Beirut Memorial The Beirut Memorial is a memorial to the 241 American Marines , Soldiers , and Sailors killed in the October 23 , 1983 Beirut barracks bombing in Beirut , Lebanon . It is located outside the gate of Camp Gilbert H . Johnson , a satellite camp of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune , in Jacksonville , North Carolina . It is the site of an annual commemoration of the victims of the suicide attack that took their lives . Beirut barracks bombing . The official webpage for Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune describes the background for the attack memorialized by this monument as follows : " In the summer of 1982 , at the request of the Lebanese government , the United States agreed to establish a U . S . Military presence in that country to serve as a peacekeeping force in the conflict between warring Muslim and Christian factions . On March 24 , 1983 , the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit , stationed at Camp Lejeune , North Carolina , received orders to Beirut , Lebanon in support of that commitment . Initially , the U . S . Forces , along with French and Italian Forces , provided a measure of stability ; however , as diplomatic efforts failed to achieve a basis for a lasting settlement , the Muslim factions came to perceive the Marines as enemies . This led to artillery , mortar , and small arms fires being directed at the Marine Corps positions — with appropriate , measured response being taken against identified targets . 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 . Later investigations would assign the blame for the attack on Hezbollah , with Imad Mughniyeh , who later died himself in a car bomb in Syria , as the " mastermind " behind the attack . In a court case involving survivors and family members of the victims of the bombing , a May 30 , 2003 , ruling by U . S . District Court Judge Royce C . Lamberth " found in favor of the survivors and the family members , ruling Iran responsible for the attack . The court finds that beyond question Hezbollah and its agents received massive material and technical support from the Iranian Government . ” Major Robert T . Jordan , USMC ( Ret ) , one of the Marine officers present during the attack , has written that " The men who served with 24th MAU during the final , grim months of 1983 , have taken their place alongside earlier Marines who endured at Samar , Wake Island , Chosin Reservoir , and Khe Sanh . The " Beirut Bombing , " as the terrorist attack on 23 October 1983 has become known , is now a part of Marine Corps historical lore . But the event will serve to remind future generations of military planners and political policymakers to consider even the unthinkable when they conceive future commitments . " Memorial history . Prior to the October 1983 attack , the City of Jacksonville Beautification and Appearance Commission had established a program to plant trees in the city as a " living memorial " to its citizens . Immediately after the Beirut barracks bombing , the Commission met to consider ways to memorialize the military personnel who died in the attack , ultimately requesting permission to plant additional trees on Lejeune Boulevard , the street linking the city to the Marine Corps Base . News spread about this plan , attracting donations on a national level , a response considered by the Commission as the " birth of the Beirut Memorial . " Later , as contributions continued to be made , Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune " offered the Commission 4 . 5 acres of highly visible and publicly accessible land at the corner of Lejeune Boulevard and Montford Landing Road , " enabling the Commission to begin work on a memorial , in addition to the trees . Memorial design . Once Camp Lejeune had offered land for the erection of a memorial , the Commission launched a competition to create a design , inviting graduate students at the North Carolina State University ' s School of Design to offer ideas , and the Memorial was officially dedicated on October 23 , 1986 . The design selected includes a representation of two broken walls — reminiscent of the " crumbled walls " of the building demolished by the truck bomb attack — with a pedestal between them to support a statue . The bronze statue included in the memorial was later created by Abbé Godwin , the same artist who had created North Carolina ' s Vietnam Memorial in Raleigh , North Carolina , and was dedicated on October 22 , 1988 . A full - size replica was created for the National Fleet Reserve Associated Headquarters , in Alexandria , Virginia , and miniature replicas were created for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation , to help fund scholarships for military dependents . Beirut families later requested that the poem " The Other Wall , " written by Robert A . Gannon , be added to the memorial , and a special dedication ceremony was held in 1991 to recognize the poem ' s addition , with its words cast in bronze as a permanent part of the Memorial . The Memorial bears the inscription " THEY CAME IN PEACE , " along with 273 names : the names of those who died in the attack , the names of those who later died as a result of the injuries they sustained in the explosion , as well as the names of three Marine Corps pilots from the Jacksonville , North Carolina , area who were killed in the 1983 rescue operation in the island of Grenada . The words , " They came in peace , " were chosen because they were used by the survivors of the attack on a makeshift memorial erected after the rescue efforts in Beirut : a memorial that consisted of a stretcher , a wreath , and a sign with the words , " 24 MAU : They Came in Peace . " Memorial ceremonies . Annual ceremonies are held at the Beirut Memorial on or near the date of the attack . At the 25th anniversary ceremony , on October 23 , 2011 , a plaque in honor of the Gold Star Mothers , mothers who have lost a child serving in the military , was dedicated as an addition to the memorial . Additional ceremonies are sometimes held to remember the victims of the Beirut barracks bombing at other memorials , such as the wreath laying ceremony held at the Marine Corps Memorial in Florida ' s Veterans Memorial Park on the 20th anniversary of the attack , and the annual Beirut Remembrance Day ceremony that has been held since 2008 at the Vietnam Memorial in Phoenix , Arizona . Other memorials . There is a Beirut Memorial Room in the USO in Jacksonville , North Carolina , that includes a wall with the names of all those who died in the attack , along with the words " They Came in Peace . " The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Center , the site of Chaplain Corps training for the U . S . Army , Navy , and Air Force at Fort Jackson , in Columbia , South Carolina , includes the partially destroyed sign from the Beirut barracks chapel as a memorial to those who died in the attack . According to Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff , one of the Navy chaplains present during the attack , " Amidst the rubble , we found the plywood board which we had made for our " Peace - keeping Chapel . " The Chaplain Corps Seal had been hand - painted , with the words " Peace - keeping " above it , and " Chapel " beneath . Now " Peace - keeping " was legible , but the bottom of the plaque was destroyed , with only a few burned and splintered pieces of wood remaining . The idea of peace - above ; the reality of war - below . " Other memorials to the victims of the Beirut barracks bombing have been erected in the United States , including those at Penn ' s Landing in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , and Florida . Additionally , a Lebanese cedar has been planted in Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of some of the victims of the attack , in their memory . A plaque in the ground in front of the tree , dedicated in a ceremony on the first anniversary of the attack , reads : " Let peace take root : This cedar of Lebanon tree grows in living memory of the Americans killed in the Beirut terrorist attack and all victims of terrorism around the world . " One memorial to the attack is located outside the U . S . , where Gilla Gerzon , the director of the Haifa , Israel USO coordinated the creation of a memorial park that included 241 olive trees , one for each of the U . S . military personnel who died in the attack . The trees lead to an overpass on Mount Carmel looking toward Beirut . Memorial postage stamp . There is an ongoing effort to convince the United States Postal Service and Citizens ' Stamp Advisory Committee to create a stamp in memory of the victims of the attack , but the recommendation has not yet been approved . In the meantime , Beirut veterans have created a " PC Postage " commercially produced Beirut Memorial statue private vendor stamp that is approved for use as postage by the U . S . Postal Service . In addition to their creation in memory of the attack and its victims , the sale of these stamps is also being used as a fundraiser for the Gold Star Mothers Memorial Foundation .