Thank you to the local media stations for your coverage of this event!

Once complete in about a year, the 3-story tower will stand 45 feet tall with 241 rods — one for each of the 241 lives lost on Oct. 23, 1983, when a suicide bomber drove a truck into the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.

Unfortunately, America is still distracted for not only we have forgotten about the 241 Americans service members who died in the Barracks bombing, as well as the other 32 Marines who gave their last full measure from 1982-84, but we have also forgotten about the survivors, survivors like Jeff.

Ken Wint, from Gold Star Families, spoke of his brother Capt. Walter E. Wint Jr. — another Marine killed in Beirut. Capt. Wint was Gaines’ superior officer at the time of the bombing.