Page 8 - Aerotech News and Review, June 16 2017

Marines & Love Eternal – the Joey Lopez-Pratti 5K
by Dennis Anderson
Special to Aerotech News and Review
Joseph was born Joseph Lopez, but people who loved him knew him as Joey.
Since early childhood, Joey recognized his “step” family, as his authentic family, and that is how he came to be known as Joey Lopez-Pratti. Arthur Pratti Jr. became his real brother, and Art Pratti Sr. became his dad, a real dad.
Tracy Pratti was always his mom, and remains his mom today.
The young man had an unnervingly bright smile. Pure joy, with just the least hint of boy- ish mischief. In the Marines, the dreaded “boot photo,” usually in dress blues, requires a grim expression. All of Joey’s other photos displayed that winning grin.
His last message, through Art Pratti, the guy he knew as dad, was to his mom, via text.
It went like this: “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. I love you dad.”
Then, Lance Cpl. Joey Lopez-Pratti, aged 26, was gone.
Joey was one of 25 Marines from the 3rd Bat- talion, 5th Marines — known as the “Darkhorse Regiment” — who were killed in a deployment to Afghanistan in 2010-2011.
That deployment was just about the highest- casualty tour of combat duty for Marines of the Afghan war that has now been running for nearly 16 years. It got so bloody that Marine veteran au- thor, correspondent and combat commander Bing West wrote a heartbreaking book about it called “A Million Steps.”
At 26, Joey was a few years the elder of many of the Marines who deployed with 3/5, and was considered a little more mature, and a steady hand with a heavy weapon, the M-240 Squad Automatic Weapon. He was a “SAW gunner,” an essential in an infantry unit.
Joey volunteered for the infantry, as his brother noted, because he was a kind “blue collar guy” who liked to get things done. The Marines was the place where he found his niche.
On June 3, the Joey Lopez-Pratti 5K event re- emerged, like Brigadoon, in the hill country above the Mojave Desert suburban town of Rosamond.
infested region of the mountainous nation that once hosted Osama Bin Laden during the plan- ning phases of the Sept. 11 attacks on America and the world.
Pastor Charlie Wallis was Joey’s youth minis- ter, and was instrumental in starting the Memo- rial 5K that bear’s Joey’s name. He also is an Army veteran a cheerleader at the beginning of the race, urging everyone to shout out a throaty “Get Some!” and is at the finish line encouraging runners - or walkers - as they run for their times.
Whether you come in at a huffing, panting com- petitive run — or a leisurely stride — Wallis is there, “Good job! Finish strong! Good effort!”
“He has been such a blessing to our family,” Ar-
thur Pratti said of Pastor Wallis. “We would never be able to do this without him. Jin Hur and Pastor Charlie are amazing people who do so much.”
Strong finish, flowing from a strong start, with many of the runners repeating the experience as an annual ritual.
At the end of the race, volunteers from Antelope Valley’s Crazy Otto’s grilled breakfast burritos to raise funds. In recent years, the fundraising has gone to Youth For Christ, which was Joey’s youth group. Also, to raise funds for a project called the Darkhorse Lodge, a non-profit formed by family of Lance Cpl. Alec E. Catherwood, who like Joey, was killed in the lethal ambush of Oct. 14, 2010.
See 5K, Page 9
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Aerotech News and Review
June 16, 2017
Courtesy photograph
The event is dedicated to the memory of Joey and his friends from “Darkhorse.” It was the 6th annual running of what has become an annual event in Rosamond, the Joey Lopez-Pratti Me- morial 5K, run in the foothills above the desert bedroom community near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
“We are still doing it, and it gets better, and we keep making it better every year,” said Joey’s dad, Art Pratti Sr., who raised Joey from childhood, and well into his 50s, makes the run with the de- termined effort of a man in his 50s.
A Marine honor guard from Edwards Air Force Base presented the colors, before a gathering of hundreds of runners in shorts, and spandex. Many wore the memorial t-shirts of the event, and branch of service ball caps were dotted in the crowd.
Joey’s brother and father shared the motto of the 5th Marine Regiment, a storied unit that earned its colors, and global renown, from Belleau Wood in World War I France, through Vietnam, up to the present moment.
The unit’s motto is “Get Some!” Brother Ma- rines, veterans and Marines from Joey’s unit at Camp Pendleton show up annually for the run.
Some were teenagers when they deployed, and some now are entering their early 30s, having walked millions of steps since that fatal deploy- ment, which was an effort to pacify a Taliban-
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Photographs by Dennis Anderson