Family recalls Beirut blast, son lost

A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. Sunday in Struthers.
& lt;a href=mailto:viviano@vindy.com & gt;By JoANNE VIVIANO & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
Stanley Sliwinski never had the chance to give his mother the replica of Michelangelo's "Pieta" that he had chosen as her gift for Christmas 1983.
Instead, his fiance & eacute; presented the statue of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus. It's the last gift Mildred Sliwinski received from her son.
Cpl. Stanley Sliwinski had died two months earlier, one of the 241 causalties of the terrorist bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
It was 20 years ago today that the bombing was carried out by the driver of a yellow Mercedes Benz, destroying the barracks as most of the servicemen slept.
Sliwinski, of Niles, was 20.
"It never gets better. It's just a hole in our lives, that's all," said Michael Sliwinski of Girard, Stanley's younger brother. A third brother is John Jr. of Niles. "What I've learned in the last 20 years is how deep a sacrifice it is to lay down your life like that.
"A lot of times, I look at my brother and say, 'There should be one more of us here.'"
Cpl. Edward Johnston of Struthers was 22.
Johnston's wife, Mary Lynn, was waiting for his return from overseas with their daughter, Alicia. His child is now 22, with a baby of her own.
"It's like yesterday," said Edwin Johnston Jr. of Struthers, father of the slain Johnston. He and his wife, Mary Ann, drive by the Peace Keepers Memorial along the shore of Hamilton Lake in Struthers nearly every day.
"You don't realize until it happens to you. I'm as guilty as the next person. But when it happens, it changes your whole attitude on life."
At the memorial
Earlier this week, they visited the site with a photo of their son. Each wore a small button depicting an olive branch-carrying dove floating over an American flag; they read "Ohio Remembers Beirut, October 23, 1983."
The wooden sticks of 14 flags flanked the stone memorial that bears the names of the 14 Ohio men who died in the blast. Flowers grow in soil around its base and three flagpoles rise above.
"You just never forget," Mary Ann said.
On Sunday, the Tri-State Marine Corps League Detachment will hold a memorial service at 3 p.m. at the site, in Hopewell Park on state Route 616, said detachment member Paul R. Schell. The event is held annually on or near Oct. 23. Detachment Commandant Harry Dampf will lead the service with other Marine Corps veterans.
They are supported by Ohio Chapter Four of Rolling Thunder Inc., a group that supports veterans and publicizes issues regarding prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. The group recently erected the three new flagpoles at the Struthers memorial site and completed landscape work.
"Most people, 20 years later, don't even think about Beirut. Two hundred forty-one men were killed with one car bomb and people don't think about it. ... But people need to realize, terrorism started a long time ago," said Pat Chittock, president of the local chapter, who went to Beirut just after the attack. "It's like what's happening back then is happening now."
"They were just the first to fall in the war on terrorism," echoed Michael Sliwinski. "They were killed 20 years ago by Muslim radicals. The same thing is going on now."
Terrorist war
The Beirut bombing has been called the first major assault in the two-decade terrorist war of embassy bombings and plane hijackings that culminated Sept. 11, 2001.
The strike claimed more lives than the deadliest day of fighting in Vietnam or the entire 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Mary Ann shakes her head when asked about the Sept. 11 attacks and the deaths of soldiers in Iraq.
But her face turns to a smile as she recalls "Eddie" as "a big teddy bear who loved everybody."
"He was always helping the underdog," she said. The Struthers High School graduate was big enough to be the bully, his father said, but instead intervened for those being picked on.
He was "happy-go-lucky," the big brother to sister Mary Ann (Beck, now of Kentucky) and brother Charles (now of Michigan), whom he called "Buddy," his dad added.
And he was proud to be a Marine, focused on keeping his daughter safe from terrorism, his mother recalled. "He said, 'Mom I want to keep them out of here.'"
'True blue'
Pride was also a trademark of Cpl. Sliwinski, the middle brother of Michael and John Jr., with two older sisters, Debra Jean of Georgia and Diane Marie of Niles.
"He loved the Marine Corps. He was true blue," said Michael. "He wanted to become a Marine and he did."
He was the quiet boy and religious, said Stanley's father, John Sliwinski, of Brookfield. Stanley's mother, Mildred, described him as "a loving kid." Referring to the "Pieta" gift, she added, "so you see where his heart was."
"I come from a very patriotic family," John Sr. said, explaining that his parents were Polish immigrants who valued their American freedom and understood that it came at a price. "I think that makes a difference for us. When people lose a child, it's always a loss, it's always a tragedy. When there's a cause involved, I guess it makes it easier to live with."
Still, he said "the hurt gets rekindled" whenever Oct. 23 comes along. Family members try to be together on that day.
"You just don't dwell on it, but you never forget," Mildred said. " A lot of times, I get his pictures and things out, and it's getting easier." But she still won't watch television accounts of terrorist activities reported today and she can't visit Washington, D.C.
"It brings back too much," she said.
XThe Associated Press contributed to this report.