Rotarians Commemorate Centennial at Camp Pendleton
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On January 24-25th, Rotarians from District 5280 visited Camp Pendleton as part of this year's partnership with the Marines. The weekend included a ceremony commemorating the centenial of the 13th Regiment of the First Marine Division. The regiment held a solemn ceremony at its Memorial Garden (developed by the Rotary Club of Camp Pendleton) to remember all the regimental Marines and Navy Corpsman who won the Congressional Medal of Honor in the Regiment's history. (In above photo, Culver City Rotarian Joel Forman (left) and Camp Pendleton Rotarian Linda Sundram (right) in the Memorial Garden)
The regiment chaplain opened the ceremonies with a prayer. Each recipient of the Medal of Honor was individually remembered with one current Regimental Marine or Navy Corpsman reading the citiation that gave the circumstances of the award. Linda Sundram, representing the Rotary Club of Camp Pendleton, was also present. The ceremony concluded with the playing of Taps by a lone and remote marine bugler.
There was a rededication of the 13th Regiment's battle colors, the colors representing the different battles the Regiment fought in the last century. The regiment band opened the ceremonies. As the commanding colonel read off the battles, an enlisted Marine presented the colonel with the battle ribbon, which he then added to the the regimental flag. Along with the Marines were Navy Corpsman who accompany Marines into battle. During WWII, this regiment was stationed in Australia and adopted "Waltzing Mathilda" as their theme song.