KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Kingsport Chamber's president and CEO, Miles Burdine, hosted an event to remember the Beirut bombing 42 years later.

Kenny Hicks, a local veteran, was also in Beirut at the time of the bombing. He remembers hearing a noise that sounded like gunfire.

"We heard a couple of, I'm going to say rifle shots from way out about a mile, give or take, and next thing we know, we saw this big explosion," Hicks said. "I thought that somebody had maybe mortared some part of the airport, and then all of a sudden on the radio, we said, 'Hey, battalion's gone! It's been destroyed!'"

Hicks said the reality of the situation soon sank in.

"To me, that was the worst day once I heard that we'd lost the tag because with that explosion, nobody lived," he said. "We had survivors, b

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