JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - As the anniversary of the Beirut bombings nears, people are paying tribute to the lives lost on that dark day in 1983.

42 Northwoods Park Middle School students joined dozens of veterans at the annual ribbon-tying ceremony this morning in Jacksonville.

A yellow ribbon was tied around 273 Chinese pistache trees at the Beirut Memorial Grove to represent the 273 lost lives.

They symbolize those killed on October 23rd, 1983, when two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members.

Those service members were part of a peacekeeping military operation during the Lebanese civil war.

Some of the veterans at Tuesday’s event were there the day of the attacks.

“They flattened our building and killed a lot of my friends,” s

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