STEPHEN SHERRILL
Veterans for Peace
10:00:15:00 – 10:01:15:00
Over the three years that we’ve been here it averages about 14 crosses per week, about two fatalities a day. Last week we had 15 fatalities, the week before we had 11 fatalities and this week we had 37 - a very bad week. I remember the number, it was 287, when it had reached that number, that I was absolutely horrified and appalled that we had lost so many of our kids over there in Iraq. I was just worried and deeply concerned that the American people were not mindful of the terrible price we were paying, and we were brought to pay, for this ill-conceived war. And I thought that somebody had to do something to wake people up and it was then I came up with this idea for this mock cemetery. We’ve been here since November 2, 2003.
10:01:16:00 – 10:01:35:00
These men, erecting crosses on the beach of the Californian city of Santa Barbara at seven on a Sunday morning, are not just ordinary anti-war protesters. Members of the Veterans for Peace, they have served in the U.S. army in Vietnam or Korea, and each of them knows what the irrevocable events taking place on the other side of the globe mean.
ROD EDWARDS
Veterans for Peace
10:01:39:00 – 10:02:20:00
There’s Ryan Jerabeck, 18 years old.
Morgan Jacobs, killed in bombing on October 7, 2004, aged 20.
A lot of young men here.
Darius Jennings, aged 22.
Terence W. Jack, aged 31, killed October 31, 2005.
And that goes on and on. William James, 24 years old.
David Johnson, 37, from Portland, Oregon.
Oscar Jimenez, aged 34. A father of three.
10:02:24:00 – 10:02:33:00
Stephen Sherrill, a Vietnam veteran who came up with the original idea, has constructed and painted all the 3,000 crosses of this memorial, called Arlington West.
STEPHEN SHERRILL
10:02:34:00 – 10:03:03:00
Originally my idea was conceived out of a deep protest for the war, because I thought that it was terribly wrong, and it was not until we started getting visited by friends and family members of the deceased who would come up here and want to visit a cross of a son or a daughter or a loved one that the whole feeling for the thing began to transfer into more of a memorial
10:03:05:00 – 10:03:17:00
The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq has risen to more than 3,100, but a decision has been made to leave the number of crosses at 3,000. The number of fallen soldiers and crosses is simply too big.
STEPHEN SHERRILL
10:03:19:00 – 10:03:42:00
None of us ever believed that we would still be here three years after this war started. It’s gotten to the point now where it’s becoming more and more difficult for us to manage. We have over a ton and a half of crosses, we’re covering an acre of beach. The memorial will still be erected every Sunday but we’re not going to make any more than 3000 crosses.
10:03:44:00 – 10:03:59:00
The veterans’ commitment is shown by the fact that the Arlington West Memorial has now been erected and taken down more than160 times. In over three years they have only missed two Sundays, when it was pouring down with rain over Santa Barbara.
ROD EDWARDS
10:04:05:00 – 10:04:36:00
We have so many visitors looking for names, whether they are troops back from Iraq, between tours, or parents, asking for names. And we hear the stories they tell us about their son or about this person they know, or they knew. So you get the feeling like you know them. I know a lot of names by heart. Then if people come looking I can usually tell them about where it is, because I’ve been doing this every Sunday so long. So you do feel like you know a lot of these men and women in a way.
10:04:37:00 – 10:04:47:00
When the 3000 crosses are up, it is already ten in the morning.
Now grieving family members, fellow soldiers from Iraq, and curious tourists are allowed in.
10:04:59:00 – 10:05:21:00
Arlington West has also become a place of pilgrimage for families and comrades of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. A fallen soldier gets his or her name on a cross only when a family member or a fellow soldier comes and puts it there. The significance of this dismountable memorial is indicated by that fact that the crosses now bear the names of over a thousand soldiers.
LANE ANDERSON
Veterans for Peace
10:05:23:00 – 10:05:55:00
These are in alphabetized so we go until we find the name of their son or daughter, their husband or wife, and then we get the name. We had one marine major that looked up 18 names, 18 of the men that worked for him in Falluja, all died. He stayed a long time. He knelt in front of every cross and put up a marine corp symbol on every cross.
10:05:57:00 – 10:06:09:00
The Zimmers from Alaska have come to attach the name and photographs of a relative on a cross. Private Doug Bridges died in a rebel ambush on a Baghdad alley in November 2006.
TOM ZIMMER
10:06:10:16 – 10:06:17:00
We are just here to celebrate Doug’s life. 22 years old.
10:06:20:00 – 10:06:22:00
Question: How would you describe him as a person?
SUSAN WILLSRUD
10:06:25:00 – 10:06:32:00
He was just really kind, kind-hearted. He was a very avid birder, he wanted to be an ornithologist.
TOM ZIMMER
10:06:32:00 – 10:06:47:00
He wanted to go to college and he was told by recruiters and whatnot that he could get college money and he was ready to get out of the military here in this spring and start school next fall.
SUSAN WILLSRUD
10:06:49:00 – 10:06:58:00
As much as we worried about him when they had to leave, we just never actually imagined he would not come back. But he’s not.
10:06:59:00 – 10:07:03:00
In fact, Doug came home from Iraq once already, fully intact.
SUSAN WILLSRUD
10:0705:00 – 10:07:26:00
They had been over for a year deployment and they were all due to come back. Doug was part of an advance group, so he came home. And he thought he was completely done with going to Iraq. And one night they got a call in the middle of the night from their friends in Iraq saying we’re not coming home and you’re coming back.
10:07:27:00 – 10:07:30:00
Doug was killed four weeks after his return to Iraq.
TOM ZIMMER
10:07:31:00 – 10:07:59:00
You can see on one of the pictures down here, that’s Dough knitting. He would knit hats for a guy and then he’d run out to their guard post and give him a knitted hat and come on back, so he... The military gives you no support whatsoever, so… but he within took it upon himself to give other people support even though he probably needed lots himself.
10:08:01:00 – 10:08:11:00
Carlos Arredondo learned of his son’s death on his own birthday. The 20-year old lance corporal died in a fight against rebels in Najaf in August 2004.
CARLOS ARREDONDO
10:08:14:00 – 10:08:41:00
I was 44 years old and I was celebrating life. When they came to my house, I was in front of my house. I thought my son was back home. I thought he was back home, what a surprise. You know, why not, it’s my birthday.
As you can see we’re one of the few lucky families who had an open casket. Because in this messy war no other families are as lucky as we to have an open casket. For us that was very important.
10:08:42:00 – 10:08:48:00
Nyt Carlos spends his time traveling around the United States visiting schools and appearing at anti-war events to tell people about the fate of his son.
CARLOS ARREDONDO
10:08:50:00 – 10:09:32:00
Well, my son joined the military because that was a way for him to pay his future school. Also they offered him some cash bonuses to sign up, at the time it was 10,000 dollars. The recruiters pretty much have three categories they’re looking for: low-income people, Spanish people, and who come from divorce families, because they are easy to seduce with this kind of offer. That’s pretty much what my son was. He qualified for those three.
JANE BRIGHT
10:09:26:00 – 10:09:33:00
Yeah, I’m just now getting used to it. It’s been three and a half years. Now I can finally come out without breaking down. It’s so very emotional.
10:09:34:00 – 10:09:47:00
The name and photo of Jane Bright’s son Evan has a part of the Arlington West Memorial from the very beginning. The 23-year old sergeant Evan Ashcraft was killed in a rebel ambush in July 2003.
JANE BRIGHT
10:09:50:00 – 10:10:19:00
He died on the perimeter of an oil refinery at 2:30 in the morning. And he was hit… He was driving a humvee that had canvas sides and it hit, I mean it was a direct hit on Evan and...
He played classical piano from the time he was about seven. He was highly intelligent.
He adored his little brother.
JIM BRIGHT
10:10:20:00 – 10:10:35:00
He had a winning smile. He was always open to you, he was always friendly. People just liked to be around him for some reason. And I think that tells you what kind of a man he was.
10:10:38:00 – 10:10:49:00
The Bright family’s way of going on with their life was to become active and speak publicly against the Iraqi operation. They established a foundation in memory of Evan Ashcraft to support the rehabilitation of soldiers wounded in Iraq.
JANE BRIGHT
10:10:51:00 –10:10:59:00
I would imagine it’s very easy to fall into depression and not get out of bed in the morning, but for us we could not not do something.
JIM BRIGHT
10:11:00:00 – 10:11:21:00
I mean you have to… If you look at something like this, if you look at the vast expanse of these crosses, you have to ask yourself either why or what for. You try to put some meaning on this. All of these men and women who have died, and for what?
JANE BRIGHT
10:11:22:00 – 10:11:38:00
These people are too important to forget. And that’s what our Government wants to do, they want everyone to forget that they died and go on and keep shopping and keep, you know, buying SUVs and… going to football games. This is too important.
10:11:42:00 – 10:11:50:00
It’s four p.m. and the anti-war veterans are beginning to remove the crosses, just to be re-erected next Sunday.
RODNEY BROWN
Veterans for Peace
10:11:51:00 – 10:12:06:00
We are going to continue on and try to stay here as long as it takes to get people to realize we have to get out of Iraq. Don’t ask me how we get out of Iraq, I don’t have a clue. But I didn’t get us in there either.
Veterans for Peace
10:00:15:00 – 10:01:15:00
Over the three years that we’ve been here it averages about 14 crosses per week, about two fatalities a day. Last week we had 15 fatalities, the week before we had 11 fatalities and this week we had 37 - a very bad week. I remember the number, it was 287, when it had reached that number, that I was absolutely horrified and appalled that we had lost so many of our kids over there in Iraq. I was just worried and deeply concerned that the American people were not mindful of the terrible price we were paying, and we were brought to pay, for this ill-conceived war. And I thought that somebody had to do something to wake people up and it was then I came up with this idea for this mock cemetery. We’ve been here since November 2, 2003.
10:01:16:00 – 10:01:35:00
These men, erecting crosses on the beach of the Californian city of Santa Barbara at seven on a Sunday morning, are not just ordinary anti-war protesters. Members of the Veterans for Peace, they have served in the U.S. army in Vietnam or Korea, and each of them knows what the irrevocable events taking place on the other side of the globe mean.
ROD EDWARDS
Veterans for Peace
10:01:39:00 – 10:02:20:00
There’s Ryan Jerabeck, 18 years old.
Morgan Jacobs, killed in bombing on October 7, 2004, aged 20.
A lot of young men here.
Darius Jennings, aged 22.
Terence W. Jack, aged 31, killed October 31, 2005.
And that goes on and on. William James, 24 years old.
David Johnson, 37, from Portland, Oregon.
Oscar Jimenez, aged 34. A father of three.
10:02:24:00 – 10:02:33:00
Stephen Sherrill, a Vietnam veteran who came up with the original idea, has constructed and painted all the 3,000 crosses of this memorial, called Arlington West.
STEPHEN SHERRILL
10:02:34:00 – 10:03:03:00
Originally my idea was conceived out of a deep protest for the war, because I thought that it was terribly wrong, and it was not until we started getting visited by friends and family members of the deceased who would come up here and want to visit a cross of a son or a daughter or a loved one that the whole feeling for the thing began to transfer into more of a memorial
10:03:05:00 – 10:03:17:00
The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq has risen to more than 3,100, but a decision has been made to leave the number of crosses at 3,000. The number of fallen soldiers and crosses is simply too big.
STEPHEN SHERRILL
10:03:19:00 – 10:03:42:00
None of us ever believed that we would still be here three years after this war started. It’s gotten to the point now where it’s becoming more and more difficult for us to manage. We have over a ton and a half of crosses, we’re covering an acre of beach. The memorial will still be erected every Sunday but we’re not going to make any more than 3000 crosses.
10:03:44:00 – 10:03:59:00
The veterans’ commitment is shown by the fact that the Arlington West Memorial has now been erected and taken down more than160 times. In over three years they have only missed two Sundays, when it was pouring down with rain over Santa Barbara.
ROD EDWARDS
10:04:05:00 – 10:04:36:00
We have so many visitors looking for names, whether they are troops back from Iraq, between tours, or parents, asking for names. And we hear the stories they tell us about their son or about this person they know, or they knew. So you get the feeling like you know them. I know a lot of names by heart. Then if people come looking I can usually tell them about where it is, because I’ve been doing this every Sunday so long. So you do feel like you know a lot of these men and women in a way.
10:04:37:00 – 10:04:47:00
When the 3000 crosses are up, it is already ten in the morning.
Now grieving family members, fellow soldiers from Iraq, and curious tourists are allowed in.
10:04:59:00 – 10:05:21:00
Arlington West has also become a place of pilgrimage for families and comrades of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. A fallen soldier gets his or her name on a cross only when a family member or a fellow soldier comes and puts it there. The significance of this dismountable memorial is indicated by that fact that the crosses now bear the names of over a thousand soldiers.
LANE ANDERSON
Veterans for Peace
10:05:23:00 – 10:05:55:00
These are in alphabetized so we go until we find the name of their son or daughter, their husband or wife, and then we get the name. We had one marine major that looked up 18 names, 18 of the men that worked for him in Falluja, all died. He stayed a long time. He knelt in front of every cross and put up a marine corp symbol on every cross.
10:05:57:00 – 10:06:09:00
The Zimmers from Alaska have come to attach the name and photographs of a relative on a cross. Private Doug Bridges died in a rebel ambush on a Baghdad alley in November 2006.
TOM ZIMMER
10:06:10:16 – 10:06:17:00
We are just here to celebrate Doug’s life. 22 years old.
10:06:20:00 – 10:06:22:00
Question: How would you describe him as a person?
SUSAN WILLSRUD
10:06:25:00 – 10:06:32:00
He was just really kind, kind-hearted. He was a very avid birder, he wanted to be an ornithologist.
TOM ZIMMER
10:06:32:00 – 10:06:47:00
He wanted to go to college and he was told by recruiters and whatnot that he could get college money and he was ready to get out of the military here in this spring and start school next fall.
SUSAN WILLSRUD
10:06:49:00 – 10:06:58:00
As much as we worried about him when they had to leave, we just never actually imagined he would not come back. But he’s not.
10:06:59:00 – 10:07:03:00
In fact, Doug came home from Iraq once already, fully intact.
SUSAN WILLSRUD
10:0705:00 – 10:07:26:00
They had been over for a year deployment and they were all due to come back. Doug was part of an advance group, so he came home. And he thought he was completely done with going to Iraq. And one night they got a call in the middle of the night from their friends in Iraq saying we’re not coming home and you’re coming back.
10:07:27:00 – 10:07:30:00
Doug was killed four weeks after his return to Iraq.
TOM ZIMMER
10:07:31:00 – 10:07:59:00
You can see on one of the pictures down here, that’s Dough knitting. He would knit hats for a guy and then he’d run out to their guard post and give him a knitted hat and come on back, so he... The military gives you no support whatsoever, so… but he within took it upon himself to give other people support even though he probably needed lots himself.
10:08:01:00 – 10:08:11:00
Carlos Arredondo learned of his son’s death on his own birthday. The 20-year old lance corporal died in a fight against rebels in Najaf in August 2004.
CARLOS ARREDONDO
10:08:14:00 – 10:08:41:00
I was 44 years old and I was celebrating life. When they came to my house, I was in front of my house. I thought my son was back home. I thought he was back home, what a surprise. You know, why not, it’s my birthday.
As you can see we’re one of the few lucky families who had an open casket. Because in this messy war no other families are as lucky as we to have an open casket. For us that was very important.
10:08:42:00 – 10:08:48:00
Nyt Carlos spends his time traveling around the United States visiting schools and appearing at anti-war events to tell people about the fate of his son.
CARLOS ARREDONDO
10:08:50:00 – 10:09:32:00
Well, my son joined the military because that was a way for him to pay his future school. Also they offered him some cash bonuses to sign up, at the time it was 10,000 dollars. The recruiters pretty much have three categories they’re looking for: low-income people, Spanish people, and who come from divorce families, because they are easy to seduce with this kind of offer. That’s pretty much what my son was. He qualified for those three.
JANE BRIGHT
10:09:26:00 – 10:09:33:00
Yeah, I’m just now getting used to it. It’s been three and a half years. Now I can finally come out without breaking down. It’s so very emotional.
10:09:34:00 – 10:09:47:00
The name and photo of Jane Bright’s son Evan has a part of the Arlington West Memorial from the very beginning. The 23-year old sergeant Evan Ashcraft was killed in a rebel ambush in July 2003.
JANE BRIGHT
10:09:50:00 – 10:10:19:00
He died on the perimeter of an oil refinery at 2:30 in the morning. And he was hit… He was driving a humvee that had canvas sides and it hit, I mean it was a direct hit on Evan and...
He played classical piano from the time he was about seven. He was highly intelligent.
He adored his little brother.
JIM BRIGHT
10:10:20:00 – 10:10:35:00
He had a winning smile. He was always open to you, he was always friendly. People just liked to be around him for some reason. And I think that tells you what kind of a man he was.
10:10:38:00 – 10:10:49:00
The Bright family’s way of going on with their life was to become active and speak publicly against the Iraqi operation. They established a foundation in memory of Evan Ashcraft to support the rehabilitation of soldiers wounded in Iraq.
JANE BRIGHT
10:10:51:00 –10:10:59:00
I would imagine it’s very easy to fall into depression and not get out of bed in the morning, but for us we could not not do something.
JIM BRIGHT
10:11:00:00 – 10:11:21:00
I mean you have to… If you look at something like this, if you look at the vast expanse of these crosses, you have to ask yourself either why or what for. You try to put some meaning on this. All of these men and women who have died, and for what?
JANE BRIGHT
10:11:22:00 – 10:11:38:00
These people are too important to forget. And that’s what our Government wants to do, they want everyone to forget that they died and go on and keep shopping and keep, you know, buying SUVs and… going to football games. This is too important.
10:11:42:00 – 10:11:50:00
It’s four p.m. and the anti-war veterans are beginning to remove the crosses, just to be re-erected next Sunday.
RODNEY BROWN
Veterans for Peace
10:11:51:00 – 10:12:06:00
We are going to continue on and try to stay here as long as it takes to get people to realize we have to get out of Iraq. Don’t ask me how we get out of Iraq, I don’t have a clue. But I didn’t get us in there either.