JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — In a moment of quiet reflection, Ed Ayers sat in front a wall etched with the names of 241 Americans who were slaughtered 30 years ago when a suicide bomber drove a truck into a four-story military barracks in Beirut. He wept as he remembered his own peacekeeping service before his unit was replaced by the troops who were attacked.

“It’s a shame,” said Ayers, who wished the U.S. involvement in Lebanon’s civil war had been handled differently. “I don’t think we’re the world’s police. We should determine what our own values are.”

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos and hundreds of others gathered Wednesday at the memorial bordering Camp Lejeune. A granite wall with the words “They Came in Peace” honors the bombing victims of Oct. 23, 1983, which was the deadliest terrorist attack on Americans before Sept. 11, 2001.