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| NEBRASKA MARINE KILLED IN BEIRUT | |
 November 7, 1983  |
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One of the 240 U.S. Marines killed at the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut was from Dwight, Nebraska, a small community that is coming to terms with the death of one of their own. |
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A U.S. Marine was wounded in heavy firing which forced the closing of the airport again, and Syria braced and mobilized its army for possible attack from the U.S. armada in the Mediterranean, an attack they believed would be in retaliation for the bombing that killed 230 U.S. Marines.
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| Burying a son | |||||||||||
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KWAME HOLMAN: Relatives, friends and the entire town of Dwight, Nebraska,
have turned out for the funeral of 19-year-old Mark Helms. MARVIN HELMS, father of dead Marine: We felt a lot of pain that Monday morning. Mary Anne and I didn't think there could ever be a pain as sharp or lasting as that until yesterday when we were called over to view the casket. That wasn't too horrible until we were told that the casket was sealed and under no circumstance would it be opened. HOLMAN: But in the close-knit town of Dwight Mary Anne and Marvin were not alone in their grief. Mr. HELMS: Even before we knew that Mark was one of the casualties, there were people streaming through the door saying that they were praying, their thoughts were with us. |
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| A patriotic community | |||||||||||
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HOLMAN: Dwight has always supported those in the military. The Czechoslovakian immigrants and their descendants who inhabit this town are proud of their patriotism. Ninety percent of the men are veterans. Only 220 people live in Dwight, but the community has provided an inordinate number of soldiers and even tow Medal of Honor winners for America's wars. Grain dealer Alfred Novacek is the community's self-styled historian.
HOLMAN: The lunch crowd at the town's cafe agrees that no one in Dwight ever tried to get out of serving his country. 1st CITIZEN: I don't know of anyone from around here, nobody, that went to Canada back in them days to get out of the draft or, you know, shirk their duty. 2nd CITIZEN: I can remember when I was of age, none of my people that I knew or my friends tried to get out of the drafts. Not a single one that I know of that even got a deferment or wanted to. |
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| Questioning U.S. military involvement | |||||||||||
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HOLMAN: The first and second world wars were supported wholeheartedly by the people of Dwight, but the complexities of recent American military involvements have shaken that strong support. And the deaths of Mark Helms and more than 200 other Marines in Beirut have increased the uncertainties. Today the people of Dwight have more questions than answers. VETERAN: I now declare Post 110, Dwight American Legion, convened. HOLMAN: That sense of questioning and confusion about Americans at war is evident even at the American Legion Post to which Marvin Helms and most of the men of Dwight belong. At a meeting two days before Mark's funeral, Alfred Novacek tried to get the group to write a letter about Lebanon to their congressman, but there was no consensus. Mr. NOVACEK: If our Marines or troops are going to be doing this guard duty or whatever it is, peacekeeping, they have to have their rifles loaded at all times, and that is my opinion. I'd like to hear some other guys' opinions about this. 1st VETERAN: What the hell are we doing there? If we want -- if we want the oil fields, let's go over there and take them. That's what Russia does when they want something. They just go in and take it over. Why in the hell can't we do that? 2nd VETERAN: I's in the Marine Corps in 1951 to '54, I was in the Korean deal. There was 27 of us on one hill, on a mountain. There was 14 come back. And I was one of 'em. We didn't prove a damn thing. 3rd VETERAN: We're spending all this money for these MX missiles and all that, and we should end it in one day and we've prolonged it for two years. 4th VETERAN: I can't make up my mind on the situation. I think that we've got people hired up there in Congress, we elected a President, and I think that he knows what he's doing. 1st VETERAN: How do we know what we're going to do over there when them people over there don't know what they're going to do? Those people over in Lebanon don't know what they're doing. So what are we doing over there? |
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| Post Vietnam thinking | |||||||||||
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HOLMAN: The confusion about America's role is shared by parents whose sons have served in the military. Eleanor Novak, who helped clean the church yard for the Helms funeral, lost her son in Vietnam. ELEANOR NOVAK, mother of war dead: Since Vietnam I don't have so much faith in the government anymore like I did. I don't think that we always get to know what it's all about until afterwards, and then it's too late. But I feel that a lot of people have lost faith in their government, quite a bit. HOLMAN: In Dwight it is not just bereaved mothers who have doubts. Veteran Vic Policky is an independent grain hauler. He wonders if he was right to encourage his son to join up. VIC POLICKY, grain hauler: I was real pleased when he did it. He kind of wanted to make a career of it, and I figured it'd be a nice way to do -- serve the country. But now I'm getting worried with all these bombings and all this that he may be better off if he had some other type of work. I really can't understand what we're doing out there or -- I don't know. I just don't know. HOLMAN: While the confusion over America's military role is growing, it has not diminished the willingness of the people of Dwight to make what they call "the supreme sacrifice" for their country. Farmer Morris White.
HOLMAN: And paying the price in this case may mean soldiers dying? Mr. WHITE: This is right. Yes. Mr. POLICKY: Figured when Vietnam was over that that was the end of it and -- of course, I figured that way when Korea was over, too, and the Second World War. But it just seems like it just keeps flopping up all the time in different countries, and so I don't know what, really, to think about it already. |
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As
you know, there were burials throughout the country this weekend of
many of those who died in Beirut. One of them was in Dwight, Nebraska,
a tiny place, population 220, 25 miles northwest of Lincoln. The death
of 19-year-old Mark Helms, a Marine lance corporal, caused the people
of Dwight to think about the whys and whats of his dying. We went to
listen to them, and we stayed for the burial because Mark Helms' parents
wanted the rest of the country to share their and their town's pride
in 230 young Americans who died in Beirut, one in particular. Kwame
Holman reports from Dwight, Nebraska.
His
parents, Mary Anne and Marvin, a retired career Air Force officer, heard
of his death two weeks ago. For them it has been a time of intense personal
grief.
ALFRED
NOVACEK, grain dealer: It goes back, I guess, to World War I. Two of
them didn't come back. They're buried in a little cemetery west of town
here. And World War II, three of them from our community paid the supreme
sacrifice, and in the Korean War one didn't come home, and in the Vietnam
War one didn't come home. Well, I guess maybe this falls back to small-town
living or small-town patriotism to stand up for your country or stand
up for what is right, and if you're called for duty, the boys in the
community will produce.
MORRIS
WHITE, farmer: If you really want to do something, you're going to have
to pay the price if that's what it takes to get the job done.
