JACKSONVILLE, Onslow County \u2014 Students from Northwoods Park Middle School joined Beirut veterans Thursday to honor the lives lost in the 1983 Beirut bombing by placing yellow ribbons on trees at the Beirut Memorial Grove in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
The event marked the second phase of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign, with students tying ribbons around 273 trees ahead of the 43rd anniversary of the bombing.<\/p>\n
Each tree represents a life lost in Beirut or related incidents, keeping their memory alive more than four decades later.<\/p>\n
Last week, the students met with survivors of the Beirut bombing to learn about the 1983 attack and make the yellow ribbons they placed Thursday.<\/p>\n
The tradition dates back to when students from Northwoods Park Middle School helped plant trees along Highway 24 in memory of the fallen service members.<\/p>\n
Beirut veteran Jack McDonald said seeing the students participate in the tradition has renewed his connection to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I was here 40 years ago to be here with them,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cIt’s rejuvenated me again. It’s made me care about the community, and it’s given me hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Beirut Memorial Grove along Highway 17 now serves as a permanent tribute to the 273 people who died in Beirut and related incidents.<\/p>\n
The yellow ribbons will help welcome families and survivors returning to Jacksonville for the 43rd anniversary observance on Oct. 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Onslow County \u2014 Students from Northwoods Park Middle School joined Beirut veterans Thursday to honor the lives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-428701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}