The Beirut Memorial

Jacksonville, North Carolina



In the early morning of October 23, 1983, the First Battalion, 8th Marines Headquarters building was destroyed by a non-Lebanese, terrorist-driven truck, laden with compressed gas-enhanced explosives. This truck, like many others, had become a familiar sight at the airport and so did not raise any alarm on this morning. The resulting explosion and the collapse of the building killed 241 Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers. I put this on my site to remember the hundreds of servicemen who have died on duty during peacetime. I’m a veteran and I know what it takes to serve in war and in peace time. I have seen both, It takes the same stuff. The soldiers [of the USS Cole, Beirut barracks and Mt. Fuji] may not have died in glory on the battlefield, but they died in service nonetheless.They should be remembered. There is equal honor and always the chance of injury or death whether serving in peacetime or during a war!!


The Other Wall



      It does not stand in Washington
      By others of its kind
      In prominence and dignity
      With mission clear defined.
      It does not list the men who died
      That tyranny should cease
      But speaks in silent eloquence
      Of those who came in peace.
      This Other Wall is solemn white
      And cut in simple lines
      And it nestles in the splendor
      Of the Carolina pines.
      And on this wall there are the names
      Of men who once had gone
      In friendship's name to offer aid
      To Beirut, Lebanon.
      They did not go as conquerors
      To bring a nation down
      Or for honor or for glory

      Or for praises or renown
      When they landed on that foreign shore
      Their only thought in mind
      Was the safety of its people
      And the good of all mankind.
      Though they offered only friendship
      And freedom's holy breath
      They were met with scorn and mockery
      And violence and death.
      So the story of their glory
      Is not of battles fought
      But of their love for freedom
      Which was so dearly bought.
      And their Wall shall stand forever
      So long as freedom shines
      On the splendor and the glory
      Of the Carolina pines.
      R.A. Gannon