{"id":31984,"date":"2023-10-06T22:15:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T22:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/10\/06\/farmers-grow-corn-maze-marking-40-years-since-tragic-attack-on-marines\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:14:18","slug":"farmers-grow-corn-maze-marking-40-years-since-tragic-attack-on-marines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/2023\/10\/06\/farmers-grow-corn-maze-marking-40-years-since-tragic-attack-on-marines\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers grow corn maze marking 40 years since tragic attack on Marines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leonard Farms Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch has grown an intricate design commemorating 40 years since the attack in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. troops.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Ashley and Shaun Leonard had faced a dry couple of seasons at their farm near Canyon, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high school sweethearts, originally from Colorado, were discouraged at their alfalfa, sorghum and triticale harvests. Farming is a gamble, and it felt like they were losing every year, Ashley Leonard, 35, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night, the Leonards, who have three kids, were reminiscing about going to corn mazes and pumpkin patches with their friends on fall evenings as teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaun Leonard, 37, had an idea: They could try growing their own maze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023 \u2014 the Leonards\u2019 second year with a 20-acre corn maze \u2014 they have grown an intricate design commemorating 40 years since the attack in Beirut<\/a> that killed 241 U.S. service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason they chose that particular image? A crossing of paths with a Marine veteran who has worked to raise awareness about the sometimes forgotten tragedy that claimed the lives of 220 Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the farmers made a huge corn maze to commemorate the 1942 Doolittle Raid of Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marine veteran Paul \u201cDoc\u201d Doolittle, who said he is a distant cousin of Army Air Corps Gen. Jimmy Doolittle<\/a>, saw the maze on social media. He and his son and wife traveled from Colorado to Texas to thank Ashley and Shaun Leonard, the farmers who had, with help from a maze-building service, inscribed \u201cDoolittle\u201d in corn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, Doolittle, 62, has been involved in a commemoration project of his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He served in the Marine Corps for 10.5 years, beginning in January 1981, he said. On Oct. 23, 1983, Doolittle was serving at Beaufort, South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the day a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives near the barracks in Beirut where hundreds of Marines and other service members on a peacekeeping mission were sleeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That attack, along with other casualties in Lebanon and Grenada, means there are 273 names inscribed on the memorial to service members based in the Jacksonville, North Carolina, community who fell between 1982\u20131984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2008, Doolittle has embarked on a 273-mile, three-week walk around the North Carolina city every five years. His goal is to raise awareness about the magnitude of the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll those people, all the Marines and the sailors and the soldiers had a family,\u201d Doolittle told Marine Corps Times. \u201cAnd they shouldn\u2019t be the only people that remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not about me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the 273.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t