Florida State Capitol Could Get A Beirut Memorial
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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- Florida lawmakers may approve a plan to add a memorial in the state capitol commemorating those who died in a 1983 Beirut bombing.
About 241 members of the military died in the bombing in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Florida House on Tuesday took up the proposal (HB 801), filed by Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach, and could vote on it as soon as Wednesday.
The Senate version (SB 876), filed by Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, was unanimously approved this week by the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee and is ready to go to the Senate floor.
Taylor said 23 Marines from Florida were killed when a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives drove into a headquarters and barracks area and exploded on Oct. 23, 1983.
Marines were sent to Lebanon in 1982 as part of a multinational peacekeeping force during a civil war.
(The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.)