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Fallen service members remembered on 20th anniversary of Beirut blast
'Their loss is not in vain'
By Sean Loughlin
CNN Washington Bureau
Thursday, October 23, 2003 Posted: 4:44 PM EDT (2044 GMT)
ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Under cloudy and chilly skies, diplomats, Marines and some family members who lost loved ones to terrorism gathered at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday to remember service members killed in the October 23, 1983, blast at the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
The somber ceremony, coming on the 20th anniversary of that horrific truck bombing, took place in an area of the cemetery where 21 of the 241 U.S. service members killed by the blast are buried. A memorial stone marks the spot, along with a tree, a Lebanese cedar.
"Their loss is not in vain," said Marine Lt. Gen. Jan C. Huly. "And we will not break faith with them in the tasks we have ahead."
The bombing of the Marine barracks was, as one speaker describe it, a "watershed" moment for this country, bringing home the horrors of terrorism. The blast was preceded six months earlier by a deadly bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
The U.S. military eventually withdrew from Lebanon, where it and France had gone to help bring peace to a country torn by civil war. A separate blast on the French compound in Beirut on October 23, 1983, killed 58 French service members.
Relations between the United States and France have been strained by differences the two countries had over the war in Iraq. But the defense attache to the French Embassy in the United States, in his comments Wednesday, made a point of stressing the two countries' "enduring relation and common objective."
"In this dangerous world, America and France must stand together," said Gen. Pascal Vinchon.
Several speakers drew parallels to the between the 1983 blast and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"We did not know they would be the first casualties -- among the first -- in the war on terrorism," Huly said of the service members killed in 1983.
No one has ever been held accountable for the 1983 blasts.
David Satterfield, the deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the U.S. State Department, said efforts to find the culprits "will not cease."
The tribute, an annual event, was organized by the White House Commission on Remembrance. The tribute was the brainchild of No Greater Love, an organization dedicated to remembering service members who have died in war or acts of terrorism.
http://www.beirutveterans.com/
'Their loss is not in vain'
By Sean Loughlin
CNN Washington Bureau
Thursday, October 23, 2003 Posted: 4:44 PM EDT (2044 GMT)
ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Under cloudy and chilly skies, diplomats, Marines and some family members who lost loved ones to terrorism gathered at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday to remember service members killed in the October 23, 1983, blast at the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
The somber ceremony, coming on the 20th anniversary of that horrific truck bombing, took place in an area of the cemetery where 21 of the 241 U.S. service members killed by the blast are buried. A memorial stone marks the spot, along with a tree, a Lebanese cedar.
"Their loss is not in vain," said Marine Lt. Gen. Jan C. Huly. "And we will not break faith with them in the tasks we have ahead."
The bombing of the Marine barracks was, as one speaker describe it, a "watershed" moment for this country, bringing home the horrors of terrorism. The blast was preceded six months earlier by a deadly bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
The U.S. military eventually withdrew from Lebanon, where it and France had gone to help bring peace to a country torn by civil war. A separate blast on the French compound in Beirut on October 23, 1983, killed 58 French service members.
Relations between the United States and France have been strained by differences the two countries had over the war in Iraq. But the defense attache to the French Embassy in the United States, in his comments Wednesday, made a point of stressing the two countries' "enduring relation and common objective."
"In this dangerous world, America and France must stand together," said Gen. Pascal Vinchon.
Several speakers drew parallels to the between the 1983 blast and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"We did not know they would be the first casualties -- among the first -- in the war on terrorism," Huly said of the service members killed in 1983.
No one has ever been held accountable for the 1983 blasts.
David Satterfield, the deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the U.S. State Department, said efforts to find the culprits "will not cease."
The tribute, an annual event, was organized by the White House Commission on Remembrance. The tribute was the brainchild of No Greater Love, an organization dedicated to remembering service members who have died in war or acts of terrorism.
http://www.beirutveterans.com/
