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 Marines, community will never forget |
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BY PFC Matthew S. Bates Camp Lejeune Correspondent 
America
remembers Oct. 23, 1983, as the day it lost more than 200 good men. For
anyone who wears the eagle, globe and anchor and claims the title Marine,
it is especially important as the day they lost more than 200 brothers.
It
was a bomb that took them while they slept, the opportunity to fight back
or even stare death in the face denied them.
They
did not make war. They were simply victims of it, in the honorable attempt
to keep the peace. They had been called upon by their country to go to
the shores of a distant land and maintain peace and keep order. Without
a second thought or a questioning look, they went, some leaving behind
wives, some children. These men were more than Marines there were coaches
and fathers, husbands and neighbors - but when the call to duty rose,
they rose with it.
In
a society where all to often drive and initiative are lacking, these men
knew who they were, what they were doing, and in both instances performed
a service to their country.
As
Dr. Kenneth Morrison wrote in the aftermath of the blast while he waited
to hear if his son was among the dead, "In a world where we speak of human
rights, there is a sad lack of acceptance of responsibility. My son has
chosen the acceptance of responsibility for the privilege of living in
this country. Certainly in this country, one does not inherently have
rights unless the responsibility for those rights is accepted." |
These
men, along with all others who have ever donned the uniform of a United
States armed service, understood that degree of responsibility. They did
not have to be there, any one of them could have instead been a doctor,
a lawyer or even an anti-militarian who spent the majority of his hours
picketing the local military installation. Yet, they had decided to be
among those who defend their country and its ideals against the oppressions
of dictators and terrorists who have the potential to thrive and threaten
America's shores.
Each
one of their number who crossed the shores of Lebanon became an ambassador
of America, a job most assumed unknowingly. There was not a famous member
among them - no Noble Prize winners, no movie stars - but with every drop
of sweat and wince of pain they made more secure the freedoms that those
stars and geniuses enjoyed.
Freedom
is not something that is worked for once and won forever. In order to
keep it, it must be worked for and sacrificed for just as long as it is
wanted. These men understood that as well, and made it possible for their
children to enjoy the pleasure of working for it, that it too may be theirs
to keep. |
Yes,
they died, but it was not in vain. For just as our forefathers of old
purchased this land and its freedoms
with their own blood, so too these men retained
it for this nation with
theirs. The gift these men gave was of the ultimate quality and of such
a value that it cannot be given again.
Then
President Ronald Reagan said in a speech a few days after the bombing,
"They were not afraid to stand up for their country or, no matter how
difficult and slow the journey might be, to give to others that last,
best hope of a better future. We cannot and will not dishonor them now
and the sacrifices they've made by failing to remain as faithful to the
cause of freedom and the pursuit of peace as they have been."
It
is in the words of Tom Vormwald, a Marine who survived the bombing, that
best describes who these men were, and always will be.
"I
was that which others did not want to be, I went where others feared to
go and did what others failed to do, I asked nothing from those that gave
nothing and reluctantly accepted the thought of eternal loneliness should
I fail, I have cried, pained, and hoped, but most of all I have lived
times others would say are best forgotten. At least one day I can be proud
of what I was and will always be ..... a United States Marine." |
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Keeping their memory alive
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