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Phantom Blooper
10-25-07, 06:19 PM
They gave us their tomorrows, so we could have our today’s

By Staff Sgt. A.C. Mink
Take a trip down North Carolina’s Highway 24. It winds its way through sleepy towns, past industrial areas and pastures. Just past the sign that welcomes you to Jacksonville, along the section known locally as Lejeune Boulevard, bisecting the center median is a line of trees – 241 of them. A city’s living memorial, they serve as a path of sorts to the official Beirut Memorial, nestled in the curve as you enter Camp Johnson, to the men who lost their lives Oct. 23, 1983.

Headlines screamed to the world that as dawn broke in Beirut, Lebanon, a truck carrying explosives slammed through the guard posts and entered the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit compound, killing 241 and wounding more than 100 others.

According to a Department of Defense spokesman at the time, “The force of the explosion ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself.”
“I saw the mushroom cloud,” said now retired Brig. Gen. Christian B. Cowdrey, in a 2003 interview, who as a captain in 1983, was rifle company commander, Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.

Cowdrey and the Marines of Company C, who were guarding the perimeter, moved across the runway to where, moments before, there was a building.

“It was surreal. We attempted to make radio contact, but no one answered,” he said. “There was just rubble with a crater in the center; Everything in the periphery was blown back, trees were blown over. Some things simply vaporized.”

“Across the United States, people were in shock, but the quiet, little town of Jacksonville, where many of the Marines and sailors had left families waiting for them to come home, was devastated by the loss,” said retired Col. Stuart Knoll. According to the online Beirut Memorial, the city of Jacksonville Beautification and Appearance Commission met the afternoon of the terrorist attack and began plans to plant memorial trees on Lejeune Boulevard, the portion of 24 that serves as the “main traffic artery joining Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune.” Support for the project was immediate and crossed local and national boundaries and income and age demographics. With their aide, the tree project was dedicated March 24, 1984.

Knoll says that the trees stand as a graphic portrayal of the loss.

“When you say the number, it may not have much of an impact,” he said. “But when you pass a tree and know that each tree is a life … it’s beyond arresting.”

The completion of the tree project did not halt contributions pouring in to the Commission, so plans began for a marker to illuminate the meaning behind the trees.

Through passing months, funding sources began trickle away. However, as one ran dry, others would rush in to offer support.

“The community wanted to do something,” said Knoll of the project, which had a final cost of more than $270,000. “People gave. Organizations donated time, money, manpower and services.”

On the bombing’s third anniversary, Oct. 23, 1986, the memorial was dedicated. More than 2,000 people came from across the globe to honor their fallen fathers, brothers and sons.

Knoll who spent more than 14 collective years in the Jacksonville area, is thankful for the memorial, but finds it too painful to visit.

“I haven’t gone there. I have friends on that wall and can’t quite …,” said Knoll, pausing to collect his thoughts. “Vinnie Smith, he was killed there. He and I used to go dove hunting together.”

“It should be remembered like this - a group of young Marines, principally from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, gave their lives for a very noble cause - to secure peace in a land that had been in civil war for decades. … All of us knew that we were there to support peace. They were proud of what they were doing, recognized the risk and were willing to take the risk to secure peace,” said Cowdrey.

Jacksonville marked the 24th anniversary in a number of ways.

The 24th Beirut Remembrance was officially observed at the Beirut Memorial on Tuesday. The ceremony, which was open to the public, honored fallen service members and survivors who served in Lebanon from 1958 to 1984 and in Grenada.

Retired Gunnery Sgt. Richard Ray, Vice President, Beirut Veterans of America, delivered the Beirut memorial address.

The Marine Corps League held a ceremony at the special Beirut Marker at Camp Geiger.

And with much less fanfare, without ceremonial wreathes and official ceremonies full of uniforms, an anonymous group placed single flags next to each of those trees – 241 living monuments to the lives lost.

Visit the Beirut Memorial Online at www.beirut-memorial.org.

The Other Wall, by R.A. Gannon is available online at www.beirutstamp.com/otherwall.html (http://www.beirutstamp.com/otherwall.html).


http://camplejeuneglobe.com/articles/2007/10/25/news/top_stories/top01.txt