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thedrifter
10-16-06, 04:03 PM
October 16, 2006
Observance to be held at Beirut Memorial on Oct. 23

By Trista Talton
Staff writer

The annual Beirut Memorial observance ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 23 at the memorial in Jacksonville, N.C.

The ceremony honors those who served in Lebanon from 1958 to 1984.

This year marks the 23rd anniversary of the barracks bombing in Beirut, which killed 241 Marines, soldiers and sailors, and the 20th anniversary of the memorial’s completion.

Gen. P.X. Kelley, 28th commandant of the Marine Corps, will deliver the memorial address. Active-duty Marines who attend the service should wear their service alphas.

Ellie

thedrifter
10-18-06, 08:42 AM
Mark and I will be there

Ellie

LivinSoFree
10-18-06, 09:46 AM
I may also be there with some individuals from 1/8.

thedrifter
10-19-06, 11:17 AM
Jacksonville's living tribute to Beirut service members
By Staff Sgt. A.C. Mink
Public Affairs Chief
MCAS New River

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, 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 a touching monument nestled in the curve as you enter Camp Johnson, to the men who lost their lives Oct. 23, 1983.

"Who sows a field, or trains a flower, Or plants a tree, is more than all."

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 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."

A local boy, "J," who has asked not to be identified out of respect for his privacy, was a corporal on guard that night. He says he is still haunted by the vision of the rescue-turned-recovery efforts, and the feeling of helplessness and anger at what he considers a tragic and useless loss.

"Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven"

"Across the United States, people were in shock, but the quiet, little town of Jacksonville, N.C., 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 Web site, 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 aid, the tree project was dedicated March 24, 1984.

Knoll said 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.

"A single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart"

Some, who appreciate the thought behind the event, find it difficult to face the memories.

"I brought those boys home to their families - the boys I grew up with. It's the hardest thing I've ever done," said J, who places flags along the highway by the trees, in memory of his lost brothers. He is concerned that some of the trees may no longer stand, due to construction. "I don't need a monument, but they remind people, and it's important that they remain … because they were the original monument."

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.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Beirut Memorial's completion, in what is now Camp Lejeune Memorial Gardens.

The 23rd Beirut Remembrance will be observed at the Beirut Memorial, Monday at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony is open to the public and will honor fallen service members and survivors who served in Lebanon from 1958 to 1984 and in Grenada. There will also be a Candlelight Service at 6 a.m. at the memorial site.

General P. X. Kelley, 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps, is scheduled to deliver the Beirut memorial address. Parking for the event will be at the Veterans Cemetery.

The Marine Corps League will hold a ceremony at the special Beirut Marker at Camp Geiger at 2 p.m.

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

Visit the Beirut Documentary at www.beirut-documentary.org .

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

thedrifter
10-21-06, 08:22 AM
Posted on Sat, Oct. 21, 2006

'83 Beirut tragedy left lasting impression

CARL MARIO NUDI
Herald Staff Writer

MANATEE - Many of those in the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon - at about 1 p.m. April 18, 1983 - were just sitting down to lunch when a bomb blast ripped through the building.

When the smoke cleared, 63 people were dead, 17 of them Americans.

That act of terrorism during the civil war between Christian and Muslim factions foretold a more devastating incident six months later.

On Oct. 23, 1983, at around 6:22 in the morning, as most of occupants of the Marine barracks in Beirut slept, a lone terrorist drove a yellow truck past the guard post into the lobby of the building and detonated a bomb, according to official documents.

The Department of Defense Commission report said the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building in the Marine Amphibious Unit compound at Beirut International Airport was destroyed, killing 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers. More than 100 others were wounded.

To commemorate and honor those who died, a memorial ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Sutton Park in Palmetto.

Jeffrey Lewis remembers that day 23 years ago.

He was a young Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who had just returned from a tour of duty in Beirut, when he heard about the bombing of the barracks.

"It was devastating to know that a place I had been to in this faraway land no longer existed," said Lewis, a major in the Bradenton Police Department.

Having been to the barracks on many occasions during his time in Beirut, Lewis said he knew the place could hold a lot of people.

"That was to be a safe place for them," he said. "I still get that sickening feeling when I'm reminded about it. It's such a vivid memory."

Lewis said he remembers going to the barracks for breakfast during his tour in Beirut from January to July in 1983.

"If you wanted a hot meal, that's where you had to go," he said. "Otherwise you have to eat MREs."

MREs are meals ready to eat.

Lewis said he did not know any of the men who were killed, but that he had talked to many of the Marines that were there during his tour.

"It was the only real time to socialize with other Marines in other units and get information on the infantry level," Lewis said.

It is that camaraderie among Marines that Travis Hoopingarner, who completed his three years in the Corps this year, feels when he talks to veterans.

Hoopingarner, who is on the committee organizing the memorial service, served in Iraq in 2005.

"I was talking to guys that were there (the barracks bombing)," he said, "and I was in awe because of the situation they went through."

The 24-year-old said it was necessary to hold this service because "people need to know about those that have fallen."

"Growing up and in history classes in school, I never heard about the bombing," he said. "It wasn't until I was in the Marines that I learned about the 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers that died.

"It makes you open your eyes. Terrorist attacks have been going on for years and years."

He said no one will forget Pearl Harbor, D-Day or Sept. 11, but they should also remember Oct. 23, 1983.

"They should be recognized for their sacrifice," Hoopingarner said.

Ray Dielman of the Marine Corps League DeSoto Detachment 588 is helping to put the memorial program together.

"It's important to do these types of memorials," Dielman said. "Those guys need a service of remembrance."

He said the program will have comments from Palmetto Mayor Larry Bustle, a retired Air Force colonel, as well as the Pledge of Allegiance and singing of the National Anthem.

Color guards from several organizations will be there for the presentation of colors.

The Marine Moms of Manatee County will read the names of the Marines killed in the bombing, followed by the Florida Navy Moms reciting the sailors' names and the Manatee County Army Moms reading the names of the fallen soldiers.

"This is the real purpose of the memorial," Dielman said. "Honoring those men."

Ellie

thedrifter
10-22-06, 04:47 PM
Beirut Memorial turning 20
October 22,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF

A Sunday morning at 6:22 a.m., and Jacksonville suddenly had another reason to pray.

Mike Ellzey remembers going to church on Oct. 23, 1983, where he learned that Camp Lejeune Marines had been bombed in Lebanon, their barracks totally destroyed by an explosives-laden truck. No one knew the exact casualty figure, not yet, but they knew it would be much too high.

It was too high for Judy Young, whose son and 240 others died in the rubble in Beirut that day.

These were the people of Jacksonville, Ellzey and many others reasoned. They were our neighbors. Something has to be done.

On the other side of the world, far from the chaos and carnage but still too close, a military community decided to do a positive, seemingly insignificant thing in the face of so much senseless violence.

It began with the idea of a tree, which became hundreds of trees. Three years later, it became a wall.

Monday marks 20 years since the people of Jacksonville took death and built something living out of it: The Beirut Memorial, a solid wall of granite that unites rather than divides, brings peace to the grieving and always remembers.

‘Let me finish this’

The story of the Beirut Memorial began the same day as the bombing, when so many stories ended.

Martha Warren, a local teacher, read a story in the newspaper about Doris Downs and the Jacksonville Beautification Commission and a project for memorial trees. She began raising money from her students in hopes of collecting enough for at least one tree.

It spiraled out of control. Soon, Jacksonville City Hall was receiving hundreds of dollars worth of donations.

At the one-year anniversary of the bombing, Jacksonville dedicated 241 Bradford pear trees that were planted in the grassy median of N.C. 24.

Then the late Doris Downs, a member of the Jacksonville Beautification Commission, approached Camp Lejeune and asked a small favor

“She basically went to the base and asked them if we could have a corner and put a marker up to explain what the trees were about,” said Ellzey, who was Jacksonville’s public works director at the time.

Instead, the base gave the city 4.5 acres at the corner of Camp Johnson and N.C. 24.

“That kind of broadened our scope a bit,” Ellzey said.

A design contest siphoned out the vision that became the memorial as it is today: a 10-foot by 64-foot fractured wall surrounded by trees and a brick plaza. One half of the wall bears the names of the 271 who died in the bombing, afterwards from injuries and in fighting in Grenada. The other half carries the phrase “They came in peace,” a saying discovered on a makeshift wreath that was left outside the bombed compound.

The 6-foot-tall statue of a vigilant Marine was added two years later.

By January 1986, they had only collected $90,000. They would need about $175,000 to complete the wall.

“We went through a lot of fund-raising problems,” Ellzey said. “There was a lot of widespread support in Jacksonville, but nobody else seemed to care. It wasn’t truly a national thing at the time. We thought it was important.”

So Jacksonville created a task force in January 1986 with the mission of raising the remaining money by April 15 of that year.

“The guidelines were we had to have all the money before we could begin construction,” said Abe Rosen, a member of the task force who headed up the marketing efforts. “So we had a little competition about who could raise the most money.”

The task force held raffles and auctions and sold bricks for $1 that would be used in the making of the memorial. It worked. They raised $100,000.

Construction began immediately, as they wanted to have the memorial complete by the third anniversary of the bombing in October. Businesses did work at cost and put in overtime hours without any griping for extra pay.

“There was no talk about, ‘You gotta pay me,’” said Ron Bower, who was Camp Johnson’s liaison to the memorial committee and helped oversee the work site. “It was, ‘Let me finish this.’”

The work came down to the wire. Ellzey said that on the morning of the ceremony, when the wall was covered in a giant cargo parachute, he was behind it, finishing last minute touches.

Then the cover was pulled away, along with any ideas that the civilian and military communities were separate.

“It’s the one thing that really pulled our two communities together,” Ellzey said. “Prior to that time, we were really two communities. But the wall brought the two together.”

The location, in the blurry boundary between the civilian and military worlds, adds to that significance

“It’s almost like this is the cotter key for the area,” said Bower. “You pull it out and the whole thing falls apart.”

‘So much peace’

Jacksonville became Judy Young’s second home. It was the place her son, Sgt. Jeffrey Young, spent his days before deploying to Lebanon. It was the place that still kept his memory.

“Beirut is totally forgotten everywhere,” said Young, who spent most of her life in New Jersey and now lives in Washington D.C. “You can go to every ceremony and they can go through the whole list (of wars) and they never mention Beirut. It’s just a forgotten thing. That’s what’s special about this. Jacksonville didn’t forget.”

Every year she attends the memorial ceremony and listens quietly as they read off the names in the dawn hours under the shadow of the wall.

“I just love our wall,” she said. “I tell everybody about what we call ‘The Other Wall.’ I feel my place is to be in Jacksonville.”

The wall is not something that Young needs to remember her son. She does not need to read his name in the granite to invoke his memory. That happens every day.

But others still need reminding, Young says. The wall is for them.

This year, Young plans to spend some extra time in the area. She plans to spend time out on Topsail Island, where she can stroll along the sand and get a glimpse of the military base her son called home.

“That’s where I find so much peace,” she said. “I can see Onslow Beach.”

Contact staff writer Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 229.