It's Veterans Day -- a day to honor the men and women serving in our armed forces. It's also a day to pay respects to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
The San Diego Veterans for Peace organized a visual demonstration at the Embarcadero remembering the fallen on Wednesday.
The group set up more than 900 crosses in the grass in front of USS Midway. Each cross symbolizes an American service member killed in Afghanistan. They call the memorial "Arlington West" -- a small-scale version recalling Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Organizers hope the public stops to reflect on the number of lives lost.
"This is an opportunity just to honor the people who pay the ultimate sacrifice. Not just the people who have died, but all their families. All their loved ones," said U.S. Navy Veteran Bear Barfield.
One of those fallen soldiers is Staff Sergeant David Metzger, raised in Imperial Beach.
Metzger's grieving family says he served four tours in Afghanistan. He was killed in October.
In Carlsbad, family and friends remember 30-year-old Marine Captain Joshua Meadows. Meadows is yet another American hero killed while serving in Afghanistan in September. It happened just a few weeks before he was coming home for the birth of his first child. A neighbor described him as kind loving strong courageous.
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Marine Captain Kyle Van De Giesen was based at Camp Pendleton. He was one of 14 Americans killed in two separate helicopter crashes in Afghanistan last month.
Also Wednesday, the Pentagon says 26-year-old Sergeant Charles Cartwright, based out of Camp Pendleton, died in combat Saturday in the Farah province in western Afghanistan. He was a member of the Marines special operations command.
