concussion: glassy eyes, confusion, unsteadiness on his feet. His face had been gashed by a smashing blow from his opponent — another would-be Marine desperate to please drill instructors with a display of unrelenting aggression. Not that long ago, the drill instructors might have ordered the woozy recruit back into line for another session. But times have changed at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

Navy Corpsman Peter Ruggiero, who spent months living in the dust and dirt of Afghanistan, looked at his new barracks room and was impressed. "I feel like I've just checked into a Comfort Inn," said Ruggiero, 21. Marine Lance Cpl. Vincent Shafer, 19, wanted to be succinct in his description of his new digs, with the private bath, walk-in closet, microwave, refrigerator and space for a television and computer. Photos: New barracks "It's so, so … contemporary," he said.

In early August, Marine Corps Sgt. Adan Gonzales Jr. called his wife, Catalina, from Afghanistan, where he was assigned to a sniper platoon. Gonzales' mood was buoyant as he heard how his three kids were doing and the move the family was making into a new apartment in Bakersfield. His last words to Catalina were "I love you. " Two days later, he was dead. Gonzales, 28 , was shot in the chest Aug. 7 during a firefight in southern Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, military officials said.