WEBVTT

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^- It was created as a remembrance

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^to the Marines and Sailors and Soldiers

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^that lost their lives in Beirut and Grenada.

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It's not just Beirut.

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There was a lot of folks that had gotten killed

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in Grenada as well, and the last four names on the wall

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are some of those folks that had passed away

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in Grenada during combat operations.

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This memorial was built

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to remember those,

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and it's the largest publicly-funded memorial

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where there was no government funds used

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in the construction of this memorial.

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It was sort of a gift from the citizens of the United States

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and more importantly Jacksonville, the community,

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to the Marines and Sailors and Soldiers as a remembrance.

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The individual Marine standing behind me

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overlooking the break in the wall, if you look

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at the statue itself, there's a ring finger,

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and he's got a wedding ring on,

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and he's not an African-American Marine.

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He's not Hispanic.

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He's just a Marine,

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and he symbolizes that peacekeeper,

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and it's the reason we came into Beirut, as peacekeepers.

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I polled randomly three, four, five different guys,

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and I said will you go back?

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They said "I can't run any more.

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"I can't do a lot of things,

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"but put me behind a rifle and I'll go back tomorrow."

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It still resonates deeply with us.