Posted on 10/22/2003 2:36:07 AM PDT by risk
Most Beirut veterans thought that the 20th anniversary of the barracks attack this year would be the time a stamp would be issued.
Last year Hall traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., who put congressional action in motion to support the move for a stamp. It remains in a congressional committee, said Lanier Swann, a Jones spokeswoman.
"They haven't given it serious consideration and right now it's at a standstill in committee," Hall said.
In the short term, postal officials have arranged for a special cancellation at Jacksonville post offices Thursday, the anniversary of the bombing. It's something any local post office can do to acknowledge community events such as festivals.
"There will be a pictorial cancellation and a special cache envelope with pictures of the memorial that people can purchase." said USPS spokesman Bill Brown.
"It's a nice gesture, but it falls short," Hall said. "It's a slap in the face of our comrades."
Hall said there has been talk about a blanket stamp to cover all terrorist victims because postal officials didn't want to single out any one event.
But that infuriates Beirut veterans who say they have never been given the respect they deserve.
"Beirut is such an embarrassment to this country," said Beirut survivor Master Sgt. John Wayne Nash, 39, of Pontiac, Mich. assigned to 2nd Force Service Support Group. "We were there with a multinational peacekeeping force with the Italians, British and French and came back as victims. Although we served and Marines died for it we never got those medals. We lost 241 people that morning and there are 276 names on that wall. They come from all over the nation - every race, every creed, every color and every religion.
"Obviously it didn't mean enough because there was no presidential ribbon and no multinational peacekeeping and observers' medal," Nash said. "It says peacekeepers on the wall and it's actually one of the lowest medals. It would mean a lot to the families because it represents what they went there to do, what their mission was, what we support daily, why they died and how they should be remembered."
Family members like Tiffany Van Buren, 20, of Jacksonville, are also frustrated. Her father Cpl. Stephen Eugene Spencer, 23, a cook with Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment was killed in the Oct. 23 terrorist blast.
"It's pretty ridiculous that we can't put out a stamp for the memory of everyone who was killed over there with my dad," Van Buren said. "I just don't want anyone to forget and telling people about it helps. I don't want my dad to die in vain because it wasn't an accident."
Contact the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee at USPS Headquarters, 475 L'Enfante Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. 20260.
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