CV NEWS FEED // A Catholic Marine Corps veteran has turned his talent for carving into a special way to honor fallen military members.
Anthony Marquez, a former Marine Corps sergeant and a Knight of Columbus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shared how he began carving wooden battlefield crosses for military graves and families of fallen soldiers with the Knights’ publication, Columbia Magazine.
Battlefield crosses are arrangements composed of a pair of combat boots, an infantry rifle, and a helmet that have been erected on battlefields since World War I to mark military graves and honor those killed in combat.
During Marquez’s deployment to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, 17 of his fellow Marines were killed in action, one being a close friend, Lance Cpl. Robert Greniger. The deaths of the 17 men would later provide the spark for his carving ministry.
According to Columbia Magazine, Marquez suffered from PTSD and survivor’s guilt after his honorable discharge from the Marines, and twice almost committed suicide. Greniger’s mother attempted to take her own life in 2016, which additionally fueled Marquez’s desire to productively channel his grief and honor Greniger, fallen military members, and their families.
“He decided he could change his own life by serving the Gold Star families whose sons had lost theirs,” Columbia Magazine reported.
In 2016, Marquez launched his carving ministry—called the XVII Carvings Project—and personally delivered his hand-carved battlefield crosses to each of the 17 families who lost a family member while he was deployed.
Since then, Marquez has carved and delivered more than 80 battlefield crosses, and plans to continue until he reaches 100. Even then, he said, he’ll still carve them if families want them.
While his ministry is meaningful to him, it’s also difficult because of what the battlefield crosses stand for.
“I hate doing them,” Marquez said. “There’s a reason they’re being done, and the reason is somebody was killed.”
He added: “I’m compelled to do it—I want the families to know their sons are not forgotten.”
Families who have received battlefield crosses said that the gesture means a lot to them, according to Columbia Magazine.
“It was overwhelming knowing somebody cared as much as we did,” said Shawn Marceau, the adoptive father of Lance Cpl. Joe Jackson—another fallen Marine that Marquez knew personally. “I knew he could feel the pain that I was feeling. … It brought us some peace in that abyss of blackness, knowing there’s an angel out there for us, even if he’s got one wing in the fire.”
The family of another Marine—Sgt. Adan Gonzales Jr.—killed during Marquez’s deployment, also appreciated the battlefield cross.
“We appreciated that Anthony, who never knew our son personally, would go so far out of his way to honor him,” said Gonzales’s father, Adan Sr., according to Columbia Magazine. “It gives us solace that Adan’s sacrifice is never forgotten.”
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