Ceremony planned at Benghazi memorial in Bigfork
<p>Opening ceremony of the To Honor the Four memorial in Bigfork on September 11, 2014. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Opening ceremony of the To Honor the Four memorial in Bigfork on September 11, 2014. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Opening ceremony of the To Honor the Four memorial in Bigfork on September 11, 2014. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Jeremy Mahugh, a former Navy SEAL, reads a letter from Cheryl Croft Bennett, the mother of slain Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods at the opening ceremony of the To Honor the Four memorial in Bigfork on September 11, 2014. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
A monument built as a memorial to those killed in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, will be the backdrop for a ceremony planned on Friday, Sept. 11, to honor all fallen heroes.
The second annual Benghazi 9/11 Memorial starts at 5:30 p.m. at the “Honor the Four” monument on Quarter Circle Lane at the Flathead Lake Lodge property off Montana 35, three miles south of Bigfork.
The event is free and open to the public.
Guest speakers include Lt. Ret. Jack Downward of Bigfork, who worked with the U.S. Department of State as a special agent and with the 11th Special Forces Airborne Division. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and spent 20 years with the New York Police Department.
Paul Vallely, a retired U.S. Army major general who also is from Bigfork, will replace U.S. Army Special Forces Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, who is unable to attend.
Nic McKinley, a former Air Force pararescueman and special agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, also will speak. McKinley is the executive director of DeliverFund, a nonprofit organization aimed at disrupting global human trafficking.
When Bill Thomas decided to spearhead the effort to build a monument honoring the Benghazi victims, he never anticipated the community spirit and sense of pride that have embraced the memorial, which features a bronze eagle mounted on a large boulder.
“It has exceeded any expectations I ever had,” he said. “The number of people who have come to see it, I never imagined such a following.”
As far as he knows, the memorial is the only privately funded monument in the U.S. honoring the Benghazi victims.
Thomas, a part-time Bigfork resident, works as a firefighter and paramedic in California. He joined forces with Flathead Lake Lodge owner Doug Averill to honor the Bigfork connection to the Benghazi tragedy. Tyrone Woods, one of the four who perished, had family members in Bigfork at the time.
Woods’ family has since moved away from Bigfork.
What remains is a monument that is drawing interest from afar, including Special Forces groups, various veteran groups and citizens at large.
“Last Saturday a group of about 30 combat-wounded veterans came by and had their photos taken with it,” Thomas said. “The memory is staying alive.”
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.