MCB QUANTICO, Va. (Oct. 23) -- For Marines, great victories, great defeats and great sacrifices are never forgotten but are remembered with battle streamers attached to unit colors. Unfortunately, there are no battle streamers to remember the ultimate sacrifice made by Marines and sailors in Beirut in 1983.
In the very early morning of October 23 in Beirut, Lebanon, a building serving as the command post for the First Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, was hit by a suicide bomber driving a stake bed truck loaded with compressed gas-enhanced explosives.
The explosion and collapse of the building killed 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers. Bomb experts who examined the blast called the approximately 12,000 pounds of TNT the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. For the Marines it was the biggest loss of life in a single day since the Corps fought the Japanese on Iwo Jima in World War II.
In 1982, Lebanon, the country once known as the ‘‘Switzerland of the Middle East” because of its European flavor, its prosperous economy and its ethnic diversity and tolerance, was mired in a bloody ethnic and religious conflict which would permanently destroy its character and leave its people shattered and demoralized to this day.
In June 1982, after repeated Palestinian Liberation Organization cross-border attacks from strongholds in southern Lebanon into villages in northern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces launched Operation Peace for Galilee. Throughout the summer of 1982, CNN brought to the world’s living rooms images of Israeli air and artillery pounding heavily populated Beirut as they sought to destroy the PLO fighters surrounded in the city by the Israeli forces. The terrible suffering, more than 12,000 killed in 70 days, caused Beirut to become the center of worldwide attention.
At the request of the Lebanese government, the United States, along with Britain, France, and Italy inserted a multinational peacekeeping force into Beirut hoping its ‘‘presence” would provide a measure of stability to help the Lebanese government get back on its feet. Unfortunately, America was sticking its hand into a thousand-year-old hornet’s nest.
By the summer of 1983, as diplomatic efforts failed to achieve a basis for lasting settlement, the Moslem factions came to perceive the Marines as enemies. This led to artillery, mortar and small arms fire being directed at Marine positions – with the Marines responding in kind against identified targets. By mid-October, just before being introduced to a new and deadly weapon – the suicide truck bomber, seven Marines had been killed and 26 injured.
Immediately following the tragedy, the residents of Jacksonville, N.C., expressed an outpouring of grief and support for the families and loved ones of the Marines and sailors who had been killed. Part of that support included raising funds for a memorial to honor those who had died in Lebanon during the peacekeeping mission. Today, near the entrance to Camp Johnson, a subsidiary base of the overall Camp Lejeune, N.C., complex, a memorial wall was erected and now permanently stands nestled among some Carolina Pine trees.
The Wall was completed on Oct. 23, 1986. It is similar to the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., as it bears a list of those Americans who died in Lebanon. Only four words are inscribed on the Wall: ‘‘They Came in Peace.”
In 1988, a statue was added to the Wall, it represents a lone Marine keeping vigil over his fellow Marines. In addition to the Wall, the residents of Jacksonville planted a Bradford Pear tree for each man killed in the explosion on the center median along Lejeune Boulevard, on Highway 24.
A Marine officer now retired, tells the story of when in August 1992, while still on active duty and traveling to Camp Lejeune, he couldn’t help but notice the trees that line the middle of the road. Knowing that each tree was dedicated to an individual Marine, sailor, or soldier who had lost his life in Lebanon, he felt saddened as the vehicle sped past tree after tree after tree. Before arriving at the main gate he asked the young Marine who was driving him if he knew the significance of those trees. The Marine quickly looked at a few of the trees as he sped past them, and looked over to the passenger and said very matter-of-factly, ‘‘Hell, I don’t know. I’ve never noticed them before. I guess they’re just trees.”
The Bradford Pear seedlings have grown since first planted, and as evidenced by the young Marine’s comment, their growth has been somewhat meaningless to those who were either too young to remember that October 1983 tragedy, or to those who had never been told of their significance. It is somewhat ironic that a young Marine, of all people, could have been so cavalier in his response, because if anyone should be concerned about what happened in Beirut, it is Marines who are and will be stationed with the Fleet Marine Forces.
Unfortunately, in October 1983, the vast majority of Americans had little knowledge of, less interest in, and no great concern with what was going on in Beirut – it was so far away. Today, let us honor, but also learn, from the sacrifices of those who have gone before, so we do not give the citizens of Jacksonville a reason to plant more trees along a stretch of highway that leads to the main gate of their military base.
Editors note: Col. Dallachie, Commander of Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, B Company as a 2nd Lieutenant at the time of the attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comments on the Beirut Vets Blog. We appreciate your concern and comments.