The producer of this documentary is Ed Lamica, a retired U.S. Navy photographer. This project got started after he attended the 18th Annual Beirut Memorial Service in Jacksonville, North Carolina for the first time on October 23, 2001. What he saw at this Memorial Service was a spirit that has grown for the past 18 years ~ a spirit that should be told in a documentary, so it may help others to heal and understand the spirit of “The Human Side” of those who served in Lebanon from 1982-1984. As a witness to the terrorism, documenting the bombing of the American Embassy in April 1983, and photographing Marines in Beirut gave him the insight to do this documentary. Lamica holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications Studies from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. After retiring from the U.S. Navy he has worked with television stations WECT-TV6 and WWAY-TV3 as a videographer in Wilmington.

THE BEIRUT MEMORIAL, JACKSONVILLE, N.C.

“At approximately 0622 on Sunday, 23 October 1983, the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building in the Marine Amphibious Unit compound at Beirut International Airport was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. The catastrophic attack took the lives of Marines, sailors and soldiers and wounded many others. The bombing was carried out by one lone terrorist driving a yellow Mercedes Benz stake-bed truck that accelerated through the public parking lot south of the BLT headquarters building, where it exploded. The truck drove over the barbed and concertina wire obstacle, passed between two Marine guard posts without being engaged by fire, entered an open gate, passed around one sewer pipe barrier and between two others, flattened the Sergeant of the Guard’s sandbagged booth at the building’s entrance, penetrated the lobby of the building and detonated while the majority of the occupants slept. The force of the explosion [12,000 pounds] ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself. Almost all the occupants were crushed or trapped inside the wreckage.” - Department of Defense Statement