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Jacksonville
memorial honors peace keepers
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BY PFC Matthew S. Bates Camp Lejeune Correspondent 
In
the summer of 1982, at the request of the Lebanese government, the United
States agreed to establish a military presence in Lebanon to serve as
a peacekeeping force in the conflict between warring Moslem and Christian
factions.
On March 24,1983, the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit from Camp Lejeune received
orders to Beirut, Lebanon, in support of that commitment.
Though the U.S., along with French and Italian forces, held only to their
mission as peacekeepers, diplomatic efforts with the Moslem factions did
not achieve the desired settlement, and in time they came to perceive
the Marines as enemies to their cause.
In the early morning of Oct. 23, 1983, an explosive laden truck, driven
by a non-Lebanese terrorist, crashed into the Battalion Landing Team 1/8
headquarters and killed 241 Marines, Sailors and Soldiers in the ensuing
explosion and collapse of the building.
As the dust settled around the debris of 'what had only hours before been
a temporary barracks, the Camp Lejeune and Jacksonville communities were
shocked and griefstricken. From this loss a memorial has risen.
The City of
Jacksonville Beautification and Appearance Commission had designed a program
prior to the bombing where trees would be planted along Lejeune Boulevard
as a memorial to deceased friends and loved ones. Once news of the bombing
reached the community, the commission met and asked to plant the trees
- one for each servicemember killed - in honor of those Marines and Sailors
taken that tragic afternoon.
This immediate
response set off a surge of support from the community, locally and nationally,
and became the first step in what |
would
eventually become the Beirut Memorial.Other
programs soon started appearing out of the catastrophe, as a group of
students from the Northwoods Park Middle School, taught by Martha Warren,
instituted a project where they wrote each of the victims' families and
helped to raise money for the memorial trees. One ninth-grader even auctioned
her Cabbage Patch doll for $1,500 and donated the money to the memorial
program.
Due to the dynamic response from the community, the last tree was planted
less than a year after the bombing.
Even after the dedication, contributions continued to pour in, and the
commission began thinking of ways that a small plaque could be erected
to denote the history and significance of the trees. Camp Lejeune donated
a 4.5 acre stretch of land at the corner of Lejeune Boulelvard. and Montford
Landing Road and the vision soon expanded. As a result, the final model
was selected from a competition among graduate students at the School
of Design at North Carolina State University.
As they still needed money, the community once again banded together in
a show of determination until area organizations and businesses had raised
enough money to begin construction of the monument in May, 1986. The contract
was awarded to the Onslow Construction and Utility Company under the supervision
of Woody Myers and Ron Ellen.
The bricks used were originally from North Carolina and the granite from
Georgia. The electrical work was performed by John Baysden of Big John's
Electric Company with the flag poles contributed by Ray Brown of McDonald's
and the engraving done by Joyner Memorials of Wilson, NC.
The Memorial was dedicated on Oct. 23, 1986 in front of 2,000 people.
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It
was not yet complete, though, for between the two crumbled walls that
reflected those of the bombed-out embassy building, laid a pedestal upon
which a statue was to be placed.
With the funds remaining, the commission set out to find a sculptor who
would be able to perform the task. After nearly a year of studying various
artists and their work, the Commission decided that Abbe Godwin, creatorof
the Vietnam memorial in Raleigh, would be the one to cast the statue.
Godwin surveyed the memorial for hours and upon meeting with the commission
agreed to sculpt a statue.
Almost 12 months later, Godwin completed the bronze statue and it was
placed on the memorial Oct.22,1988.
The Memorial remained untouched until 1991, when the families of those
whose names adorned the wall asked if the poem, The Other Wall,
written by Robert A. Gannon, could be added to it. The poem was then cast
in bronze and dedicated at the 1991 annual observance ceremony.
The memorial now holds the phrase "THEY CAME IN PEACE" along with the
names of 273 servicemembers - those who died in the blast, those who died
from injuries received in the blast and the three Marine pilots who were
killed while in Grenada.
It has become more than just a monument from a community to its fallen
heroes, it is a monument to the unity displayed by a civilian community
to its military neighbor. Never before has such a bond been displayed
between these two as that brought about by the commissioning of this memorial.
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Keeping their memory alive
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