I was 11 when this happened but remember it well. Here is an excerpt from the article. At 6:22 a.m., a truck filled with 2,000 pounds of explosives crashed into a Marine barracks building in Beirut, Lebanon. 220 Marines, 18 sailors and 3 soldiers were killed in the explosion, making the bombing the most deadly attack against Marines since the 1945 battle over Iwo Jima. U.S. service members were sent to Beirut on a peacekeeping mission along with units from France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
I was on Parris Island at the time. We were awakened in the wee hours of Sunday morning by insanely enraged D.I.'s who…as we all did for quite some time, thought we were going to war.
I later served with a couple of Marines who were there at the time…on duty, thank God, not in the barracks that was hit. Stories they told and accounts by them are not what I remember being told at the time by the media, as usual.
God bless those killed and injured by the filthy, cowardly dogs that day.
I wish I was at home, I would post pics of the memorial. Wonderfully done.
The Other Wall
R.A. Gannon
It does not stand in Washington
By others of its kind
In prominence and dignity
With mission clear defined.
It does not list the men who died
That tyranny should cease
But speaks in silent eloquence
Of those who came in peace.
This Other Wall is solemn white
And cut in simple lines
And it nestles in the splendor
Of the Carolina pines.
And on this wall there are the names
Of men who once had gone
In friendship’s name to offer aid
To Beirut, Lebanon.
They did not go as conquerors
To bring a nation down
Or for honor or for glory
Or for praises or renown
When they landed on that foreign shore
Their only thought in mind
Was the safety of its people
And the good of all mankind.
Though they offered only friendship
And freedom’s holy breath
They were met with scorn and mockery
And violence and death.
So the story of their glory
Is not of battles fought
But of their love for freedom
Which was so dearly bought.
And their Wall shall stand forever
So long as freedom shines
On the splendor and the glory
Of the Carolina pines.
Was at Ft. Benning in OSUT. Thought we were going to war instead of leave upon graduation.
Later on I went to jump school with a Marine Sgt. who was there. He was in the “duty” rotation, which put him out on the line. He said afterwards you could see the control tower of the airport; before that the barracks blocked the view.
In the Youngstown, OH area (where I’m originally from) there is a USMC Peacekeepers Memorial in the town of Struthers. Two local guys died there: Ed Johnston and Stanley Sliwinski. The latter was a year ahead of me at one of the high schools I attended and I remember him, though we weren’t friends or anything.
Fair winds and following seas to the fallen. Not just Marines, we lost a bunch of Corpsmen and there was also an Army counter-mortar radar unit at the BLT HQ.
Like others, I remember the helpless rage, being on the other side of the world and not being able to do anything about it.
If you can find a copy of Eric Hammel’s “The Root”, it’s a pretty good discussion of what happened. Also Petit’s “Peacekeepers at War” is a fairly good read.
Ah, so THAT’s who the Army personnel were. I thought maybe SF or something. I’ve spoken to an SF guy who was actually in a safe-house with his team in the city of Beirut when that happened. They were conducting surveillance on some militant. After the bombing their mission changed but he didn’t elaborate.
I have “The Root” but haven’t read it yet. What a lot of people don’t realize is that there were a number of hostile encounters (and casualties) before AND after the barracks bombing.
I firmly believe that force protection measures were honed by this incident. Too bad it took 241 lives to do it. The bad guys have been trying since post-9/11 to get another “big score” of our troops. They haven’t been successful.
I remember when Reagan was on his way out of office. He was asked what his biggest successes and failures were in his presidency. He named Beirut and the loss of lives as his biggest failure.
Understood, I would not personally comment on any SOCOM or JSOC stuff, if I was aware of it, which I’m not. Not calling you out, just providing clarification.
“What SF doods?” is one of my more favored responses. Probably theirs as well.
My Marine friends who were there told me they had an attached Army unit that was using the (new at the time) Firefinder radar. They tended to take a fair number of mortar/artillary rounds, and it was much appreciated when the Soldiers could give them a read on the tube’s location.
There’s a good story in The Root about a large poster of the Ayatollah Khomeini on a building. It’s worth reading about.
He’s a retired “dood” and was in town visiting a good friend of mine who is a retired SgtMaj from 5th Group. The subject of Beirut came up and he volunteered that part and no more. He must’ve figured it was the better part of 30 years before (at the time) and no one would be compromised, but even then he didn’t go into detail. Found it interesting that the Marines weren’t the only ones who had an, uh, interest in the Paris of the Middle East. Lots of shady characters and bad guys assembled there at one time in history.
I saw on TV today where they had a ceremony at Camp Lejuene, and some of the vets from Beirut were there. One guy was out on the line while his brother was in the barracks and died as a result. He stated, and I firmly believe, “That was the opening shot in the War on Terror, but no one knew it at the time”. That ain’t no lie. As far as I’m concerned Hezbollah has one coming just like Al Qaeda did, and has for 30 years now.
Western thought can’t think on the same terms as hadji. He’ll gladly (most times) die for whatever he’s programmed to do. He’s already taken the sacrament, signed the paper, etc… whatever it is. He’s resigned himself to martyrdom. The best we can do is to SPEED HIM ON HIS WAY, on every opportunity and as fast as we can… JMO
