Families honor loved ones

By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- Family and friends of Marine Cpl. Edward Johnston of Struthers get together every year to honor his memory on the anniversary of his Oct. 23, 1983, death in Beirut, Lebanon, from a terrorist's bomb.
They, along with servicemen and others, also come every Oct. 23 to the USMC Peace Keeper's Memorial in Struthers along the shore of Hamilton Lake to remember Johnston and the 240 other Marines killed in the Beirut terrorist attack.
Among the 240 are Marine Cpl. Stanley Sliwinski of Niles and Marine Sgt. James McDonough of New Castle, Pa.
The memorial, dedicated in 1989, honors the 14 Ohio servicemen who died during the Beirut bombing, as well as McDonough.
"We get together to honor him once a year, but we honor and remember him every day," said Mary Lynn Buckner of Vienna, Johnston's high school sweetheart.
The pair were married for five years and had a 2-year-old daughter, Alicia, when Johnston, 22 at the time, was killed.
Alicia, now 24, has a 2-year-old son, Carlos.
"You never forget," Buckner said of Johnston. "You learn to live with the pain, but it never goes away."
Remembering
Buckner said she knew her husband was assigned to a dangerous and volatile part of the world, but she never thought he'd be murdered.
A suicide bomber drove a yellow Mercedes Benz delivery truck into the Marine barracks in Beirut as most of the servicemen slept.
The Marines were stationed in Beirut to help keep peace in a war-torn nation.
Johnston was to come home two weeks after the bombing.
Mary Ann Johnston of Struthers, his mother, said she is happy people remember her son and the others who died in the bombing.
She and two of her children -- Mary Ann Beck and Charles Johnston, who both live in Detroit suburbs -- remember that tragic day as if it were yesterday.
They were at the Bible Baptist Church in Campbell when someone asked that a prayer be made for members of the military who died in a suicide bombing that day in Beirut.
"There was confusion at first because [Johnston] was supposed to be out of the barracks," said his brother, Charles.
The family later found out that Johnston, who was supposed to be on patrol, was inside the barracks, his brother said. Because of a mail delay, the family received a letter from Johnston after he died -- telling them that his patrol that day was canceled, his brother said.
"Losing him doesn't get any easier, but it's nice to see the support of people who come to the memorial every year," Beck said.
skolnick@vindy.com