48-Hour Watch to Honor 241 Killed in Beirut

It was the deaths of 241 U.S. Marines in Lebanon that prompted two former soldiers to turn their shared home in Arleta into a veterans memorial in 1983.

To mark the 11th anniversary of that tragic day, Joe Crowley and William Knuth will keep a 48-hour watch over the memorial this weekend. And they are inviting other patriots to join them.

“This is especially for the 241 . . . who died in Beirut” said Joe Crowley. But, he added, those wanting to honor American veterans of any war can stop by the U.S. Veterans Remembrance Memorial, 13645 Osborne St., from dawn Saturday until dawn Monday.

The memorial, which also serves as home to World War II veteran Crowley, 71, and Korean War veteran Knuth, 58, will hold special ceremonies throughout the weekend.

Twenty-two flags will be hoisted at dawn Saturday in honor of the Marines killed in Beirut, veterans still considered missing in action in Vietnam and all who have served in the armed forces. A taps ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Sunday, and patriotic music will ring out the rest of the time.

The memorial, which has become a local landmark and receives regular honks of approval from passing motorists, was born after a suicide bomber leveled a Marine barracks in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983.

“Two hundred and forty-one men died, and no one was doing anything about it,” Crowley recalled. “So, we decided to put up the three flags we usually hung on holidays.”

Neighbors, touched by the gesture, offered to add their American flags to the display. And it grew. When the media caught on and spread the story around the country, flags began arriving by the armload, finally totaling 315.

The two could hardly care properly for so many, and eventually limited the display to six, all of which had flown over the White House and now wave 24 hours a day. They erected monuments in the front yard, one of which reads “In memory of all veterans that have served their country in its time of need.” And they opened a tiny military museum in the living room.

Now, it is their life. They answer the phone not with a “hello” but with a friendly “U.S. Veterans Remembrance Memorial.”