ROSAMOND, Calif. — A sign on State Route 14 driving north or south from the Edwards base road dedicates a stretch of the highway to Joey Lopez-Pratti and the “Darkhorse Marines” of the Third Battalion, 5th Regiment, a hard fighting, hard luck unit that took the most casualties of a single deployment in Afghanistan.

For the 15th year running, about 200 runners, many of them veterans and some of them active service, gathered about 15 miles west of the Edwards Air Force Base West Gate to run in honor of an Antelope Valley Marine who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010 with the hardest his unit in that long running war.

If he had lived, Joey Lopez-Pratti would be nearly 40. Joey Lopez-Pratti served with the “Darkhorse Marines.” Their deployment in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan was brutal. It was recounted in Marine veteran historian Bing West’s book, “The Million Steps March.”

The “Darkhorse Marines” lost 25, killed in ferocious counter-insurgency combat, and 300 more were wounded, mostly by improvised explosive devices.

Arthur “Art” Pratti recounted the tragedy of his brother’s unit.

“Fifteen years ago, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment was deployed to Sangin District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.”

He recited the numbers of dead and wounded, adding, “No other unit in Afghanistan suffered more loss than the 3/5. That doesn’t include the Marines we have lost since returning home.”

Among those attending this year’s race was Gretchen Catherwood, mother of Marine Alec Catherwood, among those killed with Joey.  Alec Catherwood was 19 years old.

With her husband, Kirk, Gretchen Catherwood founded the Darkhorse Lodge in Springville, Tenn., to provide a refuge for warriors returned from the war.

The Lodge, Art Pratti said, is “a place to rest. A place to heal, a place veterans can feel they are seen.”

The run is organized to raise funds for the Darkhorse Lodge. For information see www.darkhorselodge.org.

Americans, with the long war in Afghanistan receding into the past, may not understand why the United States carried the fight to the landlocked, mountainous country that Osama bin Laden used as a base to launch the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But Gretchen Catherwood, Alec’s mother, joined by Tracy Pierce-Pratti, Joey’s mother, wants the young warriors who came home to understand how they see it. Their sons did not “die for nothing.” They fell trying to save their brother Marines.

Joey was a son of the Pratti family, and a son of Rosamond. He was 24 years old when he was killed in a devastating ambush set by the Taliban in the Afghanistan province of Helmand.

So May 31, less than a week after Memorial Day, was the 15th annual “Run for Joey,” the 5K run organized to honor the young Marines memory, and to raise funds for Marines who survived but brought memories of the war and their fallen brothers home with them.

Jin Hur, father of Lopez-Pratti’s surviving Marine brother Richard Hur, was out at Rosamond High school with his Coffee4Vets volunteer team, serving breakfast burritos well known to the Crazy Otto’s Restaurant fan base. The Hurs are part of the Darkhorse family, but the run has many other prominent sponsors.

Joey was one of the first killed in “The Million Steps March.” The Marines, most of them new to combat, arrived in an area thick with seasoned Taliban fighters who had been battling for years. Joey and Richard Hur were among those trapped in the devastating ambush.

There is no use trying to describe it, except that Marines attempting to shift out of a crossfire found themselves moving into a refuge laced with boobytraps.

But even in his last hours, Joey knew who he was, and he knew where he was going, deathtrap ambush notwithstanding.

Before the 200 runners departed into the hillside trails that Joey used to run on when he was getting ready to join the Marine Corps, his nephew read aloud Joey’s last text to the man he knew as his father, Arthur Pratti Sr.

Standing tall in his Air Force Jr. ROTC uniform, Jax Pratti read his uncle’s last words in this life sent via text from the Marine base at Camp Leatherneck.

“Hey dad I’m flying out of Leatherneck tonight to my area of operation so this is the last time I’ll be texting you. I have been reading the Bible every day and talking to God every day and it’s been helping me a lot so far.

“If for some reason something happens to me and I don’t come home make sure Mom understands I have a relationship with God now and I’m ok.”

The Air Force Jr. ROTC cadets presented the colors with a precision that would have done the Marine Corps proud. The family’s spiritual advisor, Pastor Charles Wallis, was there, along with the California Cadet Corps — an array of groups trying to point young people to the right path.

Among those mourned and missed was Joey’s father in life. Arthur Pratti, who was 62, died soon after the 5K run in 2023. He was one of the founding organizers of the event.

Arthur Pratti Jr., Joey’s brother, thanked the runners for showing up over so many years. Funds from the run are donated to the “Darkhorse Lodge,” a retreat for troops who need rest and refuge from the traumas that combat often inflicts.

“I want to thank the people who make this event possible,” Joey’s brother, Art, said. “We wouldn’t be able to offer shirts, medals, or keep this race so affordable.”

He added, “Pastor Charlie (Wallis), you are the heart of this event. We love you, and we thank you deeply.

His father, Arthur Pratti Sr., who was the only father Marine son Joey ever knew was “the soul of the event.”

With that, the runners began their race into the sagebrush hills where Joey trained to be a Marine.

Editor’s note: Dennis Anderson is a licensed clinical social worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army veteran, he works on veteran’s issues and community health projects and has served on the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission.