BECKLEY, W.Va. — An event this weekend will pay tribute to a West Virginian and his Marine Corps brothers killed in Beirut, Lebanon 40 years ago next month.
“I was only a teenager at the time it happened and now looking back on it as an adult, it still hurts like it just happened,” said Alisa Camara who heads up the American Brother Foundation.
Alisa lost her brother Sgt. Mecot Camara that day. He was one of the 273 Marines killed in a terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut October 23, 1983. Camara, who was 22 when he was killed, was from Hinton, W.Va. His service and death area noted in the veterans museum in Summers County.
Alisa formed the foundation in 2019 to honor her brother and those who died with him. This Saturday, the foundation will sponsor the second annual Memorial Ruck in their memory. The event will feature a 10 mile hike from Bluestone State Park to Pipestem State Park. The start of the trek will feature a replica of the Beirut Memorial Wall which stands in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The names of every Marine killed are on that wall. Each victim will be remembered in Saturday’s event in a special way.
“We are going to have a replica here so each person walking, hiking, or rucking will be carrying the name of one of those fallen whose name is listed on the wall,” she said.
They are hoping for at least 273 participants so each can bare the single name of a fallen Marine. The event is a fundraiser for work done by the foundation throughout the year. According to Alisa they offer scholarships to military families in need, offer help to veterans in need, and are using proceeds to also help fund the “We Came in Peace” documentary which is in production to tell the story of the deadly terrorist attack.
“My father died when I was 16, my brother died when I was 17 and my mother and sister have also passed, so for me these Marines are my family. They once told me, ‘You lost your brother, but you gained a platoon and then some of brothers who will always be here.’ They really have lived up to that creed,” she said.
Registration for the event starts at 8 a.m. Saturday at Bluestone State Park and the Ruck begins at 9 a.m. The bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut was the single largest loss of Marines in one location since Iwo Jima in World War II.