LONG BEACH, Calif. — After more than well overa decade of fighting side-by-side in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ccorpsmen and Marines have a new reminder of the relationship they 've forged in battle.
On Dec. 12, a new version of the Hospital Corpsman Combat mMemorial was rededicated at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, California. The monument includes three corpsmen cast in bronze, carrying raising a wounded Marine up the side of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
The statue should help remind young corpsmen of the unique partnership they have with Marines, said Command Master Chief Christopher Thorne, the top enlisted sailor at the hospital.
"It's important for us to be able to express to young corpsmen, including many who have not had the opportunity to have their first seat tour with Marines, that special bond," he said.
With combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan over, corpsmen will be fighting alongside Marines less frequently. But Thorne said the camaraderie won't be lost because the next hot spot or humanitarian mission will require corpsmen and Marines to operate together regularly.
"There is just an operational tempo that is going to hold that bond together, I think," Thorne said.
The statue is a replica of a 30-year-old memorial that was originally placed old Naval Regional Medical Center, Camp Pendleton. It was created by the now-deceased Raul Avina, a Marine who was wounded at the Battle of Iwo Jima.
According to the hospital's archives, Avina left the Corps and later worked at the hospital at Camp Pendleton. The scene he created out of fast-drying concrete and rebar came from a memory he hads during his recovery. He remembered while laying wounded and saw a Marine climbing a slope on the mountain in order to get a better position to shoot at the enemy, only to get hit himself. Seconds later, corpsmen rushed over to give him care and move him to safety. He recreated his memory out of fast-drying concrete and rebar.
Avina's original memorial was supposed to be moved to the new hospital shortly before the 500,000-square-foot care center opened about in a year ago. But but when crews started to transfer the memorial, they found that it was not structurally sound and that it needed to be replaced.
"It was a bit of a bummer when they first told us that they weren't going to be able to relocate the original memorial, but the contractors really took it on as a labor of love," Thorne said.
Using detailed photos and laser scans, a bronze replica was created of the old statue. The mountain is the same size as the original, but the texture is more detailed. The figures are made of bronze rather than made out of concrete, and are like the original, are now bronze covered by a thin shell that helps reduce cleaning and maintenance needs. with a dark patina exterior. The statue will weather and will look like traditional bronze but it won't require as much regular upkeep. A plaque from the original memorial was reused in the replica, a hospital spokesman said in a statement.
Clark/McCarthy, the company that built the new hospital, reconstructed the memorial as a part of their contract.
Besides the improvements to the statue and hill, the new memorial has a better location than the original, which was off the beaten path.
"It was meaningful to the corpsmen, but it wasn't present," Thorne said. With the memorial now in a high-visibility location, it's easier to show the next generation of corpsmen what their bond with Marines means, he said.
