Families of victims of Beirut barracks bombing mark 25th year of loss

By William K. Alcorn

STRUTHERS — Ed and Mary Ann Johnston drive by the Peace Keepers Memorial in Struthers and Lake Park Cemetery in Youngstown nearly every day to “check things” and “maybe clean up a little.”

Shirley Kirkwood adds, “If I can get through the holidays, I’m pretty good.”

The Johnstons and Kirkwood, then Shirley McDonough, are among the local residents who lost sons and husbands when a terrorist truck bomb destroyed the Marine Corps’ First Battalion, 8th Marines Headquarters Building in Beirut, Lebanon, the morning of Oct. 23, 1983.

Twenty-five years later, they are still dealing with the loss of their loved ones.

“You never forget it. You try to, but you can’t,” Johnston said.

The explosion and the collapse of the building killed 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers, including 220 Marines, 14 of whom were from Ohio, and three from the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys.

Area Marines killed were:

• L/Cpl. Edward A. Johnston of Struthers, son of Edwin and Mary Ann Johnston of Struthers and then husband of Mary Lynn Buckner of Vienna.

• L/Cpl. Stanley Sliwinski of Niles.

• Sgt. James E. McDonough, son of Shirley McDonough Kirkwood and the late Edward McDonough of ew Castle, Pa.

The Peace Keepers Memorial, unveiled Oct. 22, 1989, on the shores of Lake Hamilton as a tribute to the 14 Ohio Marines killed, was the site Sunday of a memorial service commemorating the 25th anniversary of their deaths. The service was conducted by the Tri-State Detachment of the Marine Corps League. The memorial is located on state Route 616 (Poland Avenue) between Hamilton Boulevard and Fifth Street.