The 23rd of October

Jacksonville perfect place for museum honoring Marines

2011-12-09T07:19:00.000-05:00

Jacksonville perfect place for museum honoring Marines

Monday, December 5, 2011

(Updated 3:00 am)

By MADISON TAYLOR

I first heard about it in the late-1990s when a group of grizzled retired Marine Corps sergeants major and colonels hatched an idea. They wanted to put a Marine Corps museum in Jacksonville, home to the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast.

There was a lot of common sense behind that notion. This is usually the case when sergeants major, lieutenant colonels and colonels are involved. They’re smart, they’re leaders and they’re usually hardened by experiences most could never comprehend. Not much scares them.

They shoot straight, too. And I’m not talking about rifles, at least not right now.

So this assortment of retired Leathernecks, who made their homes in Onslow County because after a life in the Marine Corps it’s sometimes hard to go back to a completely civilian world, decided it would be a good idea to honor the “Few and the Proud” in such a logical, albeit mosquito- and alligator-infested site near Camp Lejeune.

The history, they believed, was already there for the taking — and displaying. A sample of history I found in the Jacksonville Daily News:

l It’s not commonly known that Marines trained at Camp Lejeune were dispatched on Marine Air Group-26 helicopters to fish astronaut Alan Shepherd out of the ocean after his first manned space flight. They later did the same for astronaut Gus Grissom. And Cherry Point was an alternate landing site for the space shuttle program — though one never landed there.

l New River Air Station’s helicopter squadron was featured on a stamp by the Haitian government after a humanitarian mission following Hurricane Hazel in 1954. This is the only time that Marine Corps helicopters have been featured on a postage stamp, foreign or domestic.

l Camp Lejeune contained the only boot camp and schools for black Marines during World War II. It was the site of the Corps’ only war dog training school, and the location of the Corps’ boot camp, officer candidate school and specialized schools for the women Marines of World War II.

l The 1st Marine Division trained at Camp Lejeune during World War II, along with elements of the 3rd, 4th and 6th Marine Divisions. But Camp Lejeune also trained the U.S. Army’s 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions in amphibious warfare. These were the divisions that would spearhead the landings in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy.

Despite all that history, the money for what organizers wanted to call Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas didn’t follow. A ton of other things fell through, too. A plan for a private-public civic center that would’ve included space for the proposed museum vanished in the thin mist of political and economic realities.

Then a movement began for a national museum of the Marine Corps that is now in Quantico, Va. The effort took donations and wind from the more regional approach in North Carolina.

So as time passed and I moved to Burlington, I forgot about the dwindling hopes for the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas. I figured it was a good idea that simply didn’t pan out. It happens. It’s a miracle so many bad ideas thrive when so many good ones are out there struggling for purchase.

Then I saw a recent Associated Press story. It seems the dream of a North Carolina-based museum hasn’t gone belly up after all. The concept for what is now being called Museum of the Marine has been rejuvenated with a proposal to raise money nationally and tell the story of Marines in North and South Carolina. It will document the history of the amphibious training for which the Corps has become famous and include the connection Marine Corps installations have to the civilian communities in which they reside.

To those who don’t know, it’s a pretty strong bond.

Fittingly, the museum is set to go on property leased to the museum by the military for $1 a year, right beside memorials to the 241 service members killed in the Beirut bombing in 1983 (a joint military-civilian project) and those who fought and died in Vietnam. There is also a piece of the World Trade Center there marking the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

So while the museum has new life, bucks are still needed. It will be privately funded and has around $8 million in hand. The goal is $28 million. A national corporate sponsor would certainly help.

I hope they find one. It’s too good an idea to simply die.

Madison Taylor is editor of the Burlington Times-News. To learn more about the Museum of the Marine go online to www.museumofthemarine.org

24th Mau 1983 Glenn Dolphin Great Book a Must read!

2011-09-03T00:20:00.000-04:00

- Quantico Sentry OnLine

Story Submitted: Oct 15, 2007

Marine Looks Back at Peacekeeping Mission in Beirut

By: Robert B. Loring

Most of America joined the Global War on Terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001—9/11. On that dastardly day the Twin Towers came crumbling down with mushrooms of fire and dust, the Pentagon was hit, and citizens on United Airlines Flight 93 rose up against onboard terrorists. However, Marines everywhere already had grasped this alarming state of affairs with Middle Eastern terrorists some years before.

In Glenn Dolphin’s book, “24 MAU 1983: A Marine Looks Back at the Peacekeeping Mission to Beirut, Lebanon,” he describes what happened on Oct. 23, 1983 when 241 Marines and sailors of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit perished in a flash while on a “peacekeeping” mission in Beirut, Lebanon.

Dolphin was a Marine first lieutenant with the headquarters communications section of the 24th MAU. The MAU’s ground combat element was Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment.

The 24th MAU embarked on May 11, 1983, for its cruel date with peacemaking on Middle Eastern shores. First Lt Dolphin and his headquarters’ Marines sailed in USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2). The 2,000 Marines of the MAU relieved a grateful 22nd MAU in late May. Their mission was to work with British, French and Italian peacekeepers to calm elements of the violent Lebanese civil war, keep the Beirut International Airport open and provide a presence.

Due to random mortar and rocket attacks, most of the personnel of 1/8 were moved into the strongest building in the Marine compound, the BLT headquarters building. First Lt. Joe Boccia, 1/8’s communications officer, noted, “It was built like Fort Knox.” The Marines housed in their new barracks were envied by MAU headquarters elements quartered in a less secure building nearby.

On Oct. 23 the unthinkable happened. A suicide bomber slipped by guard posts, overran wire and other obstacles, and drove his 5-ton yellow Mercedes truck into the BLT’s lobby. The detonation resulted in an enormous ball of fire. The author states, “The force of the blast arched the building upward into an inverted ‘V.’ The BLT then collapsed like a house of cards.”

The aftermath of the attack is graphically described in the book. Pandemonium followed as surviving Marines shook off the dust in the horrific realization of what had transpired. And then they quickly leaped to the ghastly task of digging out the few survivors.

Who was responsible for this attack against the peacekeeping forces? Dolphin fast-forwards to inform the reader that “on May 30, 2003, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth found in favor of the survivors and the family members, ruling Iran responsible for the attack. The court finds that beyond question Hezbollah and its agents received massive material and technical support from the Iranian Government.”

Glenn Dolphin, currently an agent in the Aiken, S.C., FBI office, has provided an insightful view into the personal lives of many of the Marines impacted by this attack. “24 MAU 1983” is a stunning account of America’s early experience serving in the thankless role of worldwide peacekeepers. It clearly characterizes the predicament our military faces while attempting to make “politically correct” war in quarreling countries throughout the world. It’s a first-rate volume written by a gifted writer and well-versed student of American geopolitics.

On this, the 24th anniversary of the Beirut tragedy, let us dedicate ourselves to the memory of the fallen 24th MAU warriors. These men will never be forgotten by Glenn Dolphin, the surviving members of the 24th MAU, or in the glorious annals of our beloved Corps.

Editor’s note: This review was originally published in the ‘‘Leatherneck” magazine and is used here with permission.

David Frum: Hezbollah thumbs its nose at Hariri murder indictment

2011-08-17T23:30:00.000-04:00

David Frum Aug 17, 2011 – 1:39 PM ET | Last Updated: Aug 17, 2011 1:57 PM ET

AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ

Nasrallah, the smiling terrorist

The indictment for the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was handed down June 30, but only published today.
The tribunal delivered indictments on June 30 against four men that Hezbollah has acknowledged as members of the organization. Nearly no one here expected the warrants to be served or the men to be arrested, and Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, almost taunted officials who might think of trying to detain them.
“No Lebanese government will be able to carry out any arrests, whether in 30 days, 60 days, 1 year, 2 years, 30 years or even 300 years,” he said in July.
He called it a trial in absentia, whose verdict “has already been reached.”
The most prominent of the four members is Moustapha Badreddine, a brother-in-law of Imad Moughnieh, a shadowy Hezbollah commander killed in 2007 and blamed for some of the group’s most spectacular acts of violence. Among them was the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 American service members.
First thoughts:
1) The Assad family got a pass. Few in Lebanon believe that Hezbollah would have carried out this crime without approval in Damascus.
2) I remember when governments in Europe and North America hesitated to act against Hezbollah on grounds that terrorism represented only a portion of its activities; it also supposedly carried on important social welfare work. The indictment drives home the point: political murder is the essence of Hezbollah.
3) As the New York Times reports, nobody in Lebanon expects the UN indictment to mean very much. Let’s recall this expectation of international futility the next time somebody urges Israel to rely on international forces to protect its borders and its people.

The Men who gave their lives in Beirut, Scream out to all Americans!!

2011-08-15T23:14:00.002-04:00

The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 is right around the corner. Almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens were murdered by the terrorists from the Arab World. Since 1983, (maybe before, who knows?) and the truck bombing of the BLT Headquarters of my Brother Marines, Arab terrorists have conspired to kill American Citizens, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. During the remembrance that will be held, speeches will be made, passion will be felt, and images will be flashed around the Country.

As Veterans of the Beirut War, it is commonly known, that this terrorism started with the the murderous, cowardly attack on our Brothers.

At the 10th anniversary of the attack on the BLT Headquarters, I felt the same emotion as the next of kin at the 9/11 will feel this year.

My sympathy and my hope is that the years, and the love of God will heal their hearts. We share the same pain, the suffering, and the frustration of the justice that seems to be denied. In the end, God decides the justice, but as humans we show our anger towards a world that often forgets the injustice done. In our pain, we are hurt more by the country for which we fought to protect, forgetting our friends, our brothers, our fathers, our husbands, and our servicemen who gave their lives in the pursuit of freedom and most of all peace.

Suffering and pain carries on through almost 30 years now. Men relive these days in Lebanon on a daily basis, and the forgetfullness of a Nation brings more hurt and anguish.

So, as we Americans gather this September 11 to remember those innocent Men and Women who died in this act of War, and we remember the utmost bravery of Firemen, Policemen, and everyday people who perished doing what they knew was right, let us not forget the Men of our Armed Forces who also gave their lives to protect our freedom and preserve the peace that every human being desperately wants.

Remember the Beirut Heroes this September, along with all the other heroes from then to now. But most of all, keep sight of the real enemy. Don't be fooled by slick politicians, who play to the needs of Nations who killed our young men and women. Keep our historic identity of a Nation made from a Judeo-Christian idea. An group of men who were flawed, but still through their flawed human nature; planned and put forward the idea that One Nation Under God, indivisible, with justice for all, would stand the test of time.

Thanks for listening, and May the grace of God continue to be with you.

Hezbollah Indicted

2011-08-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

Old Article, maybe some of you know this already, but just so it's reinforced in your brain, that even now the World Court has more indictments against Hezbollah. The real question is "When will the U.S. wake up and join the rest of the world?"

BEIRUT -- In a country with a history of scores left unsettled, Hezbollah is in a strong position to ride out an indictment accusing a high-ranking member of one of the most dramatic political assassinations in the Middle East.
The Shiite militant group has spent the past year laying the groundwork for thwarting any move to implement the all-but-inevitable indictment in the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. It has warned to "cut off the hand" of anyone who tries to arrest its members and repeatedly cast doubt on the tribunal's investigation.
The work appears to have paid off.
Since the Netherlands-based court released the indictments Thursday, there has been no real sign that Lebanese authorities are willing to arrest the four suspects, including Hezbollah militant Mustafa Badreddine. To do so, they would have to directly confront the Iran- and Syria-backed militant group that is firmly in control of the Lebanese state.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah planned a speech Saturday to address the indictment.
The most prominent of the four people named in the indictment is Badreddine, who appears to have a storied history of militancy. He is suspected of building the powerful bomb that blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 Americans, mostly Marines, according to a federal law enforcement official and a book "Jawbreaker," by Gary Berntsen, a former official who ran the Hezbollah task force at the CIA.
He also is the brother-in-law of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh and is suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people.
Hezbollah has always had serious muscle, boasting a guerrilla force that is better armed and stronger than the national army.
But the group has amassed unprecedented political clout in the government, having toppled the previous administration in January when then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri -- the slain man's son -- refused to renounce the tribunal investigating his father's death.
The new premier, Najib Mikati, was Hezbollah's pick for the post. He issued a vague promise Thursday that Lebanon would respect international resolutions as long as they did not threaten the civil peace.
The ambiguous wording leaves ample room to brush aside the arrest warrants if street battles are looming. The Cabinet is packed with Hezbollah allies, so there is little enthusiasm within the current leadership to press forward with the case.
And the indictments do indeed threaten to ignite fresh violence in Lebanon. In the six years since Hariri's death, the investigation has sharpened the country's sectarian divisions -- Rafik Hariri was one of Lebanon's most powerful Sunni leaders, while Hezbollah is a Shiite group. It has also heightened other intractable debates, including the question of the role of Hezbollah -- and its vast arsenal, which opponents want dismantled.
Walid Jumblatt, a Hezbollah ally and leader of the tiny Druse sect, warned Friday that the indictments could lead to new civil strife in Lebanon and painted the case as a matter of justice versus stability.
"As much as justice is important for the martyrs and the wounded, so too civil peace and stability is the hoped-for future," said Jumblatt, whose own father was a victim of a political assassination in Lebanon and who was once an ardent supporter of the tribunal before switching alliances. "Civil peace is more important than anything else."
He pointed to widespread fears that the case could further divide the country, which has been recovering from decades of bloodshed, including a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990 and more recent sectarian battles.
The younger Hariri and his allies, now relegated to the opposition, and the international court will likely push for action against the four. But there is little they can do to force the government to do so.
Lebanese authorities have until the end of July to serve the indictments on suspects or execute arrest warrants. If they fail, the court's recourse is to publish the indictment. Details in the indictment about the investigation into the killing -- so far kept under wraps -- might in theory prove embarrassing to Hezbollah, but the group is unlikely to be severely hurt by them.
While Jumblatt appeared to be offering a stark choice -- either turn a blind eye to a dastardly crime, or run the risk of chaos -- Hezbollah's leader has taken another tack.
Nasrallah has worked tirelessly to convince the Lebanese that the tribunal is not fit to deliver justice. For more than a year, he has gone on a media offensive against the tribunal, taking nearly every opportunity to call it biased, politicized and a tool of archenemy Israel.
He also said early on that he knew Hezbollah would be accused of the crime, a pre-emptive strike that dampened the impact of Thursday's indictment and bolstered his credentials as the man in charge in Lebanon.
(This article was written by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press chief of bureau for Syria and Lebanon).

2011-05-02T22:58:00.000-04:00

Ok, we have seen the coverage of the World's Most Wanted Terriorist, shot dead in his Pakistani compund. The talking heads are all a buzz, with words like, "When you kill any Americans we will hunt you down and take your life!" Other comments are, "You can run but you can't hide!" My favorite so far is by Mr. Sean Hannity a fox news commentator, he said "We will find you, you can go to the ends of the earth but we will find you, No longer can you get away with killing Americans!"

I have a question for Mr. Hannity, a short one, that maybe he and the other newscasters gloating as they should over Osama Bin Laden's death, where is our killer or killers? This guy has been on the run since 1983 when he killed 241 of my brother Marines, Sailor, and Soldiers. Currently this person resides somewhere near Teheran Iran. He is the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He had been tried along with his government by US Courts for the bombing of the BLT Headquarters in Beirut Lebanon on October 23 1983.. Is seal team six available? just wondering.

I find the news that Osama Bin Laden is dead a great joy for the military and the President. But one thing that really gives me pause, is to think that after almost 28 years, no one has been brought to Justice for my friends all 241 of them. Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 and now President Obama, have all failed to bring the killer to justice. At least if we got him alive we could release him later, like the Scots did for the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Bomber.

.President Obama, there are still grieving families from the 1983 BLT Headquarters Bombing, and families of the Embassy bombing that same year, can these Fathers, Mothers, Sisiters, Daughters, and Sons acheive some measure of justice? The same justice you spoke about last night. I mean, he is not hard to find. He is the President of Iran, I think intel can get a bead on him.

Thanks go out from the BVA to those men and women on the front lines preparing the way for the operation that took place last night. Great Job my Brothers and Semper Fi !!

Iran Immune From Bomb Victims' Collection Effort

2010-12-28T20:12:00.000-05:00

Iran Immune From Bomb Victims' Collection Effort

By TIM HULL
ShareThis

     (CN) - Relatives of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut can't collect portions of their $2.6 billion judgment against Iran from French shipping companies that owe Iran money for oil and the use of its ports, the 9th Circuit ruled Friday.
     The federal appeals court in San Francisco held that Iran's rights to the port payments are immune under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), because the debts are "located" in France, not the United States.
     The 1983 suicide bombing killed 241 U.S. soldiers and injured many more. Survivors and relatives of those killed in the bombing sued Iran in 2001 for its role in the attack.
     After a federal judge ruled that Iran had bankrolled and planned the bombing with Hezbollah, the nearly 1,000 plaintiffs won a multibillion-dollar default judgment in 2007.
     Unable to collect from Iran, which failed to answer the complaint or appear at the trial, the families asked a federal judge in California to assign them Iran's rights to payment from the French shipping firm CMA CGM and others. CMA CGM allegedly owed Iran money for its frequent use of Iranian ports and oil, according to the shipping routes on the company's website.
     U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White rejected the motion, saying FSIA only allowed the plaintiffs to collect on Iranian property in the United States, but not in other countries.
     On appeal, the plaintiffs argued that if the principle of foreign sovereign immunity applied, it should have been raised earlier by Iran, not at trial by Judge White.
     The 9th Circuit disagreed.
     "This case turns on the question of whether immunity from execution is an affirmative defense that must be raised by a foreign state," Judge Betty Fletcher wrote for the three-judge panel.
     She said the judge's decision to raise the issue, even though Iran never did, "is appropriate and serves the dual goals of the FSIA: affording American plaintiffs with a means for bringing suit against foreign states and ensuring that their disputes will not be resolved based on political considerations, and also demonstrating a proper respect for foreign states and sparing them the inconvenience of litigation."
     Fletcher added that, under the FSIA's narrow exceptions to immunity for countries that support terrorism, Iran's right to payment from the shipping companies "is assignable only if that right is located in the United States."
     "CMA CGM is a French corporation, therefore the debt obligation it owes to Iran is located in France," she wrote. "Iran's rights to payment from CMA CGM are not 'property in the United States' and are immune from execution."
     Dissenting Judge Norman Randy Smith said the courts were wrong to grant Iran immunity, because immunity is an "affirmative defense."
     "As such, it must be affirmatively pleaded by the defendant," he wrote

2010-10-21T23:15:00.002-04:00

Memorial Day Record Turnout for Beirut Vets!!

2010-08-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

Record Turnout! Beirut Vets, Families Well Represented at National Memorial Day Parade
Photo: JulieWard
By Bill Kibler
Twenty-Five! That’s how many people made the trip to be part of the Beirut entry in the National Memorial Day Parade in Washing- ton, D.C. May 31, 2010.
This record number in- cluded: Major Bob Jordan and his wife, Evi from Ft. Meade, MD; Randy and Julie Ward and their 3 children from Orlando, FL; Jimmy and Janet Young and their 2 children from Baltimore, MD; Wayne and Kathy Hodges, their daughter and grandson in tow with the “Beirut Bug” who drove up the night before from Roanoke, VA; Les and Linda Kameck from Cuba, NY; Anthony “Boots” Leboutiller from SC; Ceasar Valdez from Washington, DC; and weekend organizer Bill Kibler from Washington, DC. Lastly we had 1st Sgt Willie Medley (Beirut Veteran) and 4 of his JROTC Marine Cadets from Mount Vernon High School.
The weekend started at 5pm and never seemed to slow down. We had things planned the entire time. We started out Friday night walking from the hotel to 8th and I, Marine Barracks Washington for the evening
sunset parade, stopping at the Hawk and Dove for dinner. What appeared as a looming rainstorm gathered full force and started raining at the be- ginning of the evening parade and didn’t let up until about 10 min. be- fore the end of the parade. The show went on as planned. Everyone made it back to the hotel soaked but en- joyed the night out.
The next morning we walked to the US Capitol for a reserved tour of the place. Packed but orderly, we managed to make our way thru the halls of the US Capitol. Afterwards we all went to the Air and Space and at 1 p.m. went to Arlington National Cemetery to visit Section 59 where Beirut KIAs are buried. We placed Marine Corps and Navy flags by their headstones and paid our re- spects and then went to the Tomb of the Unknown and the JFK flame. Following our trip to Arlington we had dinner at a fancy restaurant in China Town.
Sunday featured a trip to the Quantico Museum of the Marine Corps, followed by a stop at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, VA.
Thanks to Ceasar Valdez who got thru security early enough and saved us front row seats at the PBS Con- cert on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol while the Wards took an eve- ning bus tour of Washington, stop- ping at all the national monuments.
We later reconvened at the hotel lobby cocktail lounge area and that’s when Randy Ward’s jaw dropped onto the table when he spot- ted a gentlemen sitting at the next table over from us wearing a Con- gressional Medal of Honor. We fi- nally found the right time and made conversation with him. Hershel “Woody” Williams received his CMH from his service from the bat- tle of Iwo Jima!! Coins were ex- changed!
Monday finally arrived and after 3 days of on-the-go walking we were ready for more. Braving the 94 degrees in the shade, we made it down to the parade staging area where we assembled and waited for our cue to begin the parade. Thanks to Randy and Julie Ward, who do- nated the embroidered service and USA flags, we had our first ever BVA Joint-Service Color guard (including Les Kameck’s Lebanon flag), complete with armed sentries posted on either end from the JROTC Marine Cadets. The crowd gave us a standing ovation as we turned the corner onto Constitution Avenue as the master of ceremonies read our script, the Joint Chiefs of Staff standing to salute our color guard as we went by. We made it ... the entire 12 blocks with no heat ex- haustion and listening to the ap- plause the entire parade route. We are already planning for next year... will you be included?

2010-08-09T14:13:00.000-04:00

Beirut veterans, fallen honored with memorial stamp

8/6/2010 By Pfc. Christofer P. Baines , Headquarters Marine Corps

ARLINGTON, Va. — To honor the American service members who died during the Lebanese Civil War, veterans and Gold Star family members lobbied the United States Postal Service and Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee to issue a Beirut commemorative postage stamp for more than 20 years. The stamp initiative started in 1986 when a group of Gold Star family members visited the nation’s capitol. When petitioning the United States Postal Service and Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee failed to yield results after 24 years, Beirut veterans tried third party vendor zazzle.com. This led to the creation of Beirut Stamp
“I felt relieved that we made a breakthrough,” said Beirut veteran Leslie Kameck. “I’d love to see more stamps and I already plan on getting more.”
Since its July 15 release, more than 50 stamp sheets have been sold. Additionally, 90 cents from the sale of each sheet goes toward the Gold Star Mothers National Memorial Foundation.
"Not only are the purchases supporting the morale of the Beirut veterans and the families of the fallen, they also financially help Gold Star Mothers," said Bill Kibler, one of the Beirut veterans who headed the stamp initiative.
Gold Star Mothers National Memorial Foundation Chairwoman Judith Young said the organization’s efforts are aimed at continuing a tradition that has affected thousands of mothers throughout history.
“Our goal is to recognize an ongoing tradition and over 600,000 gold star mothers,” Young said. “Last year we raised $18,000 and hope to do better next year.”
At approximately 6:22 a.m., on Oct. 23, 1983, a blast catalyzed by six tons of explosives tore through the Marine Corps Headquarters building in Beirut, Lebanon. The blast, equivalent to the force of 20,000 lbs. of TNT, destroyed the barracks and killed 241 service members, 220 of which were Marines, along with 18 sailors and three soldiers.
Kibler said the Marine presence in Lebanon was one of good will. As part of a multi-national peacekeeping force, the Marines worked to quell the violence and halt atrocities. This is the validation behind the phrase “they came in peace,” which is inscribed on the Beirut War Memorial and the six commemorative stamps.
“To have this stamp out there recognizes their sacrifice so they may hold their heads up high, if they aren’t already,” Kibler said.

2010-08-04T08:01:00.001-04:00

New Marine Corps facility dedicated in Newport

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 3, 2010
By Richard Salit

Journal Staff Writer

NEWPORT — Naval Station Newport, further expanding its role as a national center for military education, dedicated a new Marine Corps facility Monday in memory of the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 service members, including 9 from Rhode Island.

The building, which underwent a $6.1-million renovation, will house the Marine Corps Aviation Logistics School, with a faculty of 35 and a student enrollment of 200. The school relocated from Athens, Ga.

The dedication ceremony, which preceded a ribbon-cutting for Beirut Memorial Hall, included the unveiling of a plaque that paid tribute to those killed when suicide bombers attacked the barracks of a multinational force during Lebanon’s civil war.

Relatives of the Rhode Island victims attended the unveiling. Families of Marines killed in other conflicts also were present, including relatives of Marine Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charrette, formerly of Cranston, who was killed in Iraq in 2005.

Sen. Jack Reed was one of the guest speakers.

2010-08-02T08:01:00.001-04:00

Beirut stamp becomes a reality – without USPS

HOPE HODGE

http://www.jdnews.com/news/stamp-80457-beirut-years.html

After 24 years and numerous rejections, members of the Beirut Veterans Stamp Initiative have decided to move forward with a commemorative stamp design — with or without the approval of the U.S. Postal Service.

In February, the USPS Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee declined for the third time a proposal memorializing the 241 peacekeeping Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune’s 24th Marine Amphibious Unit who died in a terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983.

Marine veteran Bill Kibler, who served in Beirut and manages the Stamp Initiative website, decided Beirut veterans and their family members couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

“We’d have to wait until 2012 to reapply with the postal service,” he said. “I was going over the postal service page and came across third party vendors. I thought, ‘Well, gee, what’s that about?’”

After working with Defense Department administrators to find a useable image of Onslow County’s Beirut Memorial, he worked with the company to create six designs for postage and other items, including a close-up image of the statue of the Marine peacekeeper in front of the memorial and an image of the epitaph, “They Came in Peace,” etched into the memorial wall.

It’s not happening the way Kibler and the other members of the Stamp Initiative imagined it would, but Kibler said it is a victory nonetheless for the movement.

“Are these official U.S. postage stamps? Of course they are,” Kibler said. “The one thing is, you cannot buy them at the Post Office; you have to purchase them online.”

And, he said, these stamps have an advantage in one key way: Proceeds from sale of the stamps will be donated to the Gold Star Mothers National Monument Foundation.

Judith Young, chairwoman of the foundation and a Gold Star mother who lost a son in the Beirut bombing, said she would welcome the assistance with funding the monument, as well as the tribute to the troops lost in Beirut.

“It’s good that we’re going to get it out there anyway, and it would benefit the monument,” she said. “If it comes down to it and this is the only way we will get out the stamp, then this is the only way; but we will keep trying.”

Though 2012 is far off yet, Kibler said they would try once more then to have the stamp approved by USPS.

A spokesman for the postal service said in February that the Beirut memorial stamp had been turned down because a North Carolina-based monument did not have national scope and appeal.

[image#2, align=left, size=medium]

Among Beirut veterans and family members, though, Kibler said, the Zazzle design, which was published to the site on Thursday, has already been a hit.

“My hits started doubling as soon as I announced I had the website up and running,” he said. “Looking over the reports this morning, I’ve sold 25 sheets of stamps.”

A commemorative stamp may seem a small token, but Kibler said its meaning is significant for those affected by the Beirut tragedy.

“It means we can breathe again,” he said. “Somebody’s taken the time to recognize us, which is the whole point of the Beirut stamp.”

Representatives of zazzle.com did not immediately return requests for comment. To purchase stamps, visit zazzle.com.

Need Volunteers for Memorial Day March in Washington D.C. !!

2010-03-17T21:51:00.004-04:00

All interested contact Bill Kibler... WKibler@apa.org

..for Help walking with BVA Banner!!!!

Does anyone out there Care??????Beirut Vets denied again!!!

2010-02-04T22:14:00.000-05:00

Beirut Memorial stamp bypassed again

February 03, 2010 1:30 AM

HOPE HODGE

A citizen petition to mint a postage stamp depicting Jacksonville’s Beirut Memorial has once again been declined, according to United States Postal Service officials. But the stamp’s advocates are not ready to give up yet.

Beirut veterans and family members have been working for more than two decades to get approval for a stamp memorializing the 241 peacekeepers who perished in the 1983 Beirut terrorist attacks, most of whom were based in Jacksonville. In that time, they have received three rejections. In October, many of them were encouraged when, at a meeting of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, the stamp proposal was tabled until January for evaluation, rather than dismissed.

But on Monday, a spokesman for USPS, Mark Saunders, said in a statement, “the proposal was rejected because the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee didn’t believe the Memorial in North Carolina was as national in scope as other National Memorials that have been recently featured on stamps.”

Examples of memorials of national importance included Washington D.C.’s World War II and Korean War Memorials, built by the federal government and managed by the National Park Service. Saunders said that votes taken by the 13-member committee are taken behind closed doors, and tallies are not released.

A leader of the stamp initiative and Web master of beirutstamp.com, Bill Kibler, said he could understand the committee’s reasoning in part, as other memorials to the Beirut bombings exist, including one erected in Philadelphia in 1985. But, he said, Jacksonville’s memorial has come to be understood as the official one, as people from across the country visit it on the anniversary of the tragedy to pay tribute.

“If this memorial were sitting in Washington, we’d get a stamp in a heartbeat,” Kibler said. “Because this memorial sits near Camp Lejeune, they think we’re on a regional level, and we need to be on a national level.”

There are 12 major criteria that now guide stamp selection, restricting subject matter to American or America-related themes, barring a living person from being featured on a stamp, and limiting content to themes only of widespread appeal and significance, among other criteria.

To brainstorm creative ways to re-present the petition, Kibler said he has been in touch with one of the rulebreakers: George Mendonsa, best known as the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square in the world-famous photograph taken on V-J Day, as one of two living people pictured on a stamp.

Other members of the stamp initiative plan to collect more congressional signatures (in 2009, they collected 16) and attract more public attention to the effort, including the possibility of pursuing celebrity endorsement.

A member of the group, Wayne Hodges, a former Marine who was on duty in the U.S. Embassy in Beirut at the time of the bombing, said a commemorative stamp would be a sign of acknowledgement from the U.S. government about the significance of Beirut, and would be a token of honor for veterans and survivor families. That, he said, should speak to the committee.

“When they say it’s not national enough, what is more national than the United States Marine Corps?” he said.

Hodges said he will see the petition through to its success, which he is “90 percent sure” will come about eventually.

“Somewhere out there is the key and we’ve just got to find it. And we’re gonna find it,” Hodges said.

Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.

Beirut Stamp not Dead?

2009-11-15T12:37:00.001-05:00

HOPE HODGE

Jacksonville Daily News Jacksonville North Carolina

Sometimes, fitting tributes can come in small packages.

Monday, a group of veterans and family members learned that their fight to get a stamp honoring the victims of the 1983 Beirut bombing is not over yet. Some members of the Beirut Stamp Initiative have been working for more than two decades to get approval for a stamp memorializing the 241 peacekeepers who perished in the attack, most of whom were based in Jacksonville.

In that time, they have written letters to three U.S. presidents, mailed petitions containing an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 signatures, and received three rejections from the U.S. Postal Service.

This year’s application, the group’s final effort, includes endorsements from Beirut Veterans of America, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., 16 members of U.S. Congress and former commandant of the Marine Corps retired Gen. Michael W. Hagee.

The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, a group of 12 scholars and public figures whose members include former second lady Joan Mondale and Harvard academic Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., convened this weekend and were slated to deliver a decision about the Beirut memorial stamp.

But rather than denying the petition a fourth time, the committee chose to defer a decision until January, citing a lack of sufficient information about the memorial.

Bill Kibler, an Arlington, Va., resident and veteran who was in Beirut with the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit several months prior to the bombing, said he was pleased that the committee had not denied the group’s request again.

“It’s a really positive sign for now,” he said.

A Web master for the Beirut Stamp Initiative, Kibler said he had worked to come up with a new idea this year to avoid another rejection. In the past, he said, the committee had denied requests based on its policy of not creating stamps to commemorate tragedies.

The latest application is for a stamp based on Jacksonville’s Beirut Memorial, a wall bearing the names of those who died, guarded by a bronze statue of a “The Peacekeeper” standing sentinel. Since the USPS minted a stamp dedicated to the Vietnam Memorial in 2000, the group hopes that this approach will clear the way to approval for them.

Judy Young of Burlington County, N.J., a Gold Star mother who lost her son, Sgt. Jeffrey Young, in the Beirut tragedy and co-founded the initiative about 24 years ago, said that finally getting a stamp would be a small but fitting tribute to the work and heroism of those like her son.

“It’s not only kind of a victory for the Beirut families to be recognized, it’s kind of a victory winning out over the post office committee,” she said.

The victory would come after years of slights and indignation, as the group has watched characters like Bart Simpson receive tribute in a stamp while their requests are denied.

Kibler said a stamp would show that honoring the veterans of Beirut is as vital as paying tribute to those of better-known tragedies.

“It will finally mean a little more sense of closure, that the government’s finally stepping up to acknowledge what happened 26 years ago,” Kibler said.

But now the work of this group is over for a few months.

“All we can do now is sit and wait,” Kibler said.

Officials with USPS stamp services did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Beirut stamp.

Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or at hhodge@freedomenc.com.

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Where does this end? Endless Pain for Victims of Iran

2009-11-14T19:46:00.002-05:00

This has to be the most devastating news we have seen in over 26 years, The murderous President of Iran, are being given a huge advantage by the Obama Presidential Administration. I am outraged as I'm sure you are also, by this lack of compassion for our Brother's Family and next of Kin. No negotiation with terrorists. No dialogue with terrorists. We are in a War and have been so since 1983. The United States must open its eyes to the horror of Terrorism. Will we ever learn? Or must we face grieving widows and family members again and again.

Adding insult to infamy

26 years after attack on Marine barracks in Beirut, families stymied again in bid for restitution

Christine Devlin displayed a photo of her son Michael, who was killed in a 1983 terrorist bombing in Beirut. Below, US Marines pulled survivors from the rubble. (John Tlumacki/ Globe Staff)

By Bryan Bender Globe Staff / November 14, 2009

On Veterans Day, Christine Devlin stood in the cold in Westwood for the unveiling of a new memorial to local soldiers lost overseas, including her son Michael, one of the 241 servicemen killed in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983.

Devlin is among 30 Massachusetts relatives of victims of the Beirut attack who have been fighting for more than a decade to get compensation for what many consider the first major terrorist attack against the United States. After a federal judge ruled in 2007 that Iran was liable for $2.65 billion in damages to be shared by 150 families seeking restitution, they believed they were on the cusp of victory.

But now, the Obama administration is going to court to try to block payments from Iranian assets that the families’ lawyers want seized, contending that it would jeopardize sensitive negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and establish a potentially damaging precedent.

In a little-noticed filing in federal court, the Justice Department is arguing that giving the money to the victims “can have significant, detrimental impact on our foreign relations, as well as the reciprocal treatment of the United States and its extensive overseas property holdings.’’

The Obama administration’s position is a blow to those like Devlin, who is still waiting for some measure of justice for her son, who was 21 when Hezbollah terrorists rammed a suicide truck bomb into the peacekeepers’ headquarters.

“It is offensive that our government - the government that [the Marines] were fighting for, who sent them there - are against us collecting from Iran,’’ Devlin said in an interview this week. “I felt justice was going to be served, but so far it hasn’t.’’

“We can’t go on with our lives,’’ said Marlys Lemnah, 62, of St. Albans, Vt., whose husband, Richard, a Marine sergeant nearing his 20-year retirement, was killed in Beirut. “It’s not about the money. We need something tangible: responsibility and accountability. We will fight until we have no more fight left.’’

The lawsuit, specialists say, also demonstrates the enormous difficulty for terrorism victims in general to collect damages. Despite a host of court rulings in its favor and legislation passed by Congress to make it possible to sue foreign governments that sponsor terrorism, the executive branch has long resisted such payments, arguing that seizing the assets of another country could restrict the president’s ability to conduct diplomacy. There are also significant legal disagreements over what kind of assets can be seized.

“Two branches are supporting [the families’] position and the executive branch is directly trying to undermine them,’’ said David J. Strachman, a Providence lawyer who has represented numerous families in terrorism cases involving Iran, but is not involved in this case.

Even the courts have grown frustrated. Royce C. Lamberth, chief judge of the US District Court in Washington who ruled in favor of the Beirut families, wrote in a Sept. 30 opinion that “these case have consumed substantial judicial resources while achieving few tangible results for the victims.’’

Over the years, Iran, which since 1984 has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the US government, has been found liable for nearly $10 billion in damages for attacks on Americans attributed to the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian terror groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad that the United States says are financed and trained by Iran.

But in only a few cases have any Iranian funds been seized as compensation for the victims or their families - most notably from Iranian funds held by the US government before the two countries severed diplomatic relations in 1979.

Lawyers representing the Beirut families first went to court seeking damages in 2001, after Congress passed a law giving US courts jurisdiction over such lawsuits against nations that sponsor international terrorism.

Building the case took four years of depositions from victims’ relatives, US government officials, and even a former Hezbollah member, amounting to 30,000 pages of testimony, according to Thomas F. Fay, one of the lawyers representing the families.

The families’ first victory came in 2003 when the US District Court in Washington found that Iran’s Ministry of Information and Security helped plan and facilitate the Oct. 23, 1983, attack. Then, two years ago, the same court ruled the Iranian government was liable for the $2.65 billion in damages.

The families’ legal advisers and the Obama administration - like the Bush administration before it - disagree on how many Iranian assets could be legally seized in the case.

The Treasury Department estimates there is only $45 million in seizable Iranian assets in the United States and has argued in court that some of the property that the families’ lawyers have sought is outside the United States and cannot be legally seized.

“The total amount of judgments against terrorist states for exceeds the assets of debtor states known to exist within the jurisdiction of US courts,’’ an analysis published by the Congressional Research Service, which advises lawmakers, concluded last year.

But Fay maintains that he has identified as much as $2 billion worth of seizable Iranian assets, including securities held in a vault in New York that he said a senior US official has testified under oath is owned by Iran. Another source of funds he previously identified is an office tower in Manhattan, estimated to be worth $1 billion, that was among properties seized Thursday by federal prosecutors who assert they are owned by a foundation that is a front for the Iranian government.

“It is clear from the seizures of Iranian assets in New York and elsewhere that the government of Iran does indeed have significant tangible financial holdings in the United States,’’ Fay said yesterday.

Still, a deeper disagreement revolves around the possible consequences of seizing the assets of a foreign state and handing them over to victims of terrorism.

Fay and other lawyers who have represented terrorism victims assert that doing so would strengthen the government’s leverage with nations like Iran because there would be a clear price to pay for supporting terrorism.

The Justice Department declined to comment further on the administration’s position, but as the congressional analysis stated, “The issue has pitted the compensation of victims of terrorism against US foreign policy goals and some business interests.’’

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com

Friday October 23 2009

2009-10-23T06:55:00.004-04:00

The names on the wall were read. Each Panel of the names of the young men who died between 1982 and 1984, are lifted up. Some names pronounced with a southern drawl, some names with a Midwestern accent, and some names read silently in the hearts of those who held their candles closely. Families of some of the slain men, read the panel that their son was listed on. Veterans read some names on the panels where their Brothers were. All the names, all the faces, every life remembered, cherished, and respected.

You see, on every October 23rd a candlelight service is held at the Beirut memorial in Jacksonville North Carolina. It starts promptly at 6 Am and ends at 6:23. That is for a reason. On the quiet Sunday Morning in Beirut Lebanon, on the 23rd of October 1983, a Homicidal Bomber drove his truck loaded with explosives into the Headquarters of the Marines in Beirut. It was the largest non-nuclear explosion we have known. That day 241 Marines were killed in their sleep and while on duty. During the entire Beirut War more than 270 Marines were Killed.

On that October morning in Beirut, the world took little notice of the whirlwind that would follow this massive blast. Yes, the deaths of the Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers, would be mourned terribly, but the World did not realize the War on terrorism had begun. There was no official "Day of Infamy" speech by the President, there was no act of Congress, but be assured that the Radical Islamic forces at work today, point to that day as their crowning glory, their "Pearl Harbor" without the retribution.

Since that day we have slept here in the United States, preferring to bargain with the oil dictators then to avenge our young peacekeepers sacrifices. We were jarred awake on 9/11, but only for a short time, until again our greed and complacency settled over us again. Today, we try again to negotiate with the ones who murdered our young men. Today the ringleader of the killings is welcomed into our Country to speak at the UN in New York. Today, that Country has nuclear weapons, and yet we still seek to negotiate, to placate. There was a time when we should have retaliated, but now, our enemy ,Radical Islam, is at our doorstep, ringing our doorbell, banging on our door, we look through our peephole and see the Monster of Radical Islam, but we just pretend he is not there and will go away.

The names are read. Each panel completed. The candles are extinguished. I blow out my candle. I noticed my tears are falling again, as they always do on this day, they hit my wrist one after another. We mourn for our Sons, our Husbands, Our Nephews, our Brother in Laws, our Brothers in Arms. We know they did a noble act. They kept the peace, and were murdered for it.
For now, we remember them as young men, full of the vision and fullness of life.

The Sun is coming up now in Jacksonville North Carolina. Another day for the people of America filled with all the daily joys and problems we all face. Take a minute out today, just a minute, 60 seconds, and remember the sacrifice of those men, the men who gave their lives for our freedom to live free. The War on Terrorism began 26 years ago today. The Beirut Veterans of America have a motto it reads... "The First Duty is To Remember". Let us remember and never forget.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God"

Matthew 5:9
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Semper Fidelis !

2009-10-16T16:54:00.001-04:00

Well, what now? For over 26 years there has been such a deafening silence from Washington regarding our Beirut Marine,Navy,and Army Brothers. No stamp. No payment of the huge judgment against Iran. No appearance of any administration; Republican or Democrat, at our Annual Ceremony to honor our brave fallen comrades. Our pleadings fall on deaf ears in Washington and around the Country. Beirut? what are you talking about? What happened over there?

Just as our schools no longer teach the values and disciplines of our founding Fathers, the first battle against terrorism has been largely forgotten। Tucked away deep in the archives of the nations newspapers are a few two paragraph stories about the Beirut War and the men who fought over there.

Recently our President, Barrack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is disturbing. The entire operation in Beirut Lebanon from 1982 until 1984 was to keep the Peace. We lost many fine young men doing just that. Doesn't that rise to the standards for the Peace Prize? Each and every one of the next of kin of all the brave young men who gave their lives for Peace in Lebanon should have a share in the "Peace Prize".

As I type these words on this screen, I am well aware that will never happen. The powers that be will never recognize these brave men who took an impossible mission and made it work. These men, who one of them a Marine, stood on top of an Israeli Tank and leveled his .45 at the Israeli tank commander, and told him "You will stop here and go no further". One Marine, against a Tank ,protecting the people who would later spit at him, and murder his fellow Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers in their sleep on a quiet Sunday Morning in October.

I come back to my first question, what now? How do we proceed? Well, we are Marines and we will never falter and never fail. We will proceed with our Navy and Army Brothers and continue to push for the justice that we are seeking.

The Beirut Veterans of America have a simple motto, "The First Duty is to Remember". On October 23rd this year we will as we have all these many years. This year in Jacksonville North Carolina the candles will be lit at 0600 on October 23rd, and the names on the wall will be read in solemn tone. The Remembrance will never end. The Peacekeepers are on the wall, their sacrifice understood and justified by their comrades who still live.

Semper Fidelis my Brothers.

Memories of Mike : A family remembers its fallen son

2009-05-27T19:25:00.004-04:00

Benton County Daily Record
Memories of Mike : A family remembers its fallen son

By Jessica Weekley Staff Writer jessicaw@nwanews.com

Posted on Monday, May 25, 2009

Siloam Sunday photograph by Gary Burton Ron Evans, left, commander of Siloam Springs American Legion Post 29, and Bennett Howell, World War II veteran and former POW, place a flag on the grave of David "Mike" Randolph at Oak Hill Cemetery on Saturday. Randolph was one of 241 U.S. Marines killed Oct. 23, 1983, by a suicide bomber in Beirut, Lebanon. The Legion will hold its annual Memorial Day service at 11 a.m. Monday at the Community Building in Siloam Springs.

Long before David Michael Randolph wore military-issue camouflage fatigues with his lips set in a grim line, he wore a pair of slick blue running shorts and Nike tennis shoes.

Before he took up a weapon and pledged his life to the United States Constitution, he was a knobby kneed little boy monkeying with his four younger siblings in California.

He loved to fish, stretch his well muscled legs during a long run and hoist his youngest brother into the air balanced on the balls of his feet.

In the early Sunday morning hours of Oct. 23, 1983, he was resting on a cot in U.S. Marines barracks at Beirut (Lebanon) International Airport .

After barreling through barbed wire and past bellowing security officers, a yellow truck hauling more than 12,000 pounds of dynamite crashed through the wall nearest Randolph.

It took less than a second for the five-ton Mercedes-Benz to detonate.

"I don't know how many total Marines were there that day, but he was one of the 243 that died," said Randolph's father and namesake, David Randolph. "What they told me was that my son was in the corner on his cot where he slept. The building collapsed in such a way that a sergeant, whose bed was across the room, survived without a mark on him."

The blasts led to the withdrawal of the International Peacekeeping Force from Lebanon, where troops from the United States and France had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

David and his wife, Virginia, were told their son was the closest person

to the truck when it exploded. Today, from their home in West Siloam Springs, Okla., the couple easily remember the day, more than 25 years ago, when news came pouring out of the television and radio that the airport turned-Marine barracks where their son was stationed had been devastatingly bombed.

"There were guys on the second and third floor, and it blew them right out of the windows. Some of them survived," David said. "Others were thrown off the roof. Even some of them made it out of there alive."

Randolph, known to family and friends as "Mike," didn't survive the blast.

Three weeks prior to his death, on Oct. 1, he had celebrated his 19th birthday thousands of miles away from his family. He had no way of knowing the letters he wrote would be delivered to his parents weeks after he died.

"His letters kept coming, even after," David said. "It's not easy to read a letter after the fact."

For three months following the bombing, the military listed Mike as missing.

Just days before Christmas, the Randolph family met some unwelcome visitors at their front door. David had spent weeks calling military officials with inquiries of Mike's status but had been given little information.

However unwanted the knocks were, the visitors dressed in military uniforms were expected.

"Months went by, and finally they came to the house one night," David said. "There were five of them. They said, 'We've identified your son.' Of course, I knew it wasn't good if it took that long."

It wasn't until the final day of the year in 1983 that his family was able to hold a memorial service in his honor.

Mike and another Marine were the last to be identified at a forensics lab in Hawaii. In a flag-draped steel coffin, Mike's remains arrived on a plane in Tulsa, Okla., the last week of December.

"It was just before Christmas, and we decided to wait until after to have a service - for the kids, for everybody." David said. "God, it was cold that day. We were told it was the coldest winter they had had here in a hundred years."

The Randolphs, natives of California, had lived on Franklin Street in Siloam Springs for less than six months before the death of their eldest son.

Without Mike, who had enlisted in the Marines at 17 years old, the blended family moved to the area from El Centro, Calif., in July 1983 to be near Virginia's family. Within one day of finding a place to live, David had been hired by Allen Canning Co. as a truck driver.

"So many people ... complete strangers came out, cooked food, donated," Virginia said. "It was amazing. I don't think if we'd still been in California we would've had so much support. I really don't."

More than 1,000 people, including military officials, state represen tatives, two busloads of Marines, area residents and family attended the memorial service.
Posthumously, Mike was promoted to lance corporal.

A 21-gun salute and the solemn sound of taps heralded the end of the service at the Oak Hill Cemetery.

"I think it was the hardest thing that we ever did, signing those papers to let him go into the Marines," Virginia said. "If he wanted it bad enough to graduate early at 16, and worked that hard for it, what else could we do?"

Soon after boot camp at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Mike visited his family in Oregon, where they had moved for a brief period before coming to Arkansas.

Mike never made it to see the family's new home in Siloam Springs before he was shipped to Beirut from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

"After all of this happened, in 1985 or so, the base where he was stationed in Maryland asked if they could name a building after him," David said. "Now, when you walk in the front door, in front of the memorial, there's this picture of him. They said as long as that building was there, his picture would be, too."

Standing next to the highest ranking enlisted Marine in the United States, David was invited to cut the ribbon during the dedication ceremony.

"With four kids at home, I was short on money then, but when I told my boss what they were doing with the building, he said he thought we might be able to work something out," he said. "I took a load up there and went over to the building. Right after it all happened, I took a week off from work, but after that I went back, I couldn't just sit around. They paid me just like I had been there."

Today, a gleaming Purple Heart and other decorations of honor hang on the wall of the Randolphs' home.

Despite the pride the family has for Mike's service to his country, accompanied by the constant reminder of framed photos hanging on walls, Mike is remembered for much more than the time he spent in the Marines and his tragic death.

He loved cross-country track, was idolized by his two younger brothers and two younger sisters and would eat anything placed in front of him. His hazel eyes changed colors depending on the shirt that he wore, Virginia noted.

On family fishing trips to the All American Canal in California, Mike would often pull large fish out of the water.

He was popular in high school and had the time of his life with a friend when he went to Greece on a brief furlough from the military.

Today, the Randolphs have six grandchildren and four great grandchildren. They live a quiet, content life in West Siloam Springs.

But they have never forgotten Mike or the sacrifice that he made on Oct. 23, 1983.

"My consolation is that he was a good kid," David said. "I'm a firm believer that when it's your time to go, you're going. I wished it had been longer, but he was here as long as he was supposed to be."

He Planted the Trees and has never forgotten

2009-05-26T11:04:00.003-04:00

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Sunday, May 24, 2009
Era ends for a Memorial Day veteran
Harold 'Bud' Hohl has been the driving force behind decades of ceremonies in Costa Mesa.
By SAM MILLER

The Orange County Register
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There's a picture that Bud Hohl likes to show off, of a flagpole in a Costa Mesa cemetery. The expanse of empty land behind it stretches to Tustin.

In 1954, when the photo was taken, Harbor Rest Memorial Park asked the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3536 to dedicate the flagpole. Hohl, then a 34-year-old Marine pilot, agreed. One of Orange County's longest stage careers was born.

For five and a half decades, Hohl has been the organizer and MC of Post 3536's annual Memorial Day ceremony. But now, with his health failing, Hohl has stepped down and today's ceremony will be the first he's sitting out since 1978, when he attended a friend's funeral.

"I was told to keep my mouth shut," joked Hohl, 89. "This is the first year I really haven't said something."

He'll be succeeded by Jack Hammett, a former Costa Mesa mayor who spent 22 years in the Navy.

"It's an attitude that all military men accept," Hammett said. "We all learn and accept stepping back and letting the young person take over once you've done your duty. Very well done, thank you, next."

Harold 'Bud' Hohl was mining hard rock in Arizona and caring for his widowed mother before he enlisted in 1942. He joined the Marines as a pilot, thinking that he might be stationed with his brother, also a Marine. (He wasn't.)

During World War II, he flew with the squadron known as the Death Rattlers, shooting down Japanese kamikaze pilots before they could attack the ring of American ships that surrounded the islands of Okinawa. The Death Rattlers were the most decorated squadron of the war, developing sophisticated analytical methods to shoot down 124 Japanese planes. Hohl – known by his fellow pilots as "Loophole" – shot down one of them on his first day.

Over the next 22 years, he spent 7,000 hours flying for the Marines. He flew supplies in the Korean War, and shuttled generals to their golf games during peacetime. He was stationed at El Toro for much of the 1950s, and Orange County became his home.

Whenever somebody asked the local VFW for something, Hohl stepped up.

"He is a person that did everything himself, because he couldn't get anybody else to help him," said Ted Marinos, who has volunteered alongside Hohl for 50 years. "You know how volunteers are."

"Semper Fi," Hohl's son, Bud Jr., explains.

Hohl chuckles. "Yeah, Semper Fi. It was the Marine Corps way of doing things you're asked. I believed in the Marine Corps. And I believed in the VFW. So whatever came along, I took an active role in it. If somebody wanted it done, all they had to do was yell out, 'Hey Loop!'"

He built a replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for one Memorial Day ceremony. He built a replica of the Iwo Jima flag raising out of lava rocks. He planted trees in memory of the Marines killed by a terrorist blast in Beirut.

He'd love to still be leading the ceremony. "I'm down to a point where I just have a hard time finding the words," he said. He speaks with long pauses and his eyes closed, and a breathing tube in his nose.

He has dreamed for more than a decade of a large eagle monument in the cemetery. A few years ago, he found the right eagle in an antique store in Spokane, Wash. – a brass-colored statue, 6 feet tall, salvaged from the front of an Argentine bank. The monument is ready for installation once he gets the right text to have printed on its sides. He expects to dedicate it this year.

"That's his ace in the hole, before he leaves his country," Marinos says.

The Costa Mesa Memorial Day ceremony is at 11 a.m. Monday at Harbor Lawn-Mt. Olive Memorial Park, 1625 Gisler Ave.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7884 or sammiller@ocregister.com

Marine honors the memory of the fallen

2009-05-25T20:38:00.001-04:00

Bear Cieri/Daily News correspondent
Bellingham Memorial Day Parade Grand Marshal Stephen Russell.

By Michelle Laczkoski/Daily News staff
GHS
Posted May 16, 2009 @ 11:50 PM
BELLINGHAM —

To Stephen Russell, Memorial Day marks a day to stop, reflect and give due respect to the heroes who have served America.

Russell is one of those heroes.

The grand marshal of today's Memorial Day parade, Russell will pay tribute to all servicemen, especially his 241 brothers who died beside him in Beirut on a peacekeeping force in 1983.

Russell, who is now a retired Marine, survived a harrowing attack on Oct. 23, 1983, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings in Beirut, where American troops were housed. Of 241 Americans killed, 220 were Marines.

Russell was among the 60 Americans injured in the blasts. Just three weeks before he was set to return home, Russell was taken by medical helicopter from Lebanon with a cracked pelvis, broken femur and hand.

"I shouldn't be alive," Russell, 53, said last week from his kitchen table. "They said I wouldn't walk again. But I was determined to stay."

Just one year later, Russell returned to full duty.

"I fought it, I wanted to continue serving," he said.

Russell, a Bellingham native, promised his wife he would retire from the Marines and secure a comfortable life for his family.

"I loved every second of it except for that one second," he said, referring to the barracks bombing in Beirut.

Following his recovery at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Russell went onto Camp Geiger's School of Infantry. Later, he worked as a drill instructor on Parris Island in South Carolina.

Eventually Russell's injuries from Beirut "caught up" to him.

"I couldn't compete with my peers," he said.

The Marine Corps placed Russell on temporary disability. He retired from the Corps in 1994.

Settling back into civilian life with his wife and two children wasn't easy. It remains a struggle.

"I still feel sore, aches and pains," he said. "I toss and turn all night."

Jim Hastings, chairman of the Memorial and Veterans Day Committee, said the committee unanimously chose Russell to lead the annual parade.

"We wanted to pay honor to Marines who lost their lives in Beirut," Hastings said. "Having someone like that right in our town, he was an obvious choice."

Though Memorial Day "brings back bad memories," a humble Russell said it is vital to pay tribute to the nation's fallen.

"That's what my loyalty is all about, those guys, all 241, the dead," he said.

The parade will feature town officials, police, firefighters, bagpipes and several local high school bands.

Following the procession from the high school to the town common, there will be a ceremony with several speakers at the gazebo.

Russell will also speak and honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.

"Many gave all, some gave a little and too many gave everything," he said.

Many have forgotten the attack in Beirut, but the terrorist attack is fresh in Russell's mind.

"Everyday, it's here," he said, pointing to his head. "People say, 'Let it go.' I have no desire to let it go. I was a part of it."

Michelle Laczkoski can be reached at mlaczkos@cnc.com or 508-634-7556.

John Rice Hudson USN Beirut Navy Hero

2009-04-12T21:05:00.001-04:00

By Damon Cline

John Rice Hudson, by all accounts, had a promising future.

The 1981 graduate of the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine had a beautiful wife, a healthy newborn son and dreams of opening a family medical practice in middle Georgia. The 28-year-old Naval lieutenant and physician was well-liked for his easygoing personality and his peers admired his ability to excel at seemingly any task, be it surgery, making music or overhauling a car engine.

But his future was cut short on Oct. 23, 1983, when he and 240 other military personnel stationed in Beirut, Lebanon, were killed when a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into the U.S. Marines' barracks.

The attack – the deadliest single assault on U.S. servicemen since World War II – was largely forgotten by the public until 9-11 brought it back into the American conscience.

In the minds of Dr. Hudson’s family, however, it never faded from memory.

“For 99 percent of Americans, terrorism started on Sept. 11, 2001,” said Dr. Hudson’s son, Will, who was 8 months old when his father died. “For my mom and me, terrorism started on Oct. 23, 1983.”

AN EXTRAORDINARY PERSONALITY

Dr. Hudson was the eldest of Samuel and Losie Hudson’s three children. The family moved often during his father’s 23-year career in the U.S. Army, where he was a decorated veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars.

The family eventually settled in Fayette County near Atlanta, where Dr. Hudson met David Anders, a fellow trombone player in the elementary school band. The two remained best friends through high school and were inseparable as roommates at the University of Georgia and MCG, which Dr. Hudson paid for through a Navy scholarship that required him to enlist after medical school.

Dr. Anders, who now practices internal medicine in Fayette County, said Dr. Hudson had an extraordinary personality.

“He enjoyed life to the fullest and wanted everyone to come along for the ride,” he said. “When you get together with people and talk about John, even 25 years later, you can’t get two or three minutes before somebody has a big belly laugh over something he did.”

His antics, including wearing a gorilla suit to the student center and strolling into his anatomy finals playing his trombone, tested the patience of administrators but provided comic relief to his stressed-out classmates.

“His friends have told me he was the guy who made everyone loosen up and enjoy themselves,” Will said.

Those who knew him cited an almost childlike innocence.

“John had a real dry sense of humor, but he was a very caring person” said Dr. Bob Parrish, former MCG chief of pediatric surgery and founding member of Code 99, a band Dr. Hudson played with for two years.

Dr. Hudson was a sophomore in 1979 when he met his future wife, Lisa, at an Augusta night spot. He had gone to pick up an amplifier he loaned to a friend but ended up staying once he saw the 23-year-old registered nurse from Milledgeville, Ga. He called her the next day and the two hit if off immediately.

“He was so unpretentious,” Lisa recalled. “He was probably the smartest man I've ever known, but he was so unpretentious about it.”

The two discussed marriage, but Dr. Hudson initially wanted to put off a wedding date until after completing his military commitment.

“He made up his mind he was going to complete medical school and pay back his time to the Navy before he settled down,” Lisa said. “But I interrupted that process.”

The two were married on Sept. 13, 1980, with Dr. Anders as best man.

“I lost a good roommate,” Dr. Anders said. “But she got a good one.”

SEMPER FIDELIS

Dr. Hudson enlisted in the Navy, which provides health care services to the U.S. Marine Corps, after completing the first year of his residency at MCG. The newlyweds moved to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C., where Will was born on Feb. 15, 1983.

Having grown up an Army brat, Dr. Hudson was comfortable with military service. However, he was far from the average recruit.

Will recalled one particular story relayed to him by his father's commanding officer, Lt. Col. Larry Gerlach, whose injuries during the barracks bombing made him a paraplegic.

“My dad would drive the officers crazy because he wouldn't put his boots on,” Will said. “He told them, 'These boots are putting blisters on my feet. If I was seeing a patient who had blisters like these, I would tell him to stop wearing these boots.' My dad was a doctor first and foremost.”

Dr. Hudson's service was uneventful until then-President Ronald Reagan ordered the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment to participate in a multinational peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which was in the midst of a civil war.

He left for Beirut on April 9, 1983. The Marines set up their headquarters at the Beirut International Airport and were initially successful at preventing attacks from militant factions operating in the country.

However, as the year wore on, it became clear to Dr. Hudson that militants were becoming increasingly confrontational.

“Rockets and artillery are coming into our area but we don’t shoot back because we’re not supposed to be in a war, but we are in a war,” he said in a taped message to his wife on Sept. 5. “We’re in a combat war zone.”

‘THINGS ARE SO DIFFERENT HERE’

Randy Gaddo was a 30-year-old staff sergeant and combat correspondent when he served in Beirut, which many of the 1,200 Marines referred to as “The Root.”

He said Dr. Hudson was well-known around the compound.

“Everybody knew who the battalion surgeon was,” said Mr. Gaddo, who now lives in Peachtree City, Ga. “All the medical people were considered very special people, but he was the only qualified doc on shore. The other guys were called docs, but they were really medical techs.”

Most of Dr. Hudson’s skills went unused early in the deployment. On one recording he said he was unable to practice “99 percent of the knowledge” he learned in medical school. Even depression was rare among the troops.

“They like being Marines and they like the job they have to do,” he said. “They motivate themselves. I’m really impressed with them.”

However, Dr. Hudson became concerned about his fellow troops – and his own wellbeing – as the skirmishes intensified. Marines no longer came to his basement clinic with sore throats and earaches; they now had bullet and shrapnel wounds. In an Aug. 31, 1983 postcard to Dr. Anders, he said he was worried about “coming home in a box or altered state,” and that “things are so different here, more than anything you could ever imagine.”

And he continued to express his dismay at the rules of engagement. Weapons were constantly pointed at the Marines, but they were prohibited from actively engaging the enemy unless fired upon. Dr. Hudson wrote about the futility to Sen. Sam Nunn, then chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services.

In one of Dr. Hudson’s last communications, a tape sent to a freelance reporter in Atlanta, he referred to the troops as “sitting pigeons.”

“We actually can watch them build a bunker by day, see them put ammunition into the bunker, and you know what’s going on,” he said on the tape. “They can kill, maim, seriously injure Marines and sailors, and then – once they’ve shot – you have the option of shooting back.”

Dr. Hudson reunited with his wife and 6-month-old son in Greece while on leave from the base from Aug. 20-28. It was the last time they would see him.

SHATTERING THE SILENCE

The Root was peaceful during early dawn on Oct. 23, 1983. The cacophony of distant artillery fire had fallen silent.

At around 6 a.m. Staff Sgt. Gaddo had stepped outside his bunker to enjoy the morning sun before walking to the barracks, where he planned to develop eight rolls of film in a makeshift photo lab on the second floor.

“I started walking over there – it was less than a minute’s walk, maybe a couple hundred yards – then I just stopped,” he said. “It was just such a beautiful morning, very quiet. I just thought it was too good of a morning to go inside, so I turned around and went back to get a cup of coffee.”

The decision saved his life.

At approximately 6:20 a.m., a truck packed with explosives accelerated through the compound’s gate, barreling past two sentry posts and another gate before crashing into the lobby of the barracks. The Marines, under strict rules of engagement, barely had time to load and shoulder their weapons before the suicide bomber detonated explosives equivalent to six tons of TNT.

“I heard a couple of shots go off, then I felt the heat of the blast,” Mr. Gaddo said. “The shock wave threw me back like a rag doll. I thought we had been hit by an artillery shell.”

Those not killed by the blast were crushed when the four-story, reinforced-concrete building collapsed into a heap of rubble.

Seven time zones to the west, the sun had set on suburban Atlanta. Earlier that day, Dr. Anders proposed to his girlfriend, Kenya, in Stone Mountain, Ga. He had alluded to the pending engagement in letters to Dr. Hudson, and had asked his childhood friend to be best man at the wedding.

He went to sleep that night unaware his friend was already dead.

“I was getting into bed shortly after midnight and my sister mentioned something about a bombing in Beirut,” Dr. Anders recalled. “I was just hoping that it wasn’t going to be too much work for John – that he didn’t have to do too much triage. Later we learned it was much worse, that the whole compound had been attacked.”

Recovering the bodies took several days. Dr. Hudson was found on day two, inside his sleeping bag.

Ms. Hudson feared her husband was dead the moment she saw news footage of the destruction. Those fears were confirmed by a visit from two Naval officers.

“They came up to the door, just like they do in the movies,” she recalled.

Her husband’s body was returned to the United States two weeks later and buried at her family’s dairy farm south of Milledgeville, an area where he hoped to one day build a home and practice medicine.

The U.S. government ruled in 2003 that the attack was carried out by the militant Islamic group Hezbollah with backing from the Iranian government.

Military analysts say the attack was America’s first brush with “fourth-generation warfare,” in which ideologically motivated insurgents use guerrilla tactics and civilian populations to create tactical dilemmas for an enemy. The insurgents’ strategy is to achieve victory not through superior military strength, but by convincing the enemy’s political leaders that victory is either unachievable or not worth the human toll.

President Reagan withdrew the troops less than five months after the attack.

“We pulled out, so in a way, it showed them their tactics worked,” said Mr. Gaddo, currently the national president of the Beirut Veterans Association. “It was really a modern-day watershed event. We’ve seen identical elements in the wars after 9-11.”

Will met Mr. Nunn for the first time at a charity event in Atlanta last year. To his surprise, the former senator remembered the letter his father wrote 25 years ago.

“He said, ‘That letter will haunt me for the rest of my life,’” Will recalled. “He said, ‘Your dad was exactly right. He knew exactly what was going on.’ ”

AFTERMATH

A scholarship fund was started in Dr. Hudson’s name shortly after his death, and in 1987, the clinic at the U.S. Naval Supply School in Athens was renamed in his honor.

The building’s plaque rekindled memories in Dr. Sam Richwine, a 1977 MCG graduate who completed his surgical internship and residency at MCG.

“It finally rang a bell that John Hudson had been an intern of mine when I was a general surgery chief there,” said Dr. Richwine, a plastic surgeon in Gainesville, Ga.

The Athens native hopes the memorial remains after the 58-acre Naval School property is transferred to the University System of Georgia in 2011 for use as an MCG-UGA medical campus. (Damon: Is there any question? If so, STET.)

“I think it would be great if we were somehow able to keep that name somewhere on campus,” he said, “not only to honor John as an MCG grad, but also the gift of his life to the country.”

Ms. Hudson never remarried.

“I’ve never had another best friend like him,” she said. “I miss my friend more than I miss my husband.”

She and Will moved from Milledgeville to Augusta, where she worked as a nurse until completing MCG’s psychiatric nursing program in 1995. The training allowed her to open a counseling practice for women with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Setting her own schedule gave her the flexibility to attend Will’s sporting events and other school functions.

“He's the reason I'm alive, that's the truth,” she said. “Every day that I got up after that was because I had him to take care of. He was my motivation to move on.”

Will, who married in June, recently started a professional recruitment firm, Complete Recruiting Solutions LLC in Atlanta. He also has political aspirations, which stem directly from the loss of his father.

“I think some of our leaders make decisions without really thinking about the impact they may have,” he said. “When you know what it feels like when those decisions go bad, it makes you think a little more carefully and thoughtfully.”

Several of Dr. Hudson’s friends stay in touch with his widow and son, including classmate Dr. Allan Panter, a Gainesville, Ga., resident who practices emergency medicine.

He said Dr. Hudson would be proud of his son.

“I can’t say enough about Lisa’s parenting,” said Dr. Panter, who dropped in to visit Will at Furman University whenever he was passing through. “Will is well-rounded; he seems to be a complete package.”

For Dr. Panter, spending time with Will is almost like spending time with the young man’s father. Almost.

“I don’t think you’re ever going to meet anybody like John Hudson,” he said. “If you ever meet someone like him in your lifetime, you’re fortunate.”

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night

2008-12-16T15:48:00.003-05:00

CHRISTMAS IN BEIRUT

Journal Entries from the Battlefield

BY Brian G. Lukas

Editor’s note: The name Beirut became a one-word symbol for the war torn Middle East of the late 1970s. Civil war had erupted in Lebanon in 1975, the result of clashes between Christian and Muslim groups, including members of the Druse religious sect and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and had escalated over several years. In 1982, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon; the two countries had already fought south of Beirut. As well, Syria had occupied the country since 1976. In 1983, the United Nations dispatched a multinational peace-keeping force, including U.S. Marines, to Beirut. The Marines left Beirut within a year because of terrorist attacks; on Oct. 23,1983, a truck loaded with explosives crashed into the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit Headquarters compound, killing 241 Marines.

“The Marines in Beirut seem to have gotten lost in the history books . . . they had a difficult mission,” says TV photographer Brian Lukas. He, along with news anchorwoman Angela Hill and editorialist Phil Johnson, all of WWL-TV/Channel 4, traveled to Beirut in late 1983 to cover Louisiana Marines stationed there at Christmastime. Lukas kept journal entries of his tense times there, excerpted here.

Christmas 1983 was just a few weeks away. I would travel to Beirut with Angela Hill and Phil Johnson to film and edit stories on local Marines from the New Orleans area. It was a time before portable satellite uplinks and the Internet, so we carried videotaped messages from the Marines’ families back in the United States. Our ambitious itinerary also included production of a documentary about this war-torn area. But as fighting between the various factions escalated, that idea was abandoned. Armed militias set up roadblocks in various sections of Beirut. The Islamic Jihad decided to add another element to its arsenal of terror and brutality: kidnapping Westerners.

•If there is hell on earth, it is here in Beirut. At the same time that I arrived in Beirut, the French Embassy was hit by a car bomb, with 20 people killed. Later that night, a French military base was blasted by a bomb-laden truck. Ten French soldiers were killed, and 23 were hurt. The explosion lit up the whole area. Terror – it is sheer terror. I can see it on the faces of the residents who walk cautiously on the streets. Here in Beirut, teenagers carry assault rifles, mainly M-16s. On the streets, women cradle their children tightly in their arms, begging any Westerners for help. The city smells like death. There is a stench of rotting corpses and smoldering trash strewn about from buildings destroyed by the fighting in the streets. To realize the inhumanity of war, you have to look deep in the faces of the civilian population. Then, if you dare, look deep into their eyes. There you will find the horror of war absorbed deep within the soul. I look into many eyes here in Beirut.

•In the eyes of the young Marines, I can see the uneasy and uncomfortable situation they are in. The U.S. Marines’ position at the Beirut International Airport keeps them under daily sniper and artillery attack. I remember when I was in Washington, D.C., for a White House press function when many of these same Marines from the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit invaded Grenada, a tiny island in the Caribbean. Now I am here in hell with them. The Marines, politically, are not invaders but are so-called “welcome guests,” strategically placed in Lebanon on a peace-keeping mission with the French and Italians as part of a multinational force. Our Marine contact is Capt. Dennis Brooks, the Marine public-information officer on the base, always “spring-loaded to say yes.” He remarked that the various militias near the Marine positions use their tanks like small arms fire: They quickly maneuver the tanks in firing position, release a shell and maneuver back quickly, then repeat the operation. Maximum destruction, I thought to myself. Total destruction was evident when we passed the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps – hundreds, perhaps thousands of Palestinians were killed here: men, women, and children. Our driver remarked, solemnly, that they were executed. The refugee camps are leveled, nothing remains, and where the victims of this civil war sought relief from the terror of war, only the bare reddish-brown earth remains visible from the nearby dusty road. Their graves are not even marked. It is as if they were never born.

•At night there is no time to dream; the evenings are fitful with the sounds of rifle fire. My bed is level with the window. Crazy, I thought, there are snipers on the roofs – one shot through the window and that’s it. I tried to sleep on the floor, but there is no sleep at night. The sounds of sniper fire and the thud of muffled mortar and artillery rounds are trying to find any “peace-keeper’s” position near the Avenue de Paris, the long, winding road facing the Mediterranean Sea.

•At one time Beirut played the Paris of the Middle East; now it plays a sorrowful tune of despair. My hotel in Beirut is owned by the Nassai family, Palestinian owners of the Commodore Hotel. The Commodore Hotel is on the Muslim side of Beirut. On the Christian side, the owner of the Alexandre failed to pay protection money to the thugs and every conceivable terrorist seeking consideration for the hotel’s existence. As a result, somebody exploded a huge car bomb in its parking lot, destroying the hotel. I couldn’t help but notice the line of cars ringing the Commodore Hotel here in Muslim West Beirut. Sometimes the cars were two or three deep. I quickly learned that these vehicles were buffers to prevent any car-bomb attacks on the Commodore. The ring of vehicles and payoffs couldn’t stop the instruments of distant destruction. My hotel room in the Commodore is on the fourth floor, room 405. I could not enter the room without noticing the shift in the door and several large cracks running down the length of the wall. A little later that day, I learned that room 405, my room, had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade just two weeks earlier.

•There is no sanctuary in this city. It’s a sad place and a sad time. Beirut is a city defined by fear, a city bisected by the green line – Christians in the East, Muslims in the West. This is a noisy, depressing, dangerous and disconcerting place to work. I tried not to sleep last night. It’s been several nights since I’ve had any sleep. The last thing I wanted was to be asleep when a car bomb went off and then to be buried under the rubble of concrete and steel from the top five floors. I often fall asleep at the dinner table. Veteran journalists from Europe and the U.S. networks in the hotel remark that this is one of the scariest wars they’ve covered. There is no “commuting” to this war; death and destruction are all around us.

Blackened pockmarks of war are carved into the façade of every building. The city is gravely wounded. And now a new threat is employed by the terrorists: They are kidnapping journalists and teachers at the American University in Beirut. A note was posted on the front bulletin board as we left the hotel. It was a warning from the Islamic Jihad. In very simple words, the note said that all Westerners must leave Beirut or “we will make the ground under your feet move.” It was a direct threat to destroy the hotel where the Western press reported the war. This is the same group that claimed responsibility for bombing the U.S. Marine base here in Beirut, and the U.S. embassies in Beirut and Kuwait.

•The war is escalating now. (A few months later, the Commodore Hotel would be completely destroyed by shelling and car bombs.) The American Embassy was heavily damaged by another car-bomb attack. Forty people were injured, and eight were killed in the suicide attack. The front of the embassy building, facing the seashore, is covered in what appears to be a seven-story green shroud. It hides the embassy’s exposed interior from probing eyes or people that pass through the zigzagged row of 55-gallon metal drums filled with dirt. The metal drums are defenses against another suicide attack. Marines are positioned throughout the building. Another contingent of Marines is stationed just across the street from the embassy. An American flag blew quietly in the wind next to a Marine guard watching the pedestrian movement in front of the embassy. The image of the American flag and the Marine standing with the sun setting on the Mediterranean Sea gave the drab gray seashore kind of a splendid appearance. In a melancholy way I felt a strong connection with home. The obvious presence of the American flag waving in the warm breeze made me feel very thankful that I live in and would return to the United States shortly. And if there is ever an image of the Marines in Beirut that will be forever stamped on my mind, it is that one single Marine and the American flag rippling in the wind next to him.

•On the corniche, in front of the American Embassy, the Marines are routinely targeted by snipers. It becomes very nerve-racking that at any time death may come by a sniper. As I filmed the area I noticed a small bunker with several Marines standing guard. One of them was Cpl. Brad Pellegrin from Slidell. It is the Christmas season, and he is making the best of a very bad situation by lining his bunker with makeshift ornaments. I forgot that we were nearing Christmas.

We were carrying messages from Cpl. Pellegrin’s family to give to him. It was a videotaped message to him from his wife, mother and child. As we showed the message to him I noticed an interesting effect on the other Marines . . . they gathered closer together to hear the family’s greeting to Brad. Closer the Marines came when Brad’s son said, “Daddy, I love you and miss you.” We played the videotape again and again. That’s when I realized that Brad’s family was now family to all the Marines that gathered to watch his videotape in front of the destroyed American Embassy. His family was their family; his son was their son or daughter. The Marines had a Christmas family now . . . and it was amazing to witness a little bit of loneliness disappear as they looked on. Christmas is family . . . even in Beirut.

•The makeshift Christmas ornaments lining the bunkers in front of the destroyed U.S. embassy were a welcome relief. It was a simple reminder of the hope that peace existed. Off in the distance, on the Mediterranean Sea, the sunset cast a shadow on the battleship New Jersey. The broad, flickering light from her was the firepower from her massive guns unleashed on the Druse militias, who rocketed the Marine base at the International Airport on Beirut’s southern edge. We would find out that a Marine was severely wounded; later he died.

•Overnight, hooded Shiite Muslims and their Druse allies drove Lebanese army units from most of their checkpoints on the Muslim West Beirut commercial thoroughfares and residential neighborhoods. I woke up to a very loud mechanical clanking just outside my hotel. The sounds of Lebanese military tanks rolling pass the hotel window quickly eliminated the little rest I hoped to get.

•Reports indicate at least 90 people killed last night and more than 300 wounded in the fighting; in just two days more than 160 people were killed, mostly civilians caught in the cross-fire. It’s a sickness – hatred is a cancer destroying everything here.

•At the Marine base this morning I could see the visible impact of the shelling by the U.S. 6th Fleet on the mountain range surrounding the base. Huge billows of smoke rose as the shells hit their targets. Cpls. Herbert McKnight and Greg Nelson, both from the New Orleans area, said the Marine base was shelled by rockets overnight. Herbert was stationed in a sandbag bunker on the rooftop of the base. This bunker, accessible only by a ladder, is the highest point on the Marine base. It also appears to be a very vulnerable position, an obvious target for a sniper. Cpl. Nelson, from Slidell, manned a .50-caliber machine gun overlooking the Kalda mountain range near the rear of the base. Cpl. Brian Campbell, only 19 years old and from Lafayette, was quickly unloading supplies from a helicopter. The copters didn’t stay long . . . they couldn’t – mortars usually found their targets. Brian, Greg and Herbert, these young Marines, were reminders that wars are fought by the very young, often placed in horrific circumstances and forced to grow up quickly. Several times I asked them to move their helmet up so I could see their eyes while filming. “Son, can you move your helmet up just a little?” I said. I would later say, “Marine, would you push your helmet back just a little?” Eighteen, 19 years old . . . here in hell, when others of their age are probably wrapping Christmas presents and acting goofy back home.

But on the Marine base at the Beirut International Airport, the one focal point no one can pass without some reflection of what happened months earlier is the huge crater. That crater once housed the Marines in a four story building. Every time I moved past it, I thought of the young men like Greg, Brian and Herbert, and then I said a small prayer for the families of the 241 Marines that died here.

•The Marine base alarm is sounding. The Druse militias are firing mortars now. In a few seconds, we must make the decision to stay on the Marine base during the shelling and miss our satellite deadline or leave and walk into the chaos and madness of the streets. We decide to leave. A condition-1 alert has been initiated . . . there are incoming mortar rounds in the distance, and the front gate will be locked shortly. The Marine base is the target.

We had to leave quickly. But as I left the Marine base I noticed a small memorial in front of the former Marine barracks. Despite the imminent danger, I couldn’t help but stop, notice and film the small bouquet of light blue flowers ringed around a Marine-issued camouflage hat. Above the flowers was a small, white sign facing east, toward the city of Beirut. The small sign simply described the Marines’ mission in Beirut: To the “24th MAU, they came in peace.”

It’s a dangerous world out there. •

Beirut Vet's daughter receives Gift

2008-11-22T16:31:00.000-05:00

PEOPLE PROFILE: Kira Kremer receives Freedom Alliance Scholarship

By Bill Wolcott
E-mail Bill
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Kira Kremer, 21, a 2005 graduate of Lockport High School, is getting help with tuition to the SUNY Upstate Medical University with a scholarship from the Freedom Alliance Scholarship.

The scholarships are for children of U.S. service members who have been killed or permanently disabled in an operational mission. Her dad, Daniel Kremer, was wounded in 1983 while serving as a Marine in Beruit, Lebanon.

“I don’t remember much,” Kremer said of the Sept. 6, 1983, shelling. “They sent me out to do reconnaissance at the south end of the runway at the airport. They opened up with everything. It blew me 30 yards. I was blind, deaf and bleeding.”

The artillery round landed about 4 or 5 feet from the Marine sergeant. He was told that shell left an umbrella signature and it was too close to kill him.

“I just got real damn lucky,” he said.

Who did it? “Nobody wanted us there,” Dan Kremer said. “They’ve been fighting there 2,000 years and seemed to focus attentions on us.”

On Oct. 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck barracks in Beirut that housed U.S. and French military forces. The bombs killed hundreds of servicemen, the majority of whom were U.S. Marines.

Kremer, who could not be evacuated after the Sept. 6 incident, was there, at the barracks. He had just gotten off a guard duty shift.

He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

Kremer got out of the Marines at 21, but later enlisted in the National Guard during the first Gulf War. He has worked at several manufacturing jobs.

Two years ago, Kremer was classified 100 percent permanently disabled as a result of service-connected injuries in Beruit. He has post traumatic stress disorder.

“At 43, I’m retired,” he said. “It’s sobering.”

Kira receives $6,000 a year through the Freedom Alliance Scholarship. The fund has now awarded $2.5 million to the children of military heroes.

“It really helps me reflect on my dad’s service,” she said. “It makes me really proud. I didn’t understand before. It brings us together. I can be proud of him and he can be proud of me ... The important lessons my father learned while in the Marine Corps have been instilled in me through his parenting, and I believe that I am a much stronger well-rounded person because of it."

Kira is an active member of her school and community while pursuing a degree in physical therapy. She volunteers at the Syracuse VA Hospital, plays for the school Rugby Club and is a member of the honor society.

“We are proud to grant this scholarship to such an impressive student as Kira Kremer,” said Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilgannon. “The purpose of this scholarship is to help alleviate the financial burdens of college tuition and also to honor the service of our military heroes through the achievements of their sons and daughters."

Kira attended the SUNY school of Environmental Science and Forestry and is working toward a doctorate in physical therapy. “I want to help people,” Kira said. “The doctor-client time will be good for me.”

Daniel, who has had a series of mini-strokes, is now retired. He praises the Freedom Alliance. “It’s so personal with them,” he said. “It was wonderful support.”

Last year, the family was taken to the Army-Navy game in D.C., given the VIP treatment and met Oliver L. North, who founded Freedom Alliance in 1990.

Ashley, an older sister, attends medical school in Erie, Pa. Their brother, Daniel, is a senior at Lockport High School.

USS San Antonio honor our Heroes

2008-11-05T17:43:00.000-05:00

San Antonio Sailors, Marines Honor Beirut Bombing Victims
Story Number: NNS081028-03
Release Date: 10/28/2008 6:28:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW) Brian Goodwin, Iwo Jima Expeditionary Public Affairs Center
USS SAN ANTONIO, At Sea (NNS) -- Marines and Sailors gathered on the flight deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD 17) Oct. 23 to honor their comrades killed during the Beirut bombing 25 years ago.

On Oct. 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings housing U.S. military forces in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 Marines, Sailors and Soldiers.

"The Beirut bombing was an event that has stuck with me since I was 16 years old," said Marine Lt. Col. John Giltz, Combat Logistics Battalion 26 commanding officer. "The weight, tragedy and inspiration have been with me for 25 years now, and to be a part of today's ceremony and remember those who went before us is a moment I'll never forget."

Giltz addressed his Marines during the ceremony.

"We are not invulnerable," said Giltz. "You are all just like them -- young, full of life, had goals and aspirations. Their lives were taken in an instant, and so we dedicate ourselves to training and remember what it is to be a Marine."

San Antonio's commanding officer, Cmdr. Kurt Kastner, stated the importance of the event.

"Our first duty is to remember," said Kastner. "That is the motto and mission of Beirut's Veteran Association, established in 1992. The second is to perpetuate the memory of those 241 Sailors, Soldiers and Marines that gave their lives for their country."

Kastner's words touched his Sailors.

"The speeches made about the Beirut bombing were very motivational in not letting me forget why we are out here and what we are doing," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SW) Joseph Nayock.

Several of the junior Marines were responsible for putting the ceremony together.

"The Marines that lost their lives in that tragedy were all part of an amphibious unit, and I thought it would be good for us to honor their service on an amphibious ship," said Cpl. Christopher Hrbek. "We as Marines and Sailors hold a lot of tradition in what we stand for, and to carry on those traditions is to remember those who have made sacrifices."

Senior leadership was proud of how the junior Marines set up the ceremony.

"Many of these types of events are usually handled by staff, COs or officers, but today it was all corporals and sergeants, the backbone of leadership," said Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin McKinney. "It was a very touching ceremony, and I was moved on how the non-commissioned officers did it today."

San Antonio is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Operations to conduct Maritime Security Operations (MSO). MSO help develop security in the maritime environment. From security arises stability that results in global economic prosperity. MSO complement the counterterrorism and security efforts of regional nations and seek to disrupt violent extremists' use of the maritime environment as a venue for attack or to transport personnel, weapons or other material.

Dedicated to those who remain forever young

2008-11-03T17:43:00.001-05:00

Remembering Beirut, Those Who Never Returned Home

By: Col. Charles A. Dallachie

Enlarge Photo

They Came In Peace... the Beirut Memorial at the entrance to Camp Johnson with Abbé Godwin’s bronze standing eternal guard. Many of the victims of this catastrophe were Jacksonville residents; husbands, fathers, neighbors, fellow church members, little league coaches, friends. Their names are carved into the wall out of frame to the left. Extending from this location to the entrance of Camp Lejeune are the memorial Bradford Pear trees, one for each fallen serviceman. Their verdant white bloom every spring symbolizes peace and a spiritual continuum.

Photographer: courtesy, Onslow County, NC

Adjust font size:

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.

Bike for the Beirut Vets

2008-10-12T17:23:00.000-04:00

Beirut Veterans Tribute

Reported by: Ben Manning

Friday, Oct 10, 2008 @05:48pm EST

HOLLIDAYSBURG, BLAIR COUNTY

A

Huntingdon
County man will bike more than 500 miles trying to get a commemorative stamp for Beirut Veterans.

Mike Bangert served as a Marine in
Beirut. He got their just after the October 23rd 1983 bombing. 241 servicemen were killed in the barracks bombing. 18 of them were from
Pennsylvania.

Now that we're coming up on the 25th anniversary he wants to honor the veterans that lost their lives. He took off Friday morning on a 550 mile ride from Hollidasyburg to
Camp
Lejeune in
North Carolina. He’s using the ride to draw attention to House Resolution 887. That bill calls for a US Postal Stamp to honor the Marines' peace keeping mission in
Beirut. He’s already got 20 congressman signed on to co-sponsor the bill. He needs a total of 50. Congressmen Bill Shuster and John Murtha are on the list.

He’s hoping to convince people along his bike route to call their Congressman and get them to co-sponsor the bill.

Bangert will arrive in
Camp
Lejeune for the remembrance ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the
Beirut bombing.

In Honor of a Hero

2008-09-11T17:41:00.001-04:00

In Honor of a Hero

As part of the Project 2996 - today we remember, and honor the victims of the September 11 attacks.

never enough of it
time marches on
trickles away
each day
dies
and
each day
a new dawn
time marches on
never enough of it

John Chipura knew how precious life was. He learned that lesson at age 21, on October 23, 1983 as a Marine in Beirut.

John was a 21 year old radio operator on his second tour as a member of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment 24th Marine Amphibious Unit. He was stationed in Beirut when terrorists with a truck bomb took out the battalion headquarters barracks and killed 241 of his fellow leathernecks and service men.

John dodged death and came home from that tragedy. He didn't speak much about it, he didn't dwell on the fact that he survived because he was leaving the barracks early to assume his post as a radio operator when the bomb exploded. He didn't dwell on the fact that the man walking just behind him was killed.

John's brother, Gerard Chipura, a fireman with Ladder Company 148, said his brother never forgot his experiences as a Marine. "We didn’t know it, but John kept in touch with all the families from the bombing," his brother Gerard said, "I don't think John ever thought he would live to see anything worse than what he saw that day in Beirut."

He was marked by the experience. "When he came back, he was more of a hugging person. He knew how precious life was because it could all be over in a second." - Nancy Chipura, John's sister

His brother Gerard said John was missing for three whole days in Beirut before he was able to get through to the family and let them know he was fine. He said the 9/11 deja-vu experience was painfully "surreal." "My sister said, 'I'm going to give him three days.' But he hasn't shown up yet. Not this time," said his brother.

John lived his life to the end as a hero.

Gerard and his family find solace in the words that John wrote in November 2000, on the occasion of the Corps 225 birthday: "We Marines are truly blessed. We get to enjoy the sweet taste of this Freedom because we know its price."

“He was a true Marine" . - FDNY Lt. John Atwell

After his honorable discharge from the Marines in 1987, John desired to continue serving the community and joined the city Police Department in 1987. He was assigned to the 72nd Precinct in his old neighborhood, Sunset Park, for seven years. John devoted three years service in Brooklyn South Narcotics and then returned to the 72nd Precinct as a detective.

“As a police officer he was always looking to clean up the neighborhood and help other families. He was very caring, and nothing got in his way or bothered him.” - Gina DeFalco, John's Fiancee.

After 12 years of service to the NYPD, John yearned for the camaraderie of the firehouse; his brother, Gerard, was a fireman, as their father, Anthony, had been. In August, 1998, John achieved his dream.

Following the footsteps of his father, Anthony Chipura, John joined the city Fire Department. "He knew you work as a team, as a unit in the Fire Department -- he liked that,' said his brother. "He always thought people call the Police Department when there's a problem, to get somebody bad, but you call the Fire Department when people needed help."

Graduating from firefighter training in 1998, John Chipura was assigned to Engine Co. 219, Brooklyn, for one year. He then rotated through Ladder Co. 81, South Beach, and Engine Co. 80 in Manhattan. John had recently returned to Engine Co. 219 to once again serve Downtown Brooklyn.

On Sept. 11, he arrived at Engine 219 to work the day tour and was detailed to Ladder Co. 105, which is housed in the same location. After reports of the first attack, he called his sister, Nancy Chipura, who worked on the 69th Floor of Tower 1. He was unable to make contact. Just before responding to the World Trade Center, John called his fiancee, Gina DeFalco, who also worked Downtown, for more information about Nancy. He received no word about his sister when he arrived at the scene at 8:45 a.m. with Ladder 105. “There wasn’t any news,” said Ms. DeFalco, “but later, when I heard that Nancy was safe, I called John to tell him. But his ladder company had already left.” John and the five other firefighters in the truck have not been heard from since.

Witnesses told the family he was last seen assisting in the evacuation of many people from Tower 2. "He was inside when it collapsed," said his brother. "I know he was looking for my sister."

Mr. Chipura and Ms. DeFalco, who met through a friend in the Fire Department, had planned to marry just six weeks after Sept. 11. "Getting married was the sole focus of his being for the last few months," said his brother. "He was 39-years-old and finally found the right girl. He held her so close to his heart."

Gerard Chipura said his brother was always trying to help people and make them "feel good." "He wanted to make everybody happy. He didn't want anybody to be upset," said his brother. "When John was not serving the community, he was serving his family and friends. He was a great conversationalist, problem solver, hard worker and friend," said his brother. "John embraced hobbies such as country dancing and motorcycling because he liked the sense of community he found."

John Chipura was a mentor for many at Boy Scout Troop 21. He was a member of the troop since 1974 and went on to serve as assist scout master until he was lost in the attack. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Iwo Jima Association and the Beirut Veterans Memorial Association. John was also a member of St. Joseph and St. Thomas Parish, Pleasant Plains.

His mother, Jane Chipura, died in 1994 and his father, Anthony, died in 1996. In addition to his brother, Gerard, and his sister, Nancy Chipura, surviving are his twin sister, Susan Cohen; another sister, Eileen Cella; and several nieces and nephews. John also left behind the love of his life, Gina DeFalco.

Dear John,

In the blink of an eye
Our lives went awry
Not a day has gone by
That we all do not cry

For what we had
For what was planned
For what took place
For what was yet to be

For births, promotions, holidays, birthdays,
graduations, bar mitzvahs
Celebrated without you, but always thinking of you
Another blink of an eye

And a year has gone by
How can it be?
It went so fast and yet so much has passed
So many tears, can it only be a year?

Lives went on, go on, different, not the same
We try, we share, we wonder why
We try to make sense of that blink of an eye
We try to make each blink count

We try to do what you would want us to
We try to make that blink of an eye
Mean something.

Help us, show us, tell us
Be there as you always were
In our hearts, in our thoughts
In every blink of our eyes.

With all our love always,

Your family, friends, fiancé and Mom-to-be

Except for the short poem at the beginning of this post, none of these words are mine. They are culled from various articles on the internet. I have never met John Chipura, but I wish I had the opportunity to do so. In life, John touched so many lives, not only his family and friends, but also, every person he came into contact with. Serving as a Marine, John protected our freedom, and as police officer and a fireman, John helped make so many people safe.

I feel a special kind of love for John Chipura, and I thank G-d for men like him.

This Tribute was originally posted on September 11, 2006, and is reposted today as part of this year's Project 2996. The original post can be found here.

His resting place shall be in the Garden of Eden.
Therefore, the Master of mercy will care for him
under the protection of His wings for all time
And bind his soul in the bond of everlasting life.
God is his inheritance and he will rest in peace
and let us say Amen.

Posted by LindaSoG at September 11, 2008 12:01 AM

When will we get our Recognition?????

2008-09-05T20:03:00.001-04:00

Mickey Mouse Gets Greater Recognition Than U.S. Marines

By MIDDLE EAST TIMES

Published: September 02, 2008

A U.S. Marine wipes a tear from his eye minutes after a truck bomb blew up a building housing U.S. Marines in Beirut killing 241 U.S. service personnel in Oct. 1983. (Photo by Claude Salhani) U.S. postage stamp of Mickey Mouse. (USPS)

U.S. Marine veterans who served in Beirut during the deployment of the multinational force in 1982-83 and families of the victims who gave their lives in the service of peace are discovering that the U.S. Postal Service reserves greater recognition to Mickey Mouse than to fallen Marines.

The Beirut Veterans Association has been struggling with the Post Office bureaucracy for nearly 25 years -- in fact next Oct. 23 will mark the 25th commemoration of the attack on the U.S. Marine compound near Beirut Airport in which 241 U.S. servicemen, the vast majority Marines, lost their lives when a truck filled with explosives rammed into the Battalion Landing Team building where the Marines were housed. It was described as the largest non-nuclear explosion in history and marked the beginning of a shadowy war which continues to this day.

The Marines, who are used to fighting tough battles seem, however, to be facing a losing fight with the United States Postal Service (USPS). Despite numerous attempts and petitions to have a stamp issued, the USPS -- and the powers that be in Washington, D.C. -- prefers to have the whole incident forgotten. The "official" reason from the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee for refusing to issue a stamp commemorating the Marines' deployment and the greatest loss in human lives the corps sustained since the WWII battle of Iwo Jima is supposedly based on standing rules not to commemorate disasters.

According to David Failor, the executive director of Stamp Services of the USPS, the committee has a "longstanding general policy not to honor the victims of tragic situations, including natural disaster, acts of violence and catastrophes."

Randy Gaddo, the president of the Beirut Veterans Association (BVA) said he was "shocked and appalled at this decision and especially at the characterization of our killed-in-action Marines, sailors and soldiers as 'victims' of a tragic situation."

The U.S. servicemen killed in Lebanon, says Gaddo, "were not victims" They were sent to Beirut on a new, "untested and dangerous mission: Peacekeeping." And they were the first casualties in the global war on terror, and were killed in action.

Party politics and who is or is not to blame for placing the Marines in harm's way is not the object of this exercise. What the BVA is attempting to do is keep the memory of those who died in the quest for peace in the Middle East alive. No doubt that deserves a stamp.

There are numerous examples contradicting the committee's assertion that their denial is based on existing policy; Some examples:

-- The Liberty Bell stamp: on July 8, 1776, the Liberty Bell is said to have rung out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon. The bell is forever associated with one of the most violent eras of American history as Americans fought to forge a bold new nation. The bell later became an icon for another violent chapter in American history when abolitionists adopted it as their symbol to end slavery.

-- The Purple Heart stamp: is awarded to any member of the Armed Force or any civilian national of the United States who, while serving with one of the U.S. Armed Services, has been wounded or killed.

-- Sugar Ray Robinson stamp: paying homage to a man who represents the most elementally violent sport of boxing.

-- National WWII Memorial, Spanish American War, Korean War, Civil War, Vietnam War stamps: all representing violent acts and all which included catastrophes of epic proportion, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.

-- Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer and Hospice Care stamps: representing victims of a tragic illness and disease.

Stamps have also been issued recognizing ducks, Star Wars, a silver coffee pot, Marvel Comics superheroes, the Muppets, tropical fruit, Daffy Duck, Wily Coyote, the Roadrunner, Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse.

We join the Beirut Veterans in asking the Post Master General to reconsider the BVA's request for a commemorative stamp to be issued. If Mickey and Minnie Mouse deserve a stamp, so does the memory of those who "came in peace."

The Iranian Money Trail where does it go?

2008-07-10T19:00:00.002-04:00

"Taken from the NY Sun, we are still looking for damages from the Iranians, and not received anything as of yet. Why do some politicians what to talk to this regime? "

Victims of the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut cannot attempt to seize funds belonging to Iran from international development banks or from state-run banks based in Japan and Korea, a federal judge has ruled.

Judge Royce Lamberth ruled yesterday that the institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have sovereign immunity and are exempt from most legal process.

In 2007, Judge Lamberth ruled that Iran was legally and financially responsible for the bombing because the Islamic nation funded and trained the terrorist group that carried it out, Hezbollah. He awarded the victims nearly $2.7 billion.

The summonses issued to the banks were some of more than two dozen issued by lawyers for the victims to multinational corporations and other entities earlier this year in a quest to track down Iranian money.

Judge Lamberth declined a request by a Japanese bank to sanction attorneys for the bombing victims for going after the state-run banks, but he gave the victims' lawyers a warning. "Plaintiffs' counsel has come dangerously close to such sanctionable conduct," the judge wrote. He said no punishment was warranted because "plaintiffs' counsels' misstatements of law may be attributed to lack of relevant legal expertise and incompetence."

A lawyer for the victims, David Cook, said he respected Judge Lamberth's rulings. "We are in the path of justice in enforcing this $2,656,944,877 judgment. Chasing around Iran down the path will not be easy effortless or free. Iran will never stop. But one day ... we will catch up," he said. He declined to comment on the judge's warning.

Mr. Cook said none of the writs served on multinational corporations or banks through the federal court in Washington had yet turned up Iranian funds, but that he is pursuing similar claims in four or five other American courts.

And you would like to talk to these people????

2008-07-08T18:58:00.002-04:00

It seems like we have been shouting about this for 25 years, new proof appears thanks to the pajamas media blog. Click the more link to view the entire post.

"The men who ordered the destruction of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie and the bombings of the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia are pursuing the nuclear program in Iran and with one goal in mind: to obtain The Bomb."

And they want to destroy you....... (more)

2008-06-15T18:04:00.000-04:00

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER GREAT MESSAGE FROM RANDY GADDO

PRESIDENT BEIRUT VETERANS OF AMERICA

MEMORIAL DAY IN PEACHTREE CITY, Georgia

May 26, 2008

Guest Speaker's Comments

Guest Speaker: Randy Gaddo, Chief Warrant Officer-4, USMC (Retired)

THANK YOU MARINE - AND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR BEING HERE TODAY… MEMORIAL DAY IS ALL ABOUT REMEMBERING, AND WHEN YOU LEAVE HERE TODAY I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER A FEW VERY IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN BEIRUT 25 YEARS AGO… THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I WANT TO TELL YOU BUT WE DO NOT HAVE TIME HERE. BUT, I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT 270 U.S. SERVICEMEN DIED IN BEIRUT BETWEEN 1982 AND 1984. I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT WE KNOW NOW THAT THEY WERE THE FIRST CASUALTIES IN THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR. I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT WHAT HAPPENED IN BEIRUT 25 YEARS AGO HAD A DIRECT CONNECTION TO WHAT HAPPENED ON SEPTEMBER 11^TH, 2001. IT ALSO HAS A DIRECT CONNECTION TO THE WAR WE NOW FIGHT IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN AND ELSEWHERE…

BUT IN ORDER TO REMEMBER WE GENRALLY NEED SOME SORT OF MEMORY TRIGGER, SOMETHING THAT WILL HELP US REMEMBER. FOR THOSE OF US WHO WERE THERE, WE HAVE OUR TRIGGERS AND THERE'S NOT A DAY GOES BY THAT SOMETHING DOESN'T REMIND US.

SO I AM GOING TO SHARE WITH YOU SOME THINGS ABOUT THE DAY OF THE BEIRUT BOMBING, OCTOBER 23, 1983…SOME THINGS I REMEMBER SO THAT YOU ALSO WILL HAVE A MEMORY TRIGGER TO REMEMBER.

I REMEMBER A DAY VERY MUCH LIKE THIS ONE HERE TODAY, PLEASANT, SUNNY, A LITTLE COOL, LIGHT BREEZE, QUIET, VERY QUIET…IN HINDSIGHT, TOO QUIET. IT WAS A SUNDAY. SUNDAY HAD GENERALLY BECOME A DAY OF REST FOR BEIRUT…I DON'T KNOW WHY, MAYBE BECAUSE AFTER CONSTANT FIGHTING THE REST OF THE WEEK EVERYONE JUST NEEDED A DAY OFF. AT ANY RATE, IT HAD BECOME A DAY WHEN U.S. SERVICEMEMBERS WOULD BE GIVEN AN EXTRA RATION OF SLEEP. AND OMLETTES. I REMEMBER WE NORMALLY HAD A HOT BREAKFAST, AND OMLETTES, ON SUNDAYS IN THE MESS HALL THAT WAS IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE BARRACKS. NO MORE OMLETTES AFTER OCTOBER 23^RD.

ON THAT OCTOBER MORNING I HAD GOTTEN UP EARLY BECAUSE I HAD WORK TO DO. I HAD EIGHT ROLLS OF FILM I HAD TO DEVELOP AND PRINT BEFORE I HELPED THE REST OF THE MARINES IN MY UNIT WATER PROOF OUR BUNKER BECAUSE WE WERE GOING INTO THE RAINY SEASON. SO AT 6 A.M. I WAS HALFWAY OVER TO THE BARRACKS WHICH WAS ABOUT A MINUTE WALK FROM MY TENT…AND I REMEMBER THE BIRDS WERE SINGING LOUDER THAN I'VE EVER HEARD BIRDS SING. I MEAN IT WAS LIKE A SYMPHONY. MAYBE BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SHOOTING IN THE MOUNTAINS, NO ARTILLERY IN THE DISTANCE. MAYBE THE BIRDS WERE TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING. I WAS THE ONLY PERSON MOVING AROUND AT THAT POINT. MOST EVERYONE ELSE WAS SLEEPING, OR ON GUARD DUTY. MAYBE IT WAS THE BIRDS WHO TOLD ME I NEEDED A CUP OF COFFEE BEFORE I WENT TO WORK. SO I TURNED AROUND AND WENT BACK TO THE COMBAT OPERATIONS CENTER AND GOT A CUP OF JAVA AND SAT DOWN AT MY LITTLE FIELD DESK TO PLAN MY WORK. ABOUT 20 MINUTES LATER I STARTED TO PUSH MYSELF OUT OF MY CHAIR TO HEAD BACK TO THE BARRACKS…WHEN I HEARD AN M-16 FIRE TWO OR THREE SHOTS. I STOPPED BECAUSE IT WAS NOT A SOUND I EXPECTED TO HEAR ON SUCH A BEAUTIFUL QUIET MORNING. A COUPLE OF SECONDS LATER I FELT A WARM RUSH OF AIR ON MY FACE, LIKE A BLAST FURNACE, THEN HEARD AND FELT A THUNDEROUS THUD THAT ECHOED OFF THE HILLS AROUND US…AND A SECOND LATER I WAS LIFTED UP AND THROWN BACK SEVERAL FEET LIKE A RAG DOLL. IT FELT LIKE I'D BEEN HIT IN THE CHEST WITH A 2x4. I WAS DAZED BUT I HAD MY HELMET AND FLAK JACKET ON AND THAT PROBABLY ABSORBED A LOT OF THE SHOCK OF THE BLAST WAVE THAT HAD HIT ME. MY COMPATRIOTS IN THE TENT HAD ALL BEEN IN THEIR SLEEPING BAGS ON COTS AND THEY HAD BEEN UNCEREMONIOUSLY THROWN ON THE DIRT AND WERE SQUIRMING AROUND IN THEIR SLEEPING BAGS WONDERING HOW THEY'D ENDED UP ON THE GROUND. I THOUGHT WE'D BEEN HIT BY A ROCKET OR ARTILLERY ROUND SO I GOT THEM ALL IN OUR BUNKER WHICH WAS RIGHT BEHIND THE TENT AND WENT OUTSIDE TO SEE WHAT HAD HAPPENED. I EXPECTED TO SEE A SMOLDERING HOLE OUTSIDE OUR TENT. WHAT I DID SEE IS SOMETHING I'LL NEVER FORGET. OVER IN THE DIRECTION OF THE BARRACKS WHERE I'D BEEN HEADED 20 MINUTES EARLIER, I SAW A MUSHROOM CLOUD RISING SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET IN THE AIR…I REMEMBER IT WAS STILL RISING. I TOOK OFF RUNNING TOWARDS IT AND AS I CAME AROUND THE CORNER OF A BUILDING THAT WAS BETWEEN ME AND THE BARRACKS, I REMEMBER THAT ALL THE LEAVES HAD BEEN STRIPPED FROM THE TREES AND BUSHES EVERYWHERE AND WERE LYING ON THE GROUND. I KEPT RUNNING TOWARDS THE MUSHROOM CLOUD AND AS I CAME AROUND ANOTHER CORNER WHERE NORMALLY I WOULD HAVE SEEN THE BARRACKS, I SAW THE CONTROL TOWER OF THE BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. I STOPPED DEAD IN MY TRACKS BECAUSE THAT WASN'T WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SEEING. I REMEMBER THE FEELING THAT THINGS WENT INTO SLOW MOTION FOR A WHILE THEN. I COULD SEE THE MUSHROOM CLOUD STILL RISING BUT THINGS WERE FALLING TOO…A GRAY, HEAVY DUST WAS DRIFTING DOWN COVERING EVERYTHING LIKE A THICK BLANKET. AS MY BRAIN STARTED ENGAGING AGAIN I FOCUSED CLOSER IN AND BEGAN TO SEE THINGS, HUMAN THINGS, THAT SNAPPED ME BACK TO REALITY BECAUSE..WITHOUT GOING INTO DETAIL… IT WAS OBVIOUS MANY MEN HAD DIED THERE.

I RAN BACK TO THE COMBAT OPERATIONS CENTER TO REPORT WHAT I'D SEEN AND GET HELP. I SAW MY BOSS, MAJOR BOB JORDAN, COMING OUT OF HIS HOOTCH COVERED WITH DUST AND LOOKING DAZED BECAUSE HE'D BEEN BLOWN OUT OF HIS RACK TOO AND I SAID…OR PROBABLY YELLED, I DON'T RECALL…THAT THE BARRACKS WAS GONE. NOW, THOSE WORDS IN BEIRUT IN 1983 WERE AS IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPREHEND AS "THE TWIN TOWERS ARE GONE" WERE IN 2001. THIS WAS A TWO-FOOT THICK REINFORCED CONCRETE FORTRESS THAT HAD SERVED AS HEADQUARTERS FOR THE ISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS AND OTHERS…IT HAD WITHSTOOD ARTILLERY AND HEAVY NAVAL GUNFIRE WITH BARELY A SCRATCH. YET, IT WAS GONE. WELL, LONG STORY SHORT, I GOT THE MAJOR TO UNDERSTAND AND WE GATHERED OUR FORCES AND STARTED RESCUE AND RECOVERY OPERATIONS.

NOW, LET ME REWIND A BIT AND GIVE YOU ANOTHER MEMORY TRIGGER. LET'S GO BACK TO 6 A.M., AND GO OVER TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE FOUR-STORY BARRACKS AND GIVE YOU THE MEMORY OF A MARINE CORPORAL WHO WAS ON GUARD DUTY…THE ONE WHO I HEARD FIRE HIS WEAPON. THIS CORPORAL MANNED A SENTRY POST THAT WAS NEAR THE ENTRANCE ON THAT SIDE OF THE BARRACKS. HE SAW A LARGE TRUCK CIRCLE A PARKING LOT OUTSIDE THE PERIMETER OF OUR AREA, LIKE DOZENS OF TRUCKS DID EVERY DAY AS THEY DELIVERED THINGS TO THE AIRPORT. ONLY THIS TIME, THE TRUCK CIRCLED ONCE, CIRCLED AGAIN, AND THEN CAME SPEEDING DIRECTLY FOR THE CORPORAL. HE REALIZED IT WAS AN IMMEDIATE THREAT BUT BECAUSE OF OUR RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, WE WERE UNDER ORDERS NOT HAVE LOADED WEAPONS. THE BULLETS WERE IN THE MAGAZINE, WHICH WAS IN A POUCH ON HIS EQUIPMENT BELT. OUR RULES OF ENGAGEMENT AS A PEACEKEEPING FORCE ALSO DICTATED THAT WE COULD NOT FIRE ON ANYONE UNLESS WE KNEW THEY WERE A THREAT, AND WERE SUPPOSED TO GET AUTHORIZATION FROM HIGHER HEADQUARTERS FIRST. BUT THE CORPORAL DIDN'T NEED HIGHER HEADQUARTERS TO TELL HIM THIS WAS A DEADLY THREAT, SO HE PULLED OUT A MAGAZINE, LOCKED AND LOADED AND GOT OFF A COUPLE OF SHOTS AS THE TRUCK PASSED. BUT IT WAS TOO LATE. HE SAW THE FACE OF THE DRIVER - WHO WE LEARNED LATER WAS IRANIAN…AND THE DRIVER WAS SMILING AS HE DROVE 12,000 POUNDS OF GAS ENHANCED MILITARY GRADE EXPLOSIVES INTO THE BUILDING AND DETONATED IT. THE FBI INVESTIGATORS LATER SAID THAT IT WAS THE LARGEST NON-NUCLEAR BLAST THEY'D EVER INVESTIGATED. 220 MARINES, 18 SAILORS AND 3 SOLDIERS DIED AS PEACEKEEPERS.

NOW HOPEFULLY YOU'VE PICKED UP A COUPLE OF MEMORY TRIGGERS: QUIET MORNINGS, COFFEE, LOUD BIRDS, OMLETTES, BIG TRUCKS---SO YOU'LL REMEMBER THIS NEXT TIME YOU SEE THEM.

NOW, LET ME GIVE YOU A FEW FACTS WE'VE LEARNED THROUGH VARIOUS INVESTIGATIONS SINCE THE BOMBING THAT CONNECTS THE DOTS BETWEEN THEN AND NOW.

FIRST, WE KNOW THAT THE TERRORIST GROUP HEZBOLLAH, WHICH WAS FORMED AND SUPPORTED BY IRAN, AND STILL IS, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BOMBING. WE KNOW THAT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF IRANIAN GOVERNMENT HAD ISSUED ORDERS TO HEZBOLLAH TO TAKE EXTREME ACTION AGAINST THE MULTINATIONAL FORCE IN BEIRUT, CONSISTING OF U.S., FRENCH, ITALIAN AND BRITISH TROOPS. THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE FRENCH TROOPS WAS BOMBED SIMULTANEOUSLY, KILLING 89 FRENCH TROOPS. WE KNOW THAT THESE ATTACKS WERE PLANNED FOR MANY MONTHS, AND THAT THEY DID PRACTICE RUNS, INCLUDING A SMALLER SCALE ATTACK OF THE U.S. EMBASSY IN BEIRUT ON APRIL 18, 1983, KILLING 60.

WE KNOW THAT ONE IRANIAN HEZBOLLAH TERRORIST WAS THE ARCHITECT OF THIS NEW SIMULTANEOUS ATTACK, MASS BOMBING, TACTIC, AND THAT THE ATTACK ON U.S. AND FRENCH TROOPS WAS A DELIBERATE TEST. THE FACT THAT THE MULTINATIONAL FORCE PULLED OUT SHORTLY AFTER THE BOMBINGS VALIDATED THAT TACTIC. NOW, HERE'S ANOTHER THING I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER: AT THAT TIME THERE WAS A YOUNG HEZBOLLAH MAN TRAINING TO BE A TERRORIST, BY THE NAME OF OSAMA BIN LADEN. HE TOOK HIS LESSONS FROM THE DEVELOPER OF THIS NEW TACTIC. AFTER 1983 THEY PRACTICED AND HONED THIS TACTIC FOR YEARS, TESTING IT, IN ATTACKS SUCH AS THE FIRST BOMBING OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN 1995. THEY CONTINUED TESTING, IMPROVING. THEN ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, THEY USED IT AGAIN, SIMULTANEOUS ATTACKS, ONLY THIS TIME USING COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT INSTEAD OF TRUCKS. SO YOU NOW SEE THE DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 11^TH, 2001 AND OCTOBER 23, 1983. SAME TERRORISTS, SAME TACTIC. THEY'VE BEEN AT THIS A VERY LONG TIME, AND THEY WILL CONTINUE UNLESS THEY ARE STOPPED.

AS I SPEAK, THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM HERE IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD, OUR TROOPS ARE ENGAGED IN A WORLD WAR UNLIKE ANY BEFORE IT…IT HAS BEEN CALLED WORLD WAR III - THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR - A WAR AGAINST A SHADOWY ENEMY WHO HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DEPLOY WORLD WIDE - TERRORISTS - WHO LONG AGO SET A GOAL THEY SAY IS BASED ON THEIR EXTREME INTERPRETATION OF A RELIGION. THE GOAL IS SIMPLE - TO FORCE THE WORLD TO THEIR WAY OF LIFE…AND ANY MEANS JUSTIFIES THAT END. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE ATROCITIES THEY WILL COMMIT.

ON OCTOBER 23^RD, 1983, HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN WERE LEFT WITHOUT FATHERS; HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN WIVES WITHOUT HUSBANDS; AMERICAN MOTHERS AND FATHERS WOULD SEE THEIR SON COME HOME IN A CASKET.

I'D LIKE TO TELL YOU ABOUT ONE LITTLE GIRL WHOSE DADDY DIED IN THE BEIRUT BOMBING. THIS LITTLE GIRL WAS A BABY WHEN HER DADDY, A MARINE CAPTAIN, WAS TAKEN FROM BY TERRORISTS. SHE NEVER REALLY KNEW HER FATHER. SHE KNEW THAT HER MOTHER CALLED HIM A PEACEKEEPER, AND A HERO. SHE DIDN'T KNOW IT THEN, BUT HER DADDY AND HIS BUDDIES WERE SUCCEEDING IN THEIR MISSION IN BEIRUT BACK IN 1983, AND PEACE WAS A POSSIBILITY BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE…THAT'S WHY THE TERRORISTS HAD TO KILL HIM….BECAUSE FOR THEM PEACE AND FREEDOM MESSED UP THEIR PLANS. SHE NEVER REALLY GOT TO KNOW HER FATHER - EXCEPT THROUGH THE LETTERS HE WOULD SEND HOME TO HER REGULARLY LIKE A SORT OF DIARY TO LET HER KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING AND WHY. SHE KEPT ALL THE LETTERS AND READ THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND SHE WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HER FATHER.

I MET THIS YOUNG LADY DURING THE 20^TH REMEMBRANCE OF THE BEIRUT BOMBING BACK IN 2003, AT THE BEIRUT MEMORIAL IN JACKSONVILLE, N.C. SHE HAD COME THERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT HER FATHER FROM THE MEN WHO HAD SERVED WITH HIM. SHE HAD ONE OF THOSE LETTERS WITH HER AND SHE LET ME READ IT. IT WAS, TO SAY THE LEAST, VERY EERIE. THE LETTER WAS DATED SEPT. 10, 1983…REMEMBER THAT DATE. IN THE LETTER, HER DAD SAID THAT PEOPLE BACK HOME WOULD QUESTION WHY THE UNITED STATES WAS INVOLVED IN BEIRUT, AND WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO LET THE PEOPLE THERE GAIN THEIR FREEDOM AND STRENGTH. HE TOLD HER SOMETHING IN THE LETTER THAT, AS I READ IT THERE 20 YEARS AFTER HE WROTE IT, SENT CHILLS UP MY SPINE. HE TOLD HER THAT IT WAS FAR BETTER TO CONFRONT THE TERRORIST ENEMY THERE WHERE THEY LIVED RATHER THAN HAVE TO FIGHT THEM 20 YEARS LATER IN THE UNITED STATES. HE WROTE THAT LETTER TO HIS LITTLE GIRL 18 YEARS TO THE DAY BEFORE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE CAPTAIN'S WORDS PREDICTED WHAT WE NOW KNOW. HAD WE STOOD OUR GROUND 25 YEARS AGO, IT IS VERY POSSIBLE SEPTEMBER 11^TH WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. AND ANYONE WHO THINKS WE CAN PULL BACK INTO A SHELL NOW AND HOPE TERRORISM WILL GO AWAY SIMPLY ISN'T LOOKING AT THE LESSONS HISTORY OFFERS. IF WE DON'T TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM, THEY WILL BRING IT TO US. PEOPLE ASK IF WE ARE ACCOMPLISHING ANYTHING IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN. I SAY YES. TERRORISTS NO LONGER HAVE A SAFE HAVEN IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN. THEY CAN'T OPERATE WITH IMPUNITY. IN TANDEM WITH OUR HOMELAND SECURITY EFFORTS WE HAVE MADE IT MORE DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO FUNCTION. BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE…AND THEY HAVE PROVEN THAT THEY WILL BIDE THEIR TIME SO WE CAN'T LET OUR GUARD DOWN. IF WE PULL OUT OF IRAQ BEFORE THE TIME IS RIGHT, GUESS WHO MOVES IN…IRAN, AND TERRORISTS WILL ONCE AGAIN HAVE A SAFE TRAINING GROUND. DO WE WANT TO LOOK BACK 25 YEARS FROM NOW AND REGRET NOT HAVING STAYED THE COURSE AGAIN? I HOPE NOT…

TOO MANY AMERICANS ALL TOO OFTEN TAKE FOR GRANTED THE SIMPLE CONCEPT OF BEING FREE - NOT THE PEOPLE HERE TODAY, NOT YOU, BECAUSE THE FACT YOU'RE HERE TELLS ME YOU DO GET IT. YOU DO KNOW THAT FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE - ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE WE PAY. AND YOU KNOW THAT WE MUST REMEMBER AND HONOR THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US. WE HAVE MANY DUTIES AS AMERICAN CITIZENS, BUT, THE FIRST DUTY IS TO REMEMBER. THANK YOU AND HAVE A WONDERFUL MEMORIAL DAY…

2008-06-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Flag Day: Four Personal Perspectives

President and Nancy Reagan file by the flag-draped caskets of victims of the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in an April 23, 1983 file photo. Photo courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Tomorrow (June 14, 2008) the United States observes National Flag Day, an annual tribute to the American flag, the ideals it stands for and the sacrifices made to preserve them.

President Woodrow Wilson recognized during his first Flag Day address in 1915 that the freedoms the U.S. flag stands for weren't and never would be free.

"The lines of red are lines of blood, nobly and unselfishly shed by men who loved the liberty of their fellowship more than they loved their own lives and fortunes," he said. "God forbid that we should have to use the blood of America to freshen the color of the flag."

But American blood has spilled time and time again to preserve American liberties, most recently in the war against violent extremism. In this year's Flag Day Proclamation, President Bush calls on the nation to remember the troops who carry Old Glory before them "as they defend the liberties for which it stands."

"On Flag Day and during National Flag Week, we remember those in uniform whose courage and sacrifice inspire us here at home," Bush said. "We also remember the rich history of one of our oldest national symbols and reflect on our duty to carry our heritage of freedom into the future."

Four current or retired servicemembers recently shared their personal perspectives about how the flag has inspired them through their proudest as well as darkest days as a symbol of patriotism, strength and resilience.

9/11 Terror Attacks

Few Americans will forget the image of three firefighters raising an American flag over the World Trade Center ruins in New York just hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But for Army Capt. Joe Minning and his fellow New York National Guard soldiers, many of them New York City firemen and police officers, the Ground Zero flag took on a very personal significance as they desperately sifted through the rubble looking for survivors.

"Seeing the flag raised above all of the rubble and ruins of the World Trade Center instilled a new sense of pride in me for our country," he said. "No matter what happens to the United States -- on foreign ground, on U.S. soil -- we, the American people, will always continue to move forward, rebuild and face any challenges that lie ahead"

Three years later, Minning and the "Fighting 69th" Brigade Combat Team would take that inspiration with them to Iraq, where they lost 19 soldiers securing Route Irish and its surrounding Baghdad neighborhoods during their year-long deployment.

Among those killed was Army Staff Sgt. Christian Engledrum, a New York firefighter who, like Minning, worked amid the dust and smoke immediately following the World Trade Center attack. Engledrum, the first New York City employee to die serving in Iraq, became a symbol of the unit that went from Ground Zero to Iraq's Sunni Triangle, and after his death, to the mountains of Afghanistan.

The flag and what it represents continue to motivate unit members during their current deployment to Afghanistan as embedded trainers for the Afghan National Army, he said.

Minning said he recognizes when he sees Old Glory flying at his tiny forward operating base there that he and his fellow soldiers are following in the footsteps of the earliest U.S. patriots and defending the same values they fought for.

"The flag is a symbol of everything the United States stands for -- from our founding fathers up until now, all that we have accomplished, and the hurtles our country has overcome," he said.

As a soldier, Minning said, he and his fellow soldiers recognize that it's up to them to continue carrying the torch forward.

"It is the American soldier who keeps the country moving forward and will never let it be taken down by any adversity. It is what we fight for and, if we fall in battle, what our coffins are draped with," he said. "And it's what we are committed to protecting and defending, no matter what the price."

The Iraq War

When thousands of people gathered in late April at the Cincinnati Red's Great American Ballpark, all eyes were on a platform at the pitchers' mound covered by the flag-draped casket of Army Sgt. Matt Maupin.

The mourners gathered to remember the 20-year-old Army reservist who went missing more than four years earlier when his convoy came under attack in April 2004. Insurgents released a videotape shortly after the incident showing him in captivity, and his whereabouts remained unknown until the Army found and positively identified his remains in March.

Command Sgt. Maj. Leon Caffie, the top enlisted Army Reserve soldier, was among countless people who had hoped and prayed for Maupin's safe return. As he joined the crowd in Ohio to honor and bid farewell to Maupin, Caffie looked out at thousands of hand-held flags waving in the stands, all surrounding Maupin's casket.

"It underscores the meaning and symbolism of the flag when you see it draped over the coffin of this young man who had the world going for him," Caffey said.

Maupin is among thousands of U.S. troops whose lives have been cut short at the hands of terrorists. Back in October 1983, 241 Marines were killed when a terrorist truck bomb struck their barracks in Beirut. In June 1996, 13 airmen died during the terror attack on Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In October 2000, 17 crewmembers from USS Cole were killed when a terrorist bomb ripped through their ship at Aden, Yemen.

Then came the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the war on terror they ushered in.

Through it all, the flag has served as an unwavering source of inspiration that's unified America, Caffie said.

"It has endured a lot -- being dragged through streets and burned and disrespected and spit on and stepped on," he said.

"And yet it has survived and served as a nucleus that brings this country together across gender, ethnic and religious backgrounds," he said. "It is the American flag that has united us and will continue to inspire patriotism in this country."

Beirut Embassy Bombing

Back in April 1983, rescue workers picking through the rubble of what had been the U.S. Embassy in Beirut following a terrorist attack uncovered the body of 21-year-old Marine Cpl. Robert V. McMaugh. Beside his body lay the tattered remains of the U.S. flag that had once stood proudly beside his guard post in the embassy's main lobby.

McMaugh's fellow Marine security guards draped their fallen comrade in a fresh American flag and carried him away on a stretcher. A squad of Marines snapped to attention and saluted.

"It was a poignant moment," recalled retired Chief Warrant Officer Charles W. "Bill" Henderson, a spokesman attached to 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit in Lebanon at the time of the bombing. "Everyone had been digging and digging, then suddenly, everything stopped. Not a word was said. Seeing the body of a fellow Marine covered with the American flag, ... it was an electrifying moment."

While stationed in Beirut, Henderson said, he came to appreciate the flag, not just as a piece of material, but as a symbol of courage. "Each Marine (in Lebanon) wore an American flag on his shirt," he said. "It did more than show that we were Americans. It showed that we were representing this country and what it stands for: freedom for all people."

Twenty-five years later, Henderson said terrorist attacks that followed that initial salvo and the thousands of Americans who have died as a result have only deepened the flag's symbolism.

"What's behind it are the blood and tears of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have sacrificed. The symbolism behind the flag is this long tradition of sacrifice to preserve liberty," he said.

"Yes, it is just a piece of cloth," he said. "But what it represents are the lives of thousands of Americans who have given everything for this nation -- who ask nothing in return but felt an obligation of duty to their country."

Henderson said he doesn't take disrespect for the flag lightly. "When you insult our flag, you insult the lives and the sacrifices of all the men and women who have served this country," he said.

On the other hand, honoring the flag is showing respect and appreciation for all they have done. "You are honoring everything that we, as a nation, have accomplished, what America has done, and what America represents to the world," he said.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

Now-retired Col. David M. Roeder remembers living without the freedoms he had worked to protect when he and more than 50 other Americans were taken hostage for 444 days in Iran in November 1979.

Roeder, assistant Air Force attache to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran at the time, watched helplessly as U.S. flag burnings became almost daily media events. His captors taunted the hostages by carrying garbage from one area of the embassy compound to another, wrapped in the American flag.

Through it all, Roeder said, he never lost faith in his country or the flag that symbolizes its ideals. "When you talk about a flag, whether it's standing in a place of honor at a ceremony or draped over a casket or waving from someone's house, you're talking about a symbol," he said.

"But the importance of that symbolism is monumental. It represents what we are, wherever we are in the world," he said.

"And no matter what anyone else says about it or does to it, the flag never loses dignity. It only gains dignity, because when someone attacks the American flag, it's because they recognize all that it represents and the greatness of this country."

Twenty-seven years after his release, Roeder, now 68, holds on to that symbolism with fervor. He flies a flag at his home in Pinehurst, N.C., and a summer home in Wisconsin every day. His pickup truck has not one, but several, flag stickers on it.

Like many Americans, he was moved by the show of Old Glory nationwide in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, and said he wishes it had never ended. "Wouldn't it be great if you could keep that going?" he said. "It tells everyone who sees it who we are and what we stand for," he said.

Candidate's Statements about Terriorist States

2008-04-13T19:12:00.003-04:00

This Blog has always been, and will always be, a sounding board against terrorism, wherever it is, and whatever political party is speaking about it. The goal of the Blog is to educate the citizens of the United States about Terrorists, their goals, and unfortunately, their achievements. Being a Beirut Veteran, I feel that I have a unique perspective on terrorism.

When I gather with fellow veterans, the topic sometimes reverts to the conversation of, "What would have happened if we stayed in Beirut, and Reagan didn't pull us out?" The what ifs, and the whys, haunt some of us to this day, that is why I for one, cannot remain quiet about terrorism, and the Countries that support them. I also cannot remain quiet when I hear statements made by candidates, about terrorism, such as those made by U.S. Senator Barrack Obama ,

"Renewing American Diplomacy

The Problem: The United States is trapped by the Bush-Cheney approach to diplomacy that refuses to talk to leaders we don't like. Not talking doesn't make us look tough – it makes us look arrogant, it denies us opportunities to make progress, and it makes it harder for America to rally international support for our leadership. On challenges ranging from terrorism to disease, nuclear weapons to climate change, we cannot make progress unless we can draw on strong international support.
Talk to our Foes and Friends: Obama is willing to meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe. He will do the careful preparation necessary, but will signal that America is ready to come to the table, and that he is willing to lead. And if America is willing to come to the table, the world will be more willing to rally behind American leadership to deal with challenges like terrorism, and Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs."
(text taken from the Barrack Obama for President 2008 web site)

These statements taken from Senator Obama's Web Site, appear to be naive when coupled with the experience of terrorism since 1983. Talking to these terrorist states does exactly the opposite of what Senator Obama thinks will happen. When Hamas (Palestine) Hezbollah (Iran) and other Terrorist States admit their role in the murder of 241 of my Brother Marines,Sailors and Soldiers, then, and only then, we might have a dialog.

How can Senator Obama state that he will speak with Iran when currently, they have been found guilty of murdering my fellow servicemen? Iran has not complied with the judgment issued by the Courts and has thumbed it's nose at the Courts and the United States.

" Iran reacted to a federal court ruling today by scoffing at paying a $2.65 billion penalty for its alleged role in a 1983 bombing, the AP reports. "The American judge's ruling is baseless," a spokesman said of yesterday's decision. "This ruling against Iran is politically motivated." Iran also denies any involvement in the US Marine barracks attack in Beirut, which killed 241 service members. Iran hinted it may countersue; the spokesman said: "Americans have taken repeated measures contrary to legal principles." It also complains that the court's decision was "not legally defendable" because it was made "without listening to the other side's views." Iran ignored the suit for 6 years and refused to mount a defense." (associated press 2007)

By talking to these Muslim extremist states, the U.S will appear weak; this has been proven by history time and time again, staring with Neville Chamberlain's conference with Hitler.

It seems that we all should take a step back and realize that these extremist nations want to eliminate us. Recent statements such as Senator Obama's send a chill down my spine.....

"I would meet directly with Iranian leaders. I would meet directly with Syrian leaders. We would engage in a level of aggressive personal diplomacy in which a whole host of issues are on the table. ... Iran and Syria would start changing their behavior if they started seeing that they had some incentives to do so, but right now the only incentive that exists is our president suggesting that if you do what we tell you, we may not blow you up." ( NY Times )

Senator Clinton's statements during the Campaign, have also been a frightful image of what could be.....

"I would engage in negotiations with Iran, with no conditions, because we don't really understand how Iran works. We think we do, from the outside, but I think it is misleading. ... I would negotiate with them, no conditions, but with some sticks that we could use to try to get leverage to move them in the direction we want."
— In New Hampshire, Oct. 10, 2007

Senator Clinton thinks we don't know how Iran works, believe me Senator, we all know how Iran works, and have witnessed it's deadly actions up close and personal.

Senator McCain does fare better in his outlook, but not by much.......

"What I would be concentrating my efforts on is trying to get a league of democracies outside of the U.N., because Russia and China are going to veto just about anything we want to act effectively against Iran, and those league of democracies should cut off any kind of loans, which are being extended as we speak by European banks; diplomatic, other sanctions to put real pressure on a rather fragile economy in Iran. I think that's the way we should pursue this."

— MSNBC, Sept. 17, 2007

League of democracies Senator? I think this was tried after WWI and directly led to WWII. We can do better that that. Well, the good part is that Senator McCain has not said he will meet with Iran......... yet.

I can be accused of overreacting to Terrorism, I can be accused of being a paranoid Former Marine who will never forgive or forget the atrocities of the past, I can be called a narrow minded thinker whose only goal is to seek revenge against those purported enemies. I can be accused of all these things, but, the one true fact is that I will forgive, but I will not forget, and neither can my fellow Americans.

Thank you for listening..

Hero Honored

2008-04-03T18:54:00.003-04:00

Northport street to be named for fallen Marine

Joseph Boccia, third from left, with brothers Ray, Rich and Jim.

BY LYNN PETRY |lynn.petry@newsday.com

9:23 AM EDT, April 1, 2008

In the early morning hours of Oct. 23, 1983, while soldiers were sleeping, a truck stocked with explosives was driven into the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, by a terrorist.

The suicide mission claimed the lives of 241 military personnel and seriously wounded countless others who were in Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission.

Twenty five years later, the incident is being referred to by the Beirut Veterans of America as, "the first battle of terrorism" and the group's motto is . . . . "The First Duty Is to Remember."

Capt. Joseph J. Boccia Jr., a Marine from Northport, lost his life in the attack, and keeping true to the veteran's motto, will be remembered in a ceremony later this month.

Starlit Drive, a street that he grew up on, will be named in his honor.

A family friend and Northport police chief, Ric Bruckenthal, is responsible for getting the job done. He contacted the Huntington Town Board saying he thought it would be a good idea to remember "all of our fallen."

"The Town was very receptive to the idea," Bruckenthal said, "this wasn't a big petition, I didn't have to beat them over the head, they were just very receptive."

The board approved the renaming at a meeting on March 18, voting to change the street name to "Captain Joseph J. Boccia Jr./Starlit Drive." A date has not be set yet for the renaming ceremony

Bruckenthal, who lost his son in 2004 in Iraq and is neighbors with Boccia's brother Raymond, knows how much "things like this helps the family."

A graduate of Syracuse University and also a member of the ROTC, Boccia joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1978, graduating from Parris Island in South Carolina, where he was the recipient of the USMC Achievement Devotion Award, which distinguished him as the outstanding man of Platoon 1142. He was deployed to Beirut as part of a peacekeeping force.

According to Bruckenthal, "the people on the block won't have to change their address, adding Captain Boccia's name is symbolic."

We win again!!!!

2008-01-03T21:25:00.000-05:00

U.S. court rules against Iran, in favor of widow

By Tom Ramstack
January 1, 2008

The widow of a naturalized American citizen won a $466 million federal court judgment Friday against the Iranian government, which she accuses of torturing and executing her husband.

An Iranian military court said the man, Siavash Bayani, engaged in "disgraceful activities — spying for the Great Satan, America." He was hanged in August 1997 at Evin prison outside Tehran.

The judgment in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia raises political questions about the extent to which U.S. courts can exercise authority over foreign governments.

U.S. courts have issued several rulings against the Iranian government, including a $2.7 billion judgment for the families of Marines killed by the 1983 bombing of their barracks in Beirut, $13 million for the family of an American woman killed by a 2002 bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and $254 million for the families of Air Force members killed in a 1996 terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia.

U.S. court judgments against Iran for acts of terrorism total more than $6 billion, according to congressional records.

The State Department has not reacted to the Bayani ruling.

The federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act normally bars U.S. courts from judgments involving foreign governments. The law reserves political issues to the president and Congress. "This action is brought pursuant to the 'terrorism exception' to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act," U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. wrote. The exception gives U.S. courts authority over cases involving terrorism or torture by foreign governments.

Mr. Bayani was an Iranian who came to the United States as a college student but returned to Iran to join the Iranian air force. His government sent him to the United States in 1977 to supervise Iranian students studying at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.

Mr. Bayani, his wife, Fatameh, and their two children were granted asylum in the United States in 1984 during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Mr. Bayani and his wife received American citizenship on Oct. 20, 1994.

The family returned to Iran on Feb. 2, 1995, as Mr. Bayani's mother became gravely ill. Five months later, he returned from a job interview to tell his wife that she should leave Iran immediately with their children. He gave no detailed explanation.

Mrs. Bayani and her children flew to the United States on July 17, 1995. The next day, her husband was arrested and accused of being a CIA informant.

"Siavash, in fact, was never employed by the Central Intelligence Agency or any other U.S. government agency and never received money from the U.S. government for information about the Islamic regime in Iran or for any other services," the court's ruling said.

After Mr. Bayani's arrest, his family was unable to contact him for a year. In August 1996, he was allowed to telephone his family for "eight to 10 minutes" while interrogators listened in, the court record says. He told of being tortured and warned his wife not to return to Iran. He repeated the warnings in letters.

A few months after Mr. Bayani telephoned his family, Iranian "government officials contacted Siavash's mother and offered to help gain his release in exchange for large sums of money in U.S. dollars," the ruling said. Mrs. Bayani used the family's life savings, withdrew the maximum amount from her credit cards and took out loans from family and friends.

"These efforts yielded $95,000, which she sent to Siavash's mother so that she could pay government officials to gain access to Siavash," Judge Kennedy wrote.

"A few months later, Siavash's mother-in-law received a phone call from an Iranian government official, notifying her that Siavash had been hung by the neck until dead," Judge Kennedy wrote. "The execution took place only hours after Siavash's mother had died."

The court's judgment awarded $66.3 million in damages to the family, whom it characterized as suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. It went on to say, "Punitive damages shall be assessed against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp." for $400 million.

A high Flying Beirut Vet!

2008-01-03T21:18:00.000-05:00

Flying Back in Time, In His Own Warplane
Ex-Test Pilot, Bold and Quirky, Pursues a Costly Love

Art Nalls with his Sea Harrier FA.2. After an emergency landing, he had it towed on St. Mary's County roads, riding in the cockpit dressed as Santa.

A crewman at St. Mary's County Regional Airport directs Art Nalls to the taxiway in his Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros. The former Marine test pilot, who made a fortune in real estate after retiring from the military, owns three jets.

Nalls with his Albatros. As for his Harrier, which he purchased two years ago, it suffered problems on his second flight. He hopes to repair it soon.

St. Mary's County Regional Airport is home to a fleet of single-engine Cessnas, many of them owned by amateur pilots and parked in tidy rows just off the runway. But in a hangar at the edge of the grounds sits a Harrier, a hulking jet that takes off and lands vertically, cruises at speeds in excess of 600 mph and is similar to the Marines' primary attack aircraft.

That is Art Nalls's plane.

Nalls, a 53-year-old former Marine test pilot who made a fortune in real estate, has turned flying into an extraordinarily expensive hobby. He believes that his newest acquisition -- the Harry, as he calls it -- is the world's only privately owned, flyable Harrier. Although Nalls wouldn't say how much he paid for the plane, he said fuel alone costs about $75 for every minute in the air.

But in jets, Nalls says he has found a fountain of youth.

"When I am up there, it's just like I'm 25 again," he said.

He and his planes are regular topics of conversation at the small airport in Southern Maryland, a stomping ground for retired military pilots, some of whom trained at the nearby Patuxent River Naval Air Station, one of only two military test pilot schools in the country.

On a recent morning, in a lounge facing the runway, pilots swapped stories about Nalls's latest adventure: Problems with the Harry's hydraulic system forced an emergency landing at the military base in November, on its second flight. Since he couldn't fly it back, Nalls had the jet hooked to a pickup truck and towed nearly eight miles to the airport, escorted by a half-dozen police cars. He sat in the cockpit, dressed as Santa Claus.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" Nalls bellowed, waving at truckers and other motorists as the jet limped along Route 235, narrowly missing traffic lights and straddling a median as it turned onto Airport Road.

Such antics explain why Nalls has earned a reputation as a cowboy, a millionaire fond of indulging idiosyncratic interests. In the 1970s, he held a Guinness record for building and riding the world's smallest rideable bicycle, which was less than five inches tall.

Nalls, who was born and raised in Fairfax County, learned to fly as a midshipman at the Naval Academy. On his second flight, he was flipping loops and executing rolls. In 1985, he was the only Marine to attend the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base.

After graduating, Nalls began to test the Harrier II and another jet. One test required him to shut down the engine in flight, falling like a rock as the engine cooled, and then restart it. His total flight time in planes with their engines off is more than six hours.

Nalls spent most of his career in Harriers, including an AV-8A that he launched off ship decks more than 400 times. He traveled widely and was in Beirut for a stint that ended just before the Marine barracks there was bombed in 1983.
Flying Back in Time, In His Own Warplane

A crewman at St. Mary's County Regional Airport directs Art Nalls to the taxiway in his Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros. The former Marine test pilot, who made a fortune in real estate after retiring from the military, owns three jets.
Nalls with his Albatros. As for his Harrier, which he purchased two years ago, it suffered problems on his second flight. He hopes to repair it soon. (
Then, in 1990, Nalls took a beer bottle to the face when he intervened in a Marine bar fight; his nose was broken and his hearing was affected. Grounded for medical reasons, Nalls was reassigned to a desk job investigating Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons. He soon retired from the military.

He turned to real estate and development, buying and renting apartments, houses and commercial buildings in Northern Virginia and the District, where he lives with his wife, Pat. Nalls, whose holdings have included more than 250 units and buildings, did well in real estate, but he missed flying.

So, in 2001, Nalls began to buy jets.

First there was the Russian Yak-3, a jet he calls Red Heat. Then came a Czech Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros, an "absolute rocket ship" that he refers to as the Black Jet.

But what Nalls really wanted was a Harrier. Getting one from the Marines was out of the question because the Corps' retired Harriers are dismantled. Two years ago, Nalls found a British dealer selling a Sea Harrier FA.2 that had been used by the Royal Navy.

Nalls flew to England. The plane's engine wasn't working and its wiring was a tangled mess, but he bought it. Although he wouldn't say what he paid, a similar plane in working condition was once valued at more than $20 million.

At the St. Mary's airport, a crew of mostly volunteer mechanics and plane enthusiasts brought the Harrier back to life, cobbling together parts from eBay and elsewhere. Nalls prepared for the maiden flight in simulators -- after all, it had been 16 years since he had made a vertical landing.

Questions remained, however, even on the eve of the flight. "We didn't even know if it would hover," Nalls said. "You don't know until you get up there."

On Nov. 10, he successfully flew the Harry, lifting off and then landing from a perfect hover at the St. Mary's airport.

The next day brought the emergency landing at the naval base. About 12 minutes into the flight, a hydraulic warning light clicked on, and the Harrier's landing gear would not lock into place. Nalls asked for permission to land at the base, threw the plane into a hover and slowly lowered it to the ground, where a crash crew waited.

The plane fell the final three feet, landing with a smack. Nalls said officials at the base weren't thrilled with the spur-of-the-moment visitor or the large, slightly damaged British jet.

It was the second civilian emergency landing of the year at the base, said John Romer, a base spokesman.

Nalls hopes to fix the problem in the next two months and have the Harry back in the sky soon. Until then, he is left to fly his other two jets.

So it was that on a recent Saturday he pulled on thick boots and zipped up an olive flight suit decorated with badges he earned as a test pilot and with his call name, Kaos. He jumped into the cockpit of the Czech plane and strapped himself into a parachute-packed ejection seat.

The glass dome came down, sealing him inside but not tightly enough to lock out the smell of burning jet fuel. Nalls adjusted his headset.

"Ready to rock and roll?" he asked. Then came the speed.

The runway ran out, and the jet was hoisted into the air, swept up in the wind and blown away like a dandelion. It drifted higher and higher, then tilted to one side, opening up the view below.

Nalls pointed out landmarks below: the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, the Gov. Thomas Johnson Bridge, the approaching blue of the Chesapeake Bay. He rolled to the other side and felt the push of 2 Gs. The only bumps came when he jiggled the controls, gently rocking the jet from side to side.

He sat perfectly still as the world rushed around him in a swirl.

"I love it out here," he murmured into his headset. "I love this plane."

CHRISTMAS IN BEIRUT

2007-12-21T12:56:00.001-05:00

CHRISTMAS IN BEIRUT
Journal Entries from the Battlefield
BY Brian G. Lukas
Editor’s note: The name Beirut became a one-word symbol for the war torn Middle East of the late 1970s. Civil war had erupted in Lebanon in 1975, the result of clashes between Christian and Muslim groups, including members of the Druse religious sect and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and had escalated over several years. In 1982, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon; the two countries had already fought south of Beirut. As well, Syria had occupied the country since 1976. In 1983, the United Nations dispatched a multinational peace-keeping force, including U.S. Marines, to Beirut. The Marines left Beirut within a year because of terrorist attacks; on Oct. 23,1983, a truck loaded with explosives crashed into the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit Headquarters compound, killing 241 Marines.
“The Marines in Beirut seem to have gotten lost in the history books . . . they had a difficult mission,” says TV photographer Brian Lukas. He, along with news anchorwoman Angela Hill and editorialist Phil Johnson, all of WWL-TV/Channel 4, traveled to Beirut in late 1983 to cover Louisiana Marines stationed there at Christmastime. Lukas kept journal entries of his tense times there, excerpted here.
Christmas 1983 was just a few weeks away. I would travel to Beirut with Angela Hill and Phil Johnson to film and edit stories on local Marines from the New Orleans area. It was a time before portable satellite uplinks and the Internet, so we carried videotaped messages from the Marines’ families back in the United States. Our ambitious itinerary also included production of a documentary about this war-torn area. But as fighting between the various factions escalated, that idea was abandoned. Armed militias set up roadblocks in various sections of Beirut. The Islamic Jihad decided to add another element to its arsenal of terror and brutality: kidnapping Westerners.
•If there is hell on earth, it is here in Beirut. At the same time that I arrived in Beirut, the French Embassy was hit by a car bomb, with 20 people killed. Later that night, a French military base was blasted by a bomb-laden truck. Ten French soldiers were killed, and 23 were hurt. The explosion lit up the whole area. Terror – it is sheer terror. I can see it on the faces of the residents who walk cautiously on the streets. Here in Beirut, teenagers carry assault rifles, mainly M-16s. On the streets, women cradle their children tightly in their arms, begging any Westerners for help. The city smells like death. There is a stench of rotting corpses and smoldering trash strewn about from buildings destroyed by the fighting in the streets. To realize the inhumanity of war, you have to look deep in the faces of the civilian population. Then, if you dare, look deep into their eyes. There you will find the horror of war absorbed deep within the soul. I look into many eyes here in Beirut.
•In the eyes of the young Marines, I can see the uneasy and uncomfortable situation they are in. The U.S. Marines’ position at the Beirut International Airport keeps them under daily sniper and artillery attack. I remember when I was in Washington, D.C., for a White House press function when many of these same Marines from the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit invaded Grenada, a tiny island in the Caribbean. Now I am here in hell with them. The Marines, politically, are not invaders but are so-called “welcome guests,” strategically placed in Lebanon on a peace-keeping mission with the French and Italians as part of a multinational force. Our Marine contact is Capt. Dennis Brooks, the Marine public-information officer on the base, always “spring-loaded to say yes.” He remarked that the various militias near the Marine positions use their tanks like small arms fire: They quickly maneuver the tanks in firing position, release a shell and maneuver back quickly, then repeat the operation. Maximum destruction, I thought to myself. Total destruction was evident when we passed the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps – hundreds, perhaps thousands of Palestinians were killed here: men, women, and children. Our driver remarked, solemnly, that they were executed. The refugee camps are leveled, nothing remains, and where the victims of this civil war sought relief from the terror of war, only the bare reddish-brown earth remains visible from the nearby dusty road. Their graves are not even marked. It is as if they were never born.
•At night there is no time to dream; the evenings are fitful with the sounds of rifle fire. My bed is level with the window. Crazy, I thought, there are snipers on the roofs – one shot through the window and that’s it. I tried to sleep on the floor, but there is no sleep at night. The sounds of sniper fire and the thud of muffled mortar and artillery rounds are trying to find any “peace-keeper’s” position near the Avenue de Paris, the long, winding road facing the Mediterranean Sea.
•At one time Beirut played the Paris of the Middle East; now it plays a sorrowful tune of despair. My hotel in Beirut is owned by the Nassai family, Palestinian owners of the Commodore Hotel. The Commodore Hotel is on the Muslim side of Beirut. On the Christian side, the owner of the Alexandre failed to pay protection money to the thugs and every conceivable terrorist seeking consideration for the hotel’s existence. As a result, somebody exploded a huge car bomb in its parking lot, destroying the hotel. I couldn’t help but notice the line of cars ringing the Commodore Hotel here in Muslim West Beirut. Sometimes the cars were two or three deep. I quickly learned that these vehicles were buffers to prevent any car-bomb attacks on the Commodore. The ring of vehicles and payoffs couldn’t stop the instruments of distant destruction. My hotel room in the Commodore is on the fourth floor, room 405. I could not enter the room without noticing the shift in the door and several large cracks running down the length of the wall. A little later that day, I learned that room 405, my room, had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade just two weeks earlier.
•There is no sanctuary in this city. It’s a sad place and a sad time. Beirut is a city defined by fear, a city bisected by the green line – Christians in the East, Muslims in the West. This is a noisy, depressing, dangerous and disconcerting place to work. I tried not to sleep last night. It’s been several nights since I’ve had any sleep. The last thing I wanted was to be asleep when a car bomb went off and then to be buried under the rubble of concrete and steel from the top five floors. I often fall asleep at the dinner table. Veteran journalists from Europe and the U.S. networks in the hotel remark that this is one of the scariest wars they’ve covered. There is no “commuting” to this war; death and destruction are all around us.
Blackened pockmarks of war are carved into the façade of every building. The city is gravely wounded. And now a new threat is employed by the terrorists: They are kidnapping journalists and teachers at the American University in Beirut. A note was posted on the front bulletin board as we left the hotel. It was a warning from the Islamic Jihad. In very simple words, the note said that all Westerners must leave Beirut or “we will make the ground under your feet move.” It was a direct threat to destroy the hotel where the Western press reported the war. This is the same group that claimed responsibility for bombing the U.S. Marine base here in Beirut, and the U.S. embassies in Beirut and Kuwait.
•The war is escalating now. (A few months later, the Commodore Hotel would be completely destroyed by shelling and car bombs.) The American Embassy was heavily damaged by another car-bomb attack. Forty people were injured, and eight were killed in the suicide attack. The front of the embassy building, facing the seashore, is covered in what appears to be a seven-story green shroud. It hides the embassy’s exposed interior from probing eyes or people that pass through the zigzagged row of 55-gallon metal drums filled with dirt. The metal drums are defenses against another suicide attack. Marines are positioned throughout the building. Another contingent of Marines is stationed just across the street from the embassy. An American flag blew quietly in the wind next to a Marine guard watching the pedestrian movement in front of the embassy. The image of the American flag and the Marine standing with the sun setting on the Mediterranean Sea gave the drab gray seashore kind of a splendid appearance. In a melancholy way I felt a strong connection with home. The obvious presence of the American flag waving in the warm breeze made me feel very thankful that I live in and would return to the United States shortly. And if there is ever an image of the Marines in Beirut that will be forever stamped on my mind, it is that one single Marine and the American flag rippling in the wind next to him.
•On the corniche, in front of the American Embassy, the Marines are routinely targeted by snipers. It becomes very nerve-racking that at any time death may come by a sniper. As I filmed the area I noticed a small bunker with several Marines standing guard. One of them was Cpl. Brad Pellegrin from Slidell. It is the Christmas season, and he is making the best of a very bad situation by lining his bunker with makeshift ornaments. I forgot that we were nearing Christmas.
We were carrying messages from Cpl. Pellegrin’s family to give to him. It was a videotaped message to him from his wife, mother and child. As we showed the message to him I noticed an interesting effect on the other Marines . . . they gathered closer together to hear the family’s greeting to Brad. Closer the Marines came when Brad’s son said, “Daddy, I love you and miss you.” We played the videotape again and again. That’s when I realized that Brad’s family was now family to all the Marines that gathered to watch his videotape in front of the destroyed American Embassy. His family was their family; his son was their son or daughter. The Marines had a Christmas family now . . . and it was amazing to witness a little bit of loneliness disappear as they looked on. Christmas is family . . . even in Beirut.
•The makeshift Christmas ornaments lining the bunkers in front of the destroyed U.S. embassy were a welcome relief. It was a simple reminder of the hope that peace existed. Off in the distance, on the Mediterranean Sea, the sunset cast a shadow on the battleship New Jersey. The broad, flickering light from her was the firepower from her massive guns unleashed on the Druse militias, who rocketed the Marine base at the International Airport on Beirut’s southern edge. We would find out that a Marine was severely wounded; later he died.
•Overnight, hooded Shiite Muslims and their Druse allies drove Lebanese army units from most of their checkpoints on the Muslim West Beirut commercial thoroughfares and residential neighborhoods. I woke up to a very loud mechanical clanking just outside my hotel. The sounds of Lebanese military tanks rolling pass the hotel window quickly eliminated the little rest I hoped to get.
•Reports indicate at least 90 people killed last night and more than 300 wounded in the fighting; in just two days more than 160 people were killed, mostly civilians caught in the cross-fire. It’s a sickness – hatred is a cancer destroying everything here.
•At the Marine base this morning I could see the visible impact of the shelling by the U.S. 6th Fleet on the mountain range surrounding the base. Huge billows of smoke rose as the shells hit their targets. Cpls. Herbert McKnight and Greg Nelson, both from the New Orleans area, said the Marine base was shelled by rockets overnight. Herbert was stationed in a sandbag bunker on the rooftop of the base. This bunker, accessible only by a ladder, is the highest point on the Marine base. It also appears to be a very vulnerable position, an obvious target for a sniper. Cpl. Nelson, from Slidell, manned a .50-caliber machine gun overlooking the Kalda mountain range near the rear of the base. Cpl. Brian Campbell, only 19 years old and from Lafayette, was quickly unloading supplies from a helicopter. The copters didn’t stay long . . . they couldn’t – mortars usually found their targets. Brian, Greg and Herbert, these young Marines, were reminders that wars are fought by the very young, often placed in horrific circumstances and forced to grow up quickly. Several times I asked them to move their helmet up so I could see their eyes while filming. “Son, can you move your helmet up just a little?” I said. I would later say, “Marine, would you push your helmet back just a little?” Eighteen, 19 years old . . . here in hell, when others of their age are probably wrapping Christmas presents and acting goofy back home.
But on the Marine base at the Beirut International Airport, the one focal point no one can pass without some reflection of what happened months earlier is the huge crater. That crater once housed the Marines in a four story building. Every time I moved past it, I thought of the young men like Greg, Brian and Herbert, and then I said a small prayer for the families of the 241 Marines that died here.
•The Marine base alarm is sounding. The Druse militias are firing mortars now. In a few seconds, we must make the decision to stay on the Marine base during the shelling and miss our satellite deadline or leave and walk into the chaos and madness of the streets. We decide to leave. A condition-1 alert has been initiated . . . there are incoming mortar rounds in the distance, and the front gate will be locked shortly. The Marine base is the target.
We had to leave quickly. But as I left the Marine base I noticed a small memorial in front of the former Marine barracks. Despite the imminent danger, I couldn’t help but stop, notice and film the small bouquet of light blue flowers ringed around a Marine-issued camouflage hat. Above the flowers was a small, white sign facing east, toward the city of Beirut. The small sign simply described the Marines’ mission in Beirut: To the “24th MAU, they came in peace.”
It’s a dangerous world out there. •

Murderer visits Beirut

2007-12-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

We will never forget and will always hunt you down

Iranian intelligence official visits Lebanon
Monday, 17 December, 2007 @ 6:32 PM

Beirut - A senior Iranian intelligence officer arrived in Lebanon the week of Dec. 9, and Imad Mughniyah , Hezbollah official in charge of foreign operations accompanied the officer to his meetings there, Stratfor sources said Dec. 16.

The two have held continuous talks with Hezbollah foreign operations officers in meetings attended by Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa. They later traveled to the town of Nabi Sheit in the northern Biqaa, then met with Syrian intelligence officers led by Brig. Gen. Ali Diab in Hezbollah training grounds in Shara near the border village of Janta.

Imad Mugniyah, a senior member of the Hezbollah militant organization has been living in Tehran . Sometimes described as a "master terrorist", Mugniyah has been implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut , and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks, which killed over 350, as well as the 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires . He was also linked to numerous kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut through the 1980s, most notably that of Terry Anderson. Some of these individuals were later killed such as U.S. Army Col William Francis Buckley.

Sources: Stratfor , Ya Libnan

Remember the Fallen

2007-10-31T19:16:00.000-04:00

Dont know who Roger Ray is, but it seems Mr Regions has got this 100% right, Good Job Marine!.... editor

FROM THE RIGHT »

Not anger, not seeking war - but desire to remember the fallen

In response to Roger Ray's article of last Wednesday, for openers, I question his reference to me as his comrade. Although my enlistment predated that of the Marines who were killed in Beirut in 1983, those men who put their lives on the line and lost them were my comrades. Every Marine who reads this knows what I mean. Roger Ray likely does not. That isn't all that he doesn't get.
His statement that "?he (James Regions) seems to be interpreting his painful memories to indicate that we must do to them what they did to us? until they decide they are not mad at us anymore," is cause for concern. Anyone who believes that this is only about someone deciding they are "not mad anymore" does not understand the mind-set of the Islamic terrorists.

He then makes the statement, "But the more important point for me, the one which I would love for James Regions to realize, is that 24 years after that lone bomber killed 220 Americans, he is still hurting, mourning and angry about it. And he wants us to be angry, too, angry enough to go to war over it." Puhleeze. Do we really need another amateur, pseudo psychoanalyst?

He is, with that remark, being disturbingly disingenuous — perhaps, deliberately — by creating a straw man out of an article that said nothing about being angry or going to war. He then used that misrepresentation to launch into a litany about the "wrongness" of the war in Iraq, including costs in dollars and lives.

My article was in no way about Iraq. It was about memorializing dedicated Marines and being alert. It was written on the anniversary of the massacre of the Marines in the Beirut barracks, just over a month past the anniversary of the 9/11 massacres, and had three purposes.

It was written, primarily, to honor the memory of those heroic Marines who died serving their country. I wanted others to remember their sacrifice, if only for a few moments, on the anniversary of their deaths and sent the News-Leader pictures of the bombing in hope that they would be printed. They were not.

The second purpose was to remind readers that acts of terrorism such as the Beirut bombing and the 9/11 sites are not likely going to stop. Terrorists will not stop when we leave Iraq. They would not have stopped if we had not invaded Iraq. They will not stop until Israel is annihilated and the Great Satan, the United States, is an Islamic nation.

The third reason for the article was to say that we have a hard time comprehending the depth of their dedication, since our devotion seems to be to watching television programs like dancing with stars and reality shows — which was the opening point of the article.

One of the most important things that we can do is to not forget. To forget and let our guard down is an open invitation to terrorists to strike again. Neither the Beirut bombing nor 9/11 is a drama with a solution to be found within two hours, not counting time for commercials.

The terrorists fear displeasing Allah much more than they fear anything or anyone else. They will, gladly, die for their beliefs. We have a hard time understanding their depth of dedication, hatred and fear, but we can remember it.

Pulitzer Prize-winner and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial page editor Paul Greenberg made these observations in last week's tribute to Doris Lessing, 2007 Nobel literature laureate, "?we still have trouble recognizing evil as it gathers, or even when it is upon us. And so our reaction to it keeps veering between astounded panic and familiar laxity."

"The more far-seeing of our leaders have told us that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, but eternal is a long time. We grow tired. We nod off. Maybe if we ignore the threat, it will go away. We miss our isolation and imagine we can return there, retreat behind our oceans and be safe. It is a temptation, and every time we yield to it, we are shocked awake." Greenberg is absolutely right.

Back to the last week's response to "From the Left," to infer from my article that I want war because of hurt and anger is more than insipid isogesis; starting with a belief and finding purportedly supporting documentation. There is none. Perhaps Roger Ray needs to simply state his positions without misusing another writer's article as a pathetically phony pretext.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Regions lives in Springfield. "From the Right" appears every Tuesday. Coming Wednesday: "From the Left."

Thank You Senator McConnell

2007-10-25T19:38:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Marines were honored on the Senate floor Tuesday, the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said that although terrorists and suicide bombers are still with us today, “thankfully for America, so are the United States Marines.”

“By their courage on the battlefield, and constant risk of danger, today’s Marines honor every one of their forebears who died defending our country,” McConnell said. “We continue to fight terror today with a steady hand, even if it is at times paired with a heavy heart. And we are proud of the brave men and women who fight for their country.”

On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck separate buildings in Beirut housing U.S. and French members of the Multinational Force who were stationed in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack killed 241 American Marines, sailors and soldiers. Several hours later, an organization called Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

“I rise today in honor of the 241 U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers who were killed in a despicable suicide bombing attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. That attack occurred 24 years ago today on October 23, 1983.

President Ronald Reagan had dispatched U.S. forces in 1982 to maintain the peace in Lebanon. On the morning of October 23, one Lebanese terrorist drove a truck packed with explosives through three guard posts and a barbed-wire fence, straight into the lobby of the U.S. Marine Corps’ headquarters.

The bomb exploded with the force of 18,000 pounds of dynamite. It transformed the four-story cinderblock building into rubble.

It was so powerful, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia later described it as ‘the largest non-nuclear explosion that had ever been detonated on the face of the Earth.’

Some of the men and women lost that day were murdered in their sleep. Others, who saw the truck come crashing in, may have seen the face of the enemy as their last sight on Earth.

Either way, 241 Americans wearing their country’s uniform were killed in a brutal attack that shocked America and the world.

Terrorists and their favorite tactic, the suicide attack, are still with us today.

Thankfully for America, so are the United States Marines.

Founded in 1775, the U.S. Marine Corps has been ‘at the tip of the spear’ in every one of this nation’s wars. And they will never be stopped by a terrorist’s suicide attack.

This November, the country will celebrate the Corps’ 232nd birthday, and thank them for defending our freedoms.

By taking the fight to the terrorists, wherever they hide, the Marines have put terrorists on the defensive, making it less likely they will hit us again here at home.

By their courage on the battlefield, and constant risk of danger, today’s Marines honor every one of their forebears who died defending our country.

Mr. President, America still remembers her brave men and women lost in the Marine barracks bombing of 1983. We honor them and their families for their sacrifice.

We continue to fight terror today with a steady hand, even if it is at times paired with a heavy heart. And we are proud of the brave men and women who fight for their country against the would-be terrorists of today and tomorrow.”

Welcome Home Root Vet!

2007-10-25T19:36:00.000-04:00

Vet helps fight personal battles
Marine witness to devastating attack now helping fellow wounded warriors

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

COLONIE -- Darrel Franklin saw the world change 24 years ago today in Beirut. It ended up changing his own world, too.

The Marine from Arbor Hill was standing guard in Lebanon at 6:22 a.m. Oct. 23, 1983, when a suicide bomber detonated a truckload of explosives at the Marines' barracks, killing 241 U.S. military members.

The lance corporal not only survived the era's first major terrorist attack, but also the personal difficulties that followed.

He got a job as a mail carrier, but battled post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism for years. Now Franklin, 44, has a second career helping a new generation of wounded warriors at Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albany.

Working in the center's drug and alcohol rehabilitation program has made Franklin feel better about the memories of the thunderous blast in Beirut and the friends he lost, he says.

"I found out that by taking my experiences, pains and heartaches and sharing them with other people, I can be a tool for them," he said in his Latham home, which he shares with his wife, Angela, and two daughters.

Franklin's personality mixes black and military pride, and he wants to spend the rest of his life helping young African-Americans and combat veterans. But for Franklin, it's been a long road to rebirth.

He grew up on Colonie Street in Albany with his mother and sister, and always wanted to be a Marine. He signed up at age 17 and left for boot camp four days after graduating from Albany High School.

"School wasn't my thing," Franklin said.

After being assigned to bases in California and Okinawa, Japan, for a year, Franklin volunteered for a multinational peacekeeping mission in Beirut in 1983. The U.S. had entered Lebanon after Israel invaded the country and a civil war broke out.

Franklin and others made daily patrols around the Beirut region. He endured sniper fire and other attacks from what he believes were Hezbollah fighters. Members of Hezbollah were blamed for the bombing that blew the four-story cinder-block building into rubble and crushed many inside.

Franklin was standing about 400 yards away from the blast, which ultimately caused President Ronald Reagan to withdraw U.S. troops from Lebanon.

"They shook the ground beneath our feet," Franklin said. He remembers feeling anger, emptiness and a desire for revenge when he saw coffins carrying dead Marines being loaded onto a plane.

Franklin returned to the United States in December 1983. He re-enlisted and got married the next year.

But something was brewing within him. Franklin had trouble sleeping, often waking in a heavy sweat. At a military parade, he hit the ground in a panic at the sound of a cannon shot.

After he got back, he took a job with the U.S. Postal Service. He soon started drinking to numb his anxious feelings.

In 1990, at the urging of both his wife and mother, Franklin got help from the Albany Veterans Center on Central Avenue. He went to individual and group counseling for stress and anxiety.

1Franklin was inspired to go to college after he attended the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., in 1995. Over the next decade, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Sage Colleges, the latter in community psychology and counseling. The VA hired Franklin two months ago.

"I can always trust that he's working with the best interest of the veteran at heart," said Kirsten Danfourth, acting program manager. "His compassion and the work he does definitely stems from his own experience as a veteran."

Franklin says he wants to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts who are suffering from similar problems. He says he still lives a "guarded" life.

"I want to let the guys and girls know that you can live with it and be productive," Franklin said. "You face a lot of stuff. It isn't easy. But you can become aware of trigger signs and make changes."

Yusko can be reached at 581-8438 or by e-mail at dyusko@timesunion.com.

9/11 did not start the Terriorism train

2007-10-25T19:34:00.000-04:00

23 October 2007

Think back to the many heroes we lost that day. Think of the enemies that ran us out of Lebannon, and remember that these are the same enemy we fight today. Hizballah, Syria, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The list goes on. These are the same enemies trying to defeat us in Iraq today.

Our enemy has been at war with us now for more than 24 years. Only since 9-11 have we recognized this fact and begun to fight back.

Right Wing Nut House » BEIRUT BARRACKS BOMBING ANNIVERSARY

The driver of the yellow Mercedes Benz truck in Beirut that awful day 24 years ago knew precisely where to go. According to intelligence reports, two members of what was then the underground terrorist organization known as Hizbullah had mapped the layout of the Marine barracks so that the suicide bomber could carry out his mission to maximum effect. He knew the Marines pulling sentry duty had pocketed their ammo clips thanks to some ridiculous rules of engagement. And he was aware that there were no barriers protecting the structure so that his truck laden with 12,000 pounds of explosives would only have to crash through ordinary wood and plaster in order to be positioned perfectly so that detonation would have catastrophic effects on the building.

The truck had apparently been prepared with the help of Syrians and Iranians in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon where several Revolutionary Guard units had been stationed under Syrian protection. An NSA intercept revealed at a trial that convicted the Islamic Republic of Iran of being behind the attack, stated that a message sent from Iranian intelligence headquarters in Tehran toAli-Akbar Mohtashemi, the Iranian ambassador in Damascus and directed the Iranian ambassador to get in touch with Islamic Amal which has since been identified as the military arm of Hizbullah at the time, and instruct him to “take spectacular action” against the Marines.

Read the whole horrible story, because remembering what happened is half of preparing for what is next. We can’t go through life pretending that there isn’t a huge fanatical movement in the world praying for our destruction. Sticking your head in the sand is not what these heroes deserve on the anniversary of their murders.

And now we face the same decision that Reagan faced then. Do we run, or do we stand and fight? Do we allow the forces of militant jihadism to force us to leave with our tail between our legs, and wait for the next bombing or hijacking? Or do we keep kicking their asses wherever we find them?

Reagan, and the rest of this nation, made the mistake of thinking this war wouldn’t follow us home if we just got the hell out. Today we know from experience that this simply isn’t the case. They always come back home. Victory is the only option. Harden the fuck up and quit your bitching..
Posted in The Long War | Trackback | del.icio.us | Top Of Page

One Response to “Remembering: The Beirut Barracks Bombing Anniversary”
1. Solo Says:
October 24th, 2007 at 6:23 am

It would be good if people would look back and remember. Too many I’ve talked to think that Islamic terrorism started on 9/11/01.

Grenada 24 years later

2007-10-25T19:32:00.001-04:00

Grenada (Heard From Today!)
By Lt Col P

23 Oct 1983, the same day as the Beirut bombing, a scratch joint task force assaults and takes the island of Grenada, overthrowing its tinpot Marxist government and ejecting Cuban soldiers and workers.

The Navy history website has a nifty little account of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Fox and Echo companies [of 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines] merged north of St. George's and secured a flat, stadium-like area called the Queen's Racecourse, which the Marines dubbed "LZ Racetrack" (LZ standing for landing zone). The battalion landing team commander set up headquarters there.

"We did a lot of humping today," said Marine Captain Mike Dick, Fox Company commander, after the first day of the operation. He looked over his men and added in a low tone, "It's quite a bit different from Camp Lejeune. We're doing this for real and for keeps."

Make that Capt Mike Dick, VMI '77, now Colonel, USMC, retired.

2007-10-25T19:30:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

24th anniversary of Beirut bombing marked

By Trista Talton - Staff writerPosted : Tuesday Oct 23, 2007 17:31:24 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — They gently brushed their fingertips across the stone where the names of the men who died on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon in 1983 are engraved.
On Tuesday, families and friends gathered around the Beirut Memorial here once again to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the day terrorists drove a bomb-laden truck into the headquarters building for the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers.
The crowd — filled with an assortment of Marines, sailors, airmen, soldiers, mothers, fathers, wives, children and survivors of the blast — looked toward the wall as speakers talked about that fateful day.
Maj. Gen. Robert Dickerson, commander of Marine Corps Installations-East and the ceremony’s guest speaker, told the story of one survivor, Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Nashton, who was fighting for his life on a hospital bed in Germany when he and other survivors were visited by then-Commandant Gen. P.X. Kelley.
Nashton could not see or speak and could barely hear. When Kelley knelt by his bedside, Nashton reached out a hand and brushed his fingers over the general’s star-collared shirt.
Nashton signaled he wanted to write something. He was handed a pen and paper and scribbled two words — “Semper Fi” — before handing the paper to Kelley, Dickerson said.
“Jeffrey feels guilty, as many of you do today, that he survived,” Dickerson said. “Don’t feel guilty. It’s your memory. It’s their legacy you’re maintaining.”
Dickerson rattled off a long list of terrorist attacks dating back to November 1979, when the U.S. Embassy in Iran was taken over by militants. He spoke of various embassy attacks throughout the years, the bombing of the Cole and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“The lessons learned in Beirut are relevant today,” Dickerson said. “These cowards are still out there. These cowards — these terrorists — are global. And they fear democracy.”
Photo slideshow:
Remembering Beirut
Source

OHIO CEREMONY

2007-10-19T18:30:00.000-04:00

Ceremony for slain troops
Print StoryEmail to FriendDiscuss this story

The annual ceremony honors the loss of three local men in a 1983
terrorist attack.

By ANGIE SCHMITT

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

STRUTHERS — A memorial that honors those killed in the Beirut bombing of 1983 stands about 4 feet high on the bank of Lake Hamilton here.

Centered around a circular flagstone, the memorial holds the names of the 14 Ohioans who lost their lives in the bombing that killed 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers deployed on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon that year.

"It just says 'Peace Keepers Memorial,'" said Richard Mitchells, commandant of the Tri-state Marine Detachment of the Marine Corps League, "because that's what they were — peacekeepers."

Family members of the three area men killed that day will return to this site Sunday, as they do every year near the anniversary of that date, Oct. 23, 1983.

A ceremony in honor of all those killed in the attack will begin at 1 p.m. with a call to attention and the posting of the Marine colors, said Mitchells, a Greenford resident who organized the event. Then, military officials will perform a ceremonial changing of the flags; one American, one POW, one Marine and one Navy.

A traditional memorial service will be held with a 21-gun salute. After that, New Castle resident Shirley Kirkwood will be among the family members invited to place a wreath on the stone in honor their lost loved ones.

Kirkwood's son, Shenango High School graduate James McDonough, was killed when a truck loaded with 2,000 pounds of dynamite crashed through the gates of the multinational force barracks, where hundreds of troops, mostly Marines, were sleeping.

After all these years, fall is still a painful time of year for Kirkwood, a 69-year-old mother of six. Exactly one month before the bombing McDonough, her oldest child, had celebrated his 21st birthday.

"It's just like it was yesterday," said Kirkwood. "When you lose a son like that, you can't get over it."

Struthers resident Edward Johnston was instrum ental in bringing the memorial to Struthers in 1993. His son, Edward Anthony Johnston, also of Struthers, lost his life in the attack. He was 22. The third local victim was Niles resident Stanley Sliwinski.

Meeting at this site, year after year, the three families have become friends, Johnston said. And all three are expected Sunday, including Sliwinski's daughter and widow.

Though the experience isn't exactly pleasant for Johnston, he said he still appreciates the solemn annual gathering.

"I'm glad to see that people do attend," he said. "It makes you feel good."

aschmitt@vindy.com

Beirut Vet in the News

2007-10-10T19:50:00.000-04:00

By K.C. MYERS
staff writer
October 09, 2007
SANDWICH — To say John Santos suffered during his military service would be an understatement.

In the early morning hours of Oct. 23, 1983, the lifelong Sandwich resident fell asleep in the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and woke up buried in debris, unable to hear and suffering from a concussion and a fractured skull.

And he was one of the lucky ones. Approximately 241 service members died, most of them fellow Marines, when a suicide bomber drove a truck loaded with explosives into the barracks. It has been called the most deadly act of terrorism to U.S. citizens prior to Sept. 11, 2001.

Last month, almost 24 years after the bombing, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth awarded $2.65 billion to nearly 1,000 survivors of the bombing and their families, to be paid by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The judge stated that Iran clearly aided and backed the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which carried out the attack.

It's now up to the U.S. government to decide if and when to release Iranian assets frozen here and in other U.S.-friendly countries. There seems to be the political will to punish Iran for its participation in terrorist attacks, so the chances of the victims receiving this money are good, according to Washington, D.C., attorney Richard D. Heideman of Heideman Nudelman & Kalik, which represented some of the families.

Nine months too late
All this should be good news to Santos, 45, who has five children and cannot work because of back injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

But here is where his luck really ran out. Santos didn't find out about the lawsuit until his daughter, now a junior at Sandwich High School, came across a reference to the litigation while researching the Internet for a book her teacher recommended. Her discovery, in January, came nine months too late.

A law enacted in 1996 that allows Americans to sue nations that the State Department considers sponsors of terrorism for damages suffered in terrorist acts effectively expired in April 2006, Heideman said.

Santos contacted Heideman's office as soon as he heard, but was told he had missed the deadline.

The judge found Iran liable back in 2003, but the suit made big news last month when Lamberth awarded the actual damages. Santos called a fellow survivor living in Massachusetts. The man (who asked that his name not be published) told Santos he was expecting $2 million to $5 million from the suit.

"Oh, I went ballistic," Santos said.

Santos cannot understand how no one — not the attorneys themselves nor fellow survivors — contacted him during all the years the lawsuit was in process.

"It's not like I moved or have an unlisted home number," said Santos, who graduated from Sandwich High School in 1980 and returned to his hometown following his military service.

Santos suffers back problems from crushed discs, a result of being thrown and then buried in debris following the bombing. He also has disfiguring facial scars and is missing part of an earlobe, he said.

"But that's nothing compared to what I've gone through with PTSD," he said.

Panic attacks
Santos, who received a Purple Heart, recalls passing body parts as he walked out of the destroyed military base. He can no longer go into restaurants or malls for fear he may have a panic attack, he said.

The attorneys searched for other survivors and families by posting notices on the Internet, but they mostly worked through a national support group, the Beirut Veterans Association, Heideman said. Santos, however, said he was never involved with the association because it's mostly for family members of the deceased, he said.

"For a long time, I didn't want to face it because I felt guilty that I lived," he said.

A very active member of that group, Chris Devlin, lives in Westwood. She is the mother of Michael Devlin, who died in the bombing at age 21.

Devlin said she found and alerted many survivors and family members in the Bay State, including the man who told Santos he expected $2 million to $5 million.

But she never found Santos.

"I don't know how I missed him," she said of Santos. "I feel ever so badly about it."

Privacy laws hampered her ability to search, she said.

"We were not privy to names and current addresses," Heideman said.

After the damages portion of the lawsuit was announced in September, a number of people contacted Heideman's office saying they'd survived or are family members of the deceased, Heideman said. They too claimed to not know about the lawsuit, he said.

"We are evaluating the situation," Heideman said of the additional possible plaintiffs. "It's a matter we are reviewing."

This is about the only glimmer of hope for Santos and others like him.

"It's not so much about the money," Santos said. "I just feel dishonored. ... The worst part is, my daughter feels so guilty for showing me that letter (on the lawsuit). The children are now the victims of the bombing. That's the last thing I ever wanted."

K.C. Myers can be reached at kcmyers@capecodonline.com.

BLOG EDITOR'S NOTE!!!!!

"The attorneys searched for other survivors and families by posting notices on the Internet, but they mostly worked through a national support group, the Beirut Veterans Association, Heideman said. Santos, however, said he was never involved with the association because it's mostly for family members of the deceased, he said."

THE BEIRUT VETERANS OF AMERICA IS AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN FOR THE VETERANS,AND FAMILY MEMBERS

Editorial in Washington Times

2007-10-06T16:18:00.000-04:00

Hold Iran accountable
Thu. 04 Oct 2007
The Washington Times

Op-Ed

By Lynn Smith Derbyshire and Judith C. Young

On Oct. 23, 1983, the government of Iran sent a truck bomb into the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, destroying the building like a child smashing play-doh. Two hundred and forty-one men were killed, and countless others were wounded. It was mass murder.

It took three weeks to dig through the rubble and identify all the dead. The families of these victims, U.S. Marines and servicemen who were sent to Lebanon as peacekeepers, sat in front of our television sets and wept, and waited, and prayed — and waited and prayed, and wept again, desperate for news of those we loved.

For 24 years, since that horrible day, that horrible moment, the government of Iran has literally been getting away with murder.

In May 2003, after a trial that weighed the evidence of Iran's role in the bombing, the victims of Iran's state-sponsored terrorism and their families saw the first step toward justice. A U.S. district court found the government of Iran liable for organizing and funding the Beirut attack. And just last month, after a four-year process of painstakingly reviewing the claims of the hundreds of victims, that same court awarded damages in excess of $2.6 billion to the victims and their families.

Does this decision mean that Iran will finally be held to a measure of accountability for its sponsorship of terrorism? Well, not exactly. That is because several court decisions have held that legislation which Congress passed in 1996, giving victims of terrorism a federal cause of action, does not allow victims to attach assets held indirectly by terrorist states, even if these assets can be proven to be controlled for the benefit of the terrorist states. Terrorist states have used these decisions to hide their assets from victims seeking damages.

This has prompted Sens. Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, and Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, along with 25 other cosponsors, Democrats and Republicans, to introduce S. 1944, the Justice for Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Act. And in recent days, despite continued opposition from the State Department, even as Iran's leaders were thumbing their noses at the United States last week at the United Nations, members of Congress have rallied to this cause, with the Senate unanimously agreeing to include the Lautenberg-Specter bill as an amendment to the defense authorization. The measure is now in conference with the House and must be signed by the president.

This bill sends a strong and clear message to terrorist states such as Iran: You cannot murder Americans without consequences anymore. You can and will be held accountable. America and Americans now have one more tool in the world war on terror. The cost of state-sponsored terrorism is about to go up.

Will Iran be hurt by losing more than $2 billion of their investments abroad? Absolutely. The Iranian reaction to the court's recent decision was very public and very critical. They don't want to be held accountable for what they do. They don't want our nation to have laws that can deter them from supporting terrorist acts. They don't want to face the possibility that their government, currently under mounting domestic criticism for its mismanagement of its economy, may lose investments that generate significant income.

Maya Angelou said: "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

Governments such as Iran have been perpetrating acts of terrorism, and supporting terrorist organizations long enough. Today we say to them: no more.

None of us want the events of Oct. 23, 1983, to be repeated; they have been repeated far too many times already. The Achille Lauro, Robert Stethem of TWA Flight 847, the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the U.S.S. Cole, September 11, Madrid, Bali, and on and on.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah says there is "Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

"But God says to her, "Restrain your voice from weeping... because there is hope for the future." Time does not heal wounds; only hope can heal wounds.

This legislation will hold Iran accountable for the murder of the men who were killed and wounded on October 23, 1983. And if we can accomplish that, then we believe that we will truly have hope for the future.

Lynn Smith Derbyshire lives in Oak Hill, Va. Her brother, Marine Capt. Vincent Smith was killed in the 1983 Beirut bombing. Judith C. Young lives in Moorestown, N.J. She is the mother of Marine Sgt. Jeffrey Young, who was killed in the 1983 Beirut bombing.

There's a killer loose in the city...............

2007-09-24T18:08:00.001-04:00

Michael Daly New York Daily News

Thanks to Mr. Daly for his timely article on the Piece of Garbage, that recently flew in from Iran, I believe he calls himself the President of Iran now, 25 years ago he was nothing more than a murderous thug, and nothing has changed in the meantime.

No way to forget terror with Iran's president in your face

Sunday, September 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM

As the unrelentingly offensive president of Iran flies into JFK today, we should remember five beautiful sons of our city who were murdered at an airport far from home.

* Lance Cpl. Terrence Rich of Brooklyn.

* Lance Cpl. Steven Jones of Brooklyn.

* Lance Cpl. Warren Richardson of Brooklyn.

* Cpl. Obrian Weekes of Brooklyn.

* Lance Cpl. Dennis Thompson of the Bronx.

The five were killed along with 236 other Marines in a suicide attack on their barracks at the edge of Beirut International Airport on Oct. 23, 1983.

The CIA determined that the 12,000 pounds of explosives were furnished by Iran, whose hothead of state arrives among us today.

If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks a little smug, one reason may be that the United States did exactly nothing about the murder of those 241 Marines in revenge for our support for Saddam Hussein back then.

And, when 9/11 did rouse us to the reality of terrorism, Ahmadinejad was no doubt delighted to see the Bush Administration use the attack on the World Trade Center as a pretext to go after Iran's old enemy Saddam.

Iran commemorated its eight-year war with Iraq with a big parade yesterday that featured a new Ghadr-1 missile, whose name means "power." There were also the requisite signs indicating that the enemy of Iran's enemy is still its enemy.

"Death to America!"

Ahmadinejad was expected to board a plane later for America, to New York in particular. He will be moving through our city's streets under our protection even as his operatives set roadside bombs in Baghdad to murder our troops.

Iran almost certainly had nothing to do with 9/11, but it also almost certainly is aiding Shiite insurgents in killing G.I.s in Iraq. Ahmadinejad's current pals in this clandestine effort include Imad Fayez Mugniyah, the mastermind of the Beirut bombing that killed 241 Marines nearly a quarter century ago.

The number goes up to 242 if you include another New York Marine, Eddie Quail of upstate Hopewell Junction. Quail was eating in the chow hall at the four-story barracks in Beirut when the whole world seemed to explode around him.

"He didn't know if there was a nuclear war or the world had ended," a friend said yesterday.

Quail spent 2-1/2 days trapped in the rubble, not even knowing which way was up or down. He had somehow held onto a metal cup and he kept rapping it against the concrete.

Finally, somebody heard him. Quail was extracted alive, but part of his mind remained in the rubble. He was left alone in his terror as the country quickly forgot the attack.

"Like it never happened," the friend said.

A decade after the bombing, Quail's knees still shook when he sat.

"You would see it in him," the friend recalled. "He was the nicest, kindest guy, but he was a nervous wreck all the time."

Quail attempted to take his life by slicing his wrists. A few months later he ran in front of a truck and was killed.

"I guess it was a suicide," his friend said.

Word of Quail's death reached the Rev. Mychal Judge, then the FDNY's chaplain. Judge contacted the Marine Corps, which dispatched an honor guard to a modest funeral that ended with everyone holding hands in prayer.

Four years later, Judge himself became a victim of terrorism at the World Trade Center. Neither the Iranians nor Saddam had anything to do with that attack, but part of the blame rests squarely on all of us who were so quick to shrug off the terrorist attacks of the past.

The world did not change on 9/11. We just got a lesson in the world as it really is.

But, even now, people imagine that when we finally leave Iraq we will not still be at war, that the world will not still include Osama Bin Laden and Mugniyah. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's only virtue is he does not let us forget he is around.

While we are busy being outraged by Ahmadinejad's request to lay a wreath at Ground Zero, we should take the time to lay wreaths of our own at the graves of those five murdered Marines from New York, and one more for Eddie Quail.

Marine leads lawsuit against Iran

2007-08-20T18:35:00.000-04:00

Slickville Marine leads lawsuit against Iran
By Richard Gazarik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, August 20, 2007

It was Oct. 23, 1983, when the largest non-nuclear explosion ever detonated sent Marine Lance Cpl. Terry Valore, of Slickville in Westmoreland County, flying into a wall as his barracks disintegrated around him in Beirut, Lebanon.
Valore was a member of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, which was part of a multinational United Nations peacekeeping force assigned to Lebanon when Hezbollah terrorists, backed by Iran, drove a truck filled with explosives past a Marine checkpoint. They crashed the truck into the barracks, killing 241 Marines, soldiers and airmen.

Nearly 24 years later, Volare could be on the verge of payback.

He is lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In March, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington entered a judgment against Iran that could allow Valore and relatives of Marines killed in the attack to recover damages.

story continues below

Now they have to collect.
A bill proposed Aug. 2 in the U.S. Senate -- Senate Bill 1944, the Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act -- would allow the plaintiffs to recover damages from Iranian assets frozen by the United States. The bill is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"We're trying to put pressure on Congress to get it to a vote," said Valore, 45.

The former Marine, who was burned over 90 percent of his body, said, "it's been a long, tough road" to get to this point.

He said terrorists have been "exploiting loopholes" in the law by hiding behind sovereign immunity, which shields foreign governments from lawsuits.

"I've had my ups and downs every day," he said. "I lost a lot of good friends and would love to see their families get some monetary gain from it."

His attorney, Daniel Gaskill, of Rockville, Md., said the Senate bill would make exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which bars lawsuits against other nations. The exceptions include state-sponsored terrorism, kidnapping, extrajudicial killings, torture, hostage-taking and aircraft sabotage.

In entering the judgment, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote that Valore and the other 44 defendants "have established by clear and convincing evidence" that Iran was responsible for the attack. He added that the "elements of civil conspiracy are established between the defendants in this case and the actual perpetrators of the attack."

Lamberth said the evidence linked Iran through its Ministry of Information and Security to Hezbollah, which U.S. military officials say is now being backed by Iran in attacks on American forces in Iraq. The judge ruled that Iran provided money and support for the terrorists who planned and carried out the Beirut attack.

Lamberth will decide on the amount of damages at a hearing Sept. 7, Gaskill said. A court-appointed special master would determine individual amounts for Valore and the other plaintiffs.

"We don't know what the judge will decide," Gaskill said. "My guess is he will go about $3.3 billion. Whatever number he gives us, it's like one less roadside bomb that the Iranians will have money to spend on."

Gaskill, himself a former Marine, said the legislation is needed so his clients can recover damages from the Iranian assets held by the United States. He said an act of Congress is needed to gain access to the frozen funds since he is barred by law from suing the U.S. government to force their release.

According to court records, Hezbollah packed a 19-ton truck with explosives and disguised it as a water delivery vehicle that routinely arrived at Beirut International Airport, where Valore's unit was stationed. Hezbollah hijacked the real water truck and sent in the fake. The truck crashed through sandbags and concertina wire surrounding the barracks and detonated about 6:25 a.m., when many of the Marines were sleeping. The blast left an 8-foot-deep crater and leveled the four-story barracks.

"What resulted was the largest non-nuclear explosion ever detonated up to that time," Lamberth wrote.

Valore was on guard duty when the explosion occurred. The blast slammed him into a pillar, which kept him from being blown outside and buried when the building collapsed.

In his ruling, Lamberth said the physical and psychological toll on the survivors and families is incalcuable.

"This court acknowledges that there is little it can say to effectively convey to the (families) of these brave servicemen how deeply sorry it is for their losses." He said the attack "remains a tragedy that will never be forgotten."

"Parents and children alike were lost that day. Families were torn apart, never to become whole again. The physical and emotion and psychological scars suffered by these victims will undoubtedly endure long after the issuance of a judgment in this case."

In 2003, the families of the 270 victims of Pan Am Flight 103 settled their lawsuit against Libya for $2.7 billion after Libya admitted responsibility for the 1988 bombing as the plane flew over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Other lawsuits are pending in New York involving the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Somerset County.

Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism in 2003 filed a $116 trillion lawsuit against a company run by the family of Osama bin Laden, Sudan and a number of Saudi princes, alleging they helped finance the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. The case is pending.

Valore said he plans to see the case through to the end.

"I got one shot at this," he said. "We all got one shot. I plan on changing history with this law. I almost lost my life over there. I can't let them win."

Richard Gazarik can be reached at rgazarik@tribweb.com or (724) 830-6292.

Fourth of July Beirut Vet Remembered

2007-07-04T13:46:00.000-04:00

Remember America's heroes on July 5th too

Chet Decker West Fargo Pioneer

Published Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Chet Decker is the sports editor for The Pioneer. He is a West Fargo graduate and was a journalist during his years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is currently employed as a Fargo Police Officer.

There’s only one thing I like during the Fourth of July holiday more than fireworks and barbeques. It’s during those annual fireworks displays that I remember true American heroes I had the honor to meet while serving two enlistments in the active duty U.S. Marine Corps as a combat journalist.

It’s because of these men that we continue to have a 4th of July to celebrate, and we should remember them the other 364 days of the year as well. Their stories are the foundation of our country and embody the very flag everyone is waving around this week.

Their hardships could be written about, talked about and spread all over the world a million times over, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

Heroes managed to live while defending our country and flag. Countless people have died for that flag, and a majority of their stories will never be told. Don't forget them. / Submitted photo

Chet Decker Column Archive

West Fargo wins national volleyball tournament 07/04

Packer sports, Farkas boys go hand in hand 06/27

All-state golfer not overlooked 06/20

Ranking Packer Sports 06/13

Packer baseball surprises even itself 06/06

Chet Decker Complete Archive

Chet Decker Archive

In 1999 I had my picture taken with Medal of Honor recipient, retired Marine Colonel Mitchell Paige. He manned a machine gun by himself after all his men were killed or wounded at Guadalcanal during World War II. When his gun was destroyed by Japanese shells, he moved from gun to gun firing alone until reinforcements arrived. Then he led a successful bayonet charge to prevent a break in American lines. He was bayoneted in the hand, had shrapnel in his back and burns all over his body from firing overheated machine guns. Mitchell Paige died in 2003. His full story of that night in 1942 can be found online at www.homeofheroes.com.

Retired Master Sergeant Kenneth Whitehead was finally awarded a Bronze Star in 1999 for his life-saving actions in Vietnam in 1966. He was on watch, while many of his fellow Marines slept in tents nearby. Suddenly a grenade flew out of nowhere. Whitehead said he wasn’t even thinking when he picked up the live grenade and hurled it away from the tents. Just as he was realizing what he had done, he saw enemy soldiers advancing on him. That’s when he put his rifle into his shoulder and began killing those that wanted to kill him.

During an interview, Whitehead told me through tears about a battle earlier in the war when advancing enemy soldiers were so numerous that it seemed like a turkey shoot. He was shooting them with his pistol from just a few yards away as they attacked his tank. Whitehead drove the tank down an enemy trench line, crushing numerous enemy soldiers and burying several alive. Twelve U.S. Marines were killed in the battle. Whitehead said the war still goes on inside him – feelings of guilt for being a survivor and feelings of guilt for having killed scores of human beings.

And then there is the Marine who stands out most in my mind – former Corporal Paul Rivers, now a U.S. Marshall. I first met him during a ceremony in 1997 that marked the 14th anniversary of the Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. Rivers was lying in his bunk gathering himself to get out of bed and into uniform for duty. He remembers a tremendous light and waking up pinned under concrete with a plumbing pipe melting onto his face. Rivers ended up in a Lebanese hospital next to dead and dying Marines. He remembers the screams. Of more than 100 servicemen on his floor in the barracks, he is one of two that lived.

Rivers cried when he told me his story, about how everyone in the room with him, including his best friends, perished. When he told me, “My brothers would have wanted me to carry on,” I cried with him.

Rivers carries the weight of being one of a handful of surviving Marines in that 1983 terrorist attack that killed 241 American servicemen. Surely many who were sleeping never even knew what hit them. You can be damn sure that he remembers those patriots that surely did not want to die for their country but did anyway.

That American flag that sometimes seems to only be waved during holidays like the 4th of July is ours. Many people didn’t need to earn the right to wave that flag, because brave men like Mitchell Paige, Kenneth Whitehead and Paul Rivers did that for them.

Those heroes managed to live while defending our country and flag. Countless people have died for that flag, and a majority of their stories will never be told.

In a certain way, the gracefulness and beauty of our flag blowing in the wind tells those stories.

Don’t forget them.

Beirut Vets inspiration for Haditha Colonel

2007-06-09T11:25:00.000-04:00

At Haditha Hearing, Dueling Views of a Battalion Commander

By PAUL von ZIELBAUER

Published: June 8, 2007

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., June 7 — Through three combat deployments in Iraq, a Bronze Star and numerous combat ribbons, Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani’s Marine Corps career has been defined, it seems, by terrorist bombs.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

The Marines are deciding whether Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani should undergo a court-martial.

In October 1983, news of the attack by Muslim extremists on a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 service members compelled Colonel Chessani, then a teenager from Rangely, Colo., to embrace Christianity and, later, to follow two brothers into the service. In November 2005, Colonel Chessani was a battalion commander in Haditha, Iraq, when a roadside bomb planted by Sunni Arab insurgents killed one of his marines and wounded two others.

Infantrymen under his command, seeking to engage the enemy, instead killed 24 civilians. Last year, the Marine Corps charged Colonel Chessani, 43, and three other officers with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the episode properly and relieved him of his command.

In a military hearing into whether he should face a formal court-martial, witnesses and military documents have helped paint two contradictory portraits of Colonel Chessani, the highest-ranking Marine officer charged since the Iraq war began more than four years ago.

On one side, battalion officers and enlisted men testifying under oath described Colonel Chessani, who at the time of the Haditha killings was on his third combat tour in Iraq, as a physically courageous leader whose integrity was beyond question.

“Lieutenant Colonel Chessani is by far the strongest moral leader I’ve ever worked with,” Sgt. Maj. Edward T. Sax, the battalion’s senior noncommissioned officer, testified last week. Maj. Samuel H. Carrasco, the Third Battalion’s operations officer, said Colonel Chessani’s “truthfulness is beyond reproach.” On Tuesday, Colonel Chessani’s adjutant, First Lt. Mark E. Towers, called him “a godly man” who spent a half-hour every morning in Iraq quietly reading the Bible in his quarters.

On the other side, Marine prosecutors have used testimony from Colonel Chessani’s subordinate and superior officers to portray him as a touchy and incurious field commander who, instead of investigating, sent deceptive reports about the Haditha killings up the chain of command.

Colonel Chessani never asked for a detailed briefing about how and why the marines killed 24 civilians, according to testimony, and did not inspect the scene of the killings, despite a report to superiors that he had.

Three months later, responding to questions about the civilian deaths from a Time magazine reporter, Colonel Chessani sent an e-mail message to his regimental commander that inaccurately stated that several AK-47s were found in a home where marines had killed several women and children, military documents show.

Major Carrasco, under questioning from prosecutors, also described Colonel Chessani as angrily shouting, “My men are not murderers!” after Major Carrasco and another battalion officer advised him, on Jan. 29, 2006, to open an inquiry into the killings.

Amid all the courtroom characterizations of him during the past week, Colonel Chessani, slightly built and with thinning gray hair, sat stone-faced at the defense table in his desert fatigues, jotting notes but rarely talking even to his lawyers.

By all accounts, including his own sworn statements to military investigators examining his response to the civilian killings, Colonel Chessani anguished over the casualties his marines suffered that day in Haditha — the most violent and chaotic day in the battalion’s combat tour.

From a command post about seven miles from Haditha, he viewed insurgent movements via video from an aerial drone and directed several attacks and counterattacks by marines against insurgents in residential areas around the city, according to testimony this week. Colonel Chessani visited one battle site later that day, but did not inspect the homes where 19 of the 24 civilians were killed by grenades and rifle fire.

In a sworn statement to military investigators in March 2006, Colonel Chessani said he never suspected that the killings were improper under the American laws of war, because they followed an attack by insurgents that, he believed, was intended to provoke lethal return fire by marines in a residential area.

“I believe the enemy picked the ground where he wanted to attack us,” Colonel Chessani said in a statement dated March 20, which has not been officially released. “They were — they had set this up so that there would be collateral damage.”

He later added, “Enemy had picked the place, he had picked the time and the location for a reason. I believed he made a definite choice in where it was and thought that, you know, he wanted to make us look bad.”

Marine prosecutors have suggested that Colonel Chessani was, in fact, so intent on not letting insurgents use the civilian deaths against the marines that he ignored evidence that his troops, under sporadic small-arms fire, had violated rules of engagement in killing civilians in their homes.

In a statement he gave on March 26, 2006, to an investigator from Naval Criminal Investigative Service from the base in Asad, Iraq, Colonel Chessani admitted, in stoical, confessional language, that he could have trained his marines better.

“Looking back, I could have done a better job preparing the marines for this deployment as it relates to R.O.E. training,” his statement said, using the abbreviation for rules of engagement. That might have included using live-fire training that required infantrymen to discern enemy targets from civilians.

Perhaps the most important arbiter of Colonel Chessani’s actions in Haditha is Col. Christopher Conlin, the investigating officer who will recommend whether the charges should proceed to a court-martial. Colonel Conlin, a former Iraq battalion commander presiding over his first military hearing, has made several comments that suggest a critical view of Colonel Chessani.

For example, last week, Colonel Conlin told a witness that many other battalion commanders would have joined their troops in the battle area on the day of combat in November 2005, instead of remaining miles away.

On Tuesday, Colonel Conlin asked Lieutenant Towers, who was a battalion legal adviser in Iraq in 2005, if a report by Colonel Chessani’s staff to the regiment stating that the colonel had examined the scene of the civilian casualties “implied that he went there.”

Lieutenant Towers answered firmly, “Yes, sir.”

Iran, winner, and still , the world champion of terriorism!

2007-02-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

* Author: Farid N. Ghadry
* News Date: 2/20/07
* Source: The Washington Times

The Syrian regime is just as complicit as Iran in moving forward hostile activities specifically designed to kill Americans. The evidence is there and widely acknowledged by those in the know, but U.S. political and military leadership have proved hesitant to publicly pursue a tandem case against both Iran and Syria, despite the very prominent linkages that exist between the two in fermenting a wide spectrum of terror operations targeting U.S. forces.

The recent implication of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Qods Force in facilitating the movement of deadly weapons and “super” IEDs specially designed to inflict maximum casualties and penetrate armor speaks to only one half of the real story.
Regional intelligence services and inside sources from within Sunni officer corps opposed to the Assad regime have identified major foreign-fighter training camps in northern Syria and just outside Damascus overseen by Syrian Military Intelligence and run by former Iraqi Ba’athi Generals and senior Saddam Fedayeen commanders.
One major foreign fighter camp exists in the Latakia province in northern Syria, a mountainous area replete with Syrian Military Intelligence facilities and wide swaths of ostensibly government property closed to the public. The Iraqi officer in charge there is one Maj. Gen. Majid Sulayman. Yet another such camp exists 40 kilometers to the west of the border town of Qamishli, which lies in the Kurdish area in the northeastern tip of Syria bordering Iraq and Turkey; it is run by Maj. Gen. Qays al-Adhami. The al-Shaybani camp lies 30 kilometers south of Damascus and also trains foreign fighters. The al-Ikhals camp lies in the heart of the Qaysun mountain range near Damascus.
The al Qaeda connection is not that far removed. Arab papers report that the recent movement of large numbers of al Qaeda in Iraq fighters from Syria into Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon and Beirut are sounding alarm bells that the Syrian security services are preparing to use these heavily armed and visibly well-funded cells to launch attacks against the anti-Syrian democratic government of Lebanon.
These cells are directed by Syrian extremists such as Shakir Absi, Abu Qa Qa, Sheikh Hashem Minqara and Abu-Khalid Imlah, who have historical ties with Syrian intelligence; all were formerly imprisoned in special detention centers run by the Political Security Directorate and then suddenly released by the good graces of Syrian security around the same time in 2005. Absi and Imlah maintain the strongest ties to Syrian intelligence. Absi — a former officer in the Syrian air force — and Imlah — the former head of SMI — supported Fatah al-Intifadah — who later created his own Fatah al-Islam offshoot.
What’s more, European security services are warning that senior al Qaeda leadership figures Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi and Atiyah Abdul-Rahman have tasked al Qaeda assets in the Levant to prepare for major international operations targeting Western Europe and even the U.S homeland. Operational planning is said to be progressing with potential targets already cased out. And these are just the Sunni extremists that the Syrians support.
Mr. Chizari, one of the major IRGC commanders netted by Coalition Forces in December, was present in Damascus a month prior to his capture where he was meeting with senior Syrian leadership and the Lebanese Hezbollah officials in charge of a specially designated “Force 2800″ which focuses on supporting fellow radical Shi’ite groups like the ones responsible for the recent kidnapping and execution of four U.S. soldiers in Karbala.
Mr. Chizari is the deputy for Iraq operations to Brig. Gen. Qasim Soleimani, who in turn heads Qods Force external operations and is strategic guide to IRGC activities in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. The super IEDs, also known as explosive formed penetrators, would never have proliferated so widely in Iraq had it not been for the work of IRGC officials like Gen. Soleimani and Mr. Chizari. Gen. Soleimani’s other right-hand man, Ja’afar al-Ibrahimi, aka Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, also attended these meetings. Muhandis is a senior Badr Brigade operator with close ties to Hezbollah and a central node to the IRGC supply network to anti-U.S. Shi’ite militias in Iraq. Mr. Muhandis was also recently identified by the United States as being behind the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait in the early 1980s as well.
The Syrian-Iranian regime terror connection is further underscored by Gen. Soleimani’s participation in high-level discussions on a monthly basis with Syrian leadership, including Assad’s brother and brother-in law.
Imad Mugniyeh, the infamous Hezbollah special operations super-terrorist who still retains a $5 million bounty on his head — placed by the FBI due to his role in planning the Marine barrack and embassy bombings in Beirut in 1982 — is also said to attend these meetings. Sources say that Mugniyeh was designated by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah as the head of Force 2800.
The case is apparent and it goes beyond the circumstantial. The Syrian regime is not merely dabbling in terror sponsorship in an ad hoc manner. This is a concerted and strategic effort designed to inflict the maximum punishment upon the United States and its allies, not just in the region but across the globe.
The full scope and depth of regime involvement in enabling acts of self-sustaining terror might never be known. But enough indicators have subsequently arisen within the shadow of Iran’s own pernicious designs against the United States and struggling democratic allies in the Arab world, to realize that, left unchecked, we might find ourselves suddenly overwhelmed and outflanked by an enemy that, for the sake of expediency, was ignored.

Farid N. Ghadry is president of the Reform Party of Syria.

Fatwa what Fatwa?

2007-01-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

Debbie Schlussel has a great article about the Iman who issued the Fatwa against our Brothers in Beirut

His friend, Hezbollah spiritual leader and Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, is the man who gave the fatwa (religious decree) okaying the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, murdering over 241 Americans.

They Paved Hallowed Ground and put up a Parking Lot.

2007-01-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

Frequent Flier
Asleep in Exhaustion, on a Sofa or on Pavement

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By ASHLEIGH BANFIELD
Published: January 16, 2007

I USED to think that being a war correspondent was one of the most difficult jobs in TV journalism. It is, without a doubt, the most dangerous one.
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Ashleigh Banfield on assignment in Tehran. She is now a co-anchor on Court TV News.

Before I flew to Islamabad in September 2001 to cover the American war on terror, the president of NBC News warned me about the perils of covering a conflict. “This is one of the most refused assignments in the history of NBC News,” he said.

As a precaution, and in concert with no fewer than three other executives, we agreed it would be a good idea to tone down my blond highlights to avoid standing out.

But it was the airline I credit for going native. After my luggage disappeared en route, I visited a local store and bought scarves and the traditional dresses called Salwar-kameez. Noting the Pakistani soldiers barricading our hotel, I felt much safer blending in with the locals, and after a while other Western reporters — particularly women — began to do the same thing.

Clothing wasn’t the only thing not to be taken for granted. So was sleep. I have slept in cars on my way to interviews. I’ve fallen asleep underneath the camera, between all-night live shots. I even took a nap on the sofa in the office of former Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres. It was rather embarrassing when he walked in, woke me up and told me it was time to do the interview.

Perhaps the worst, and most uncomfortable, place I have ever fallen asleep was in a parking lot in Beirut. I was working on a story about the United States Marine barracks that were bombed in 1983 during the Lebanese civil war. The authorities had decided to level the barracks and pave over the area, leaving it a nondescript parking lot. There is no reference to the 241 marines who were killed there.

When we arrived, the police barred us from rolling until they had verified our official permission. After a 12-hour flight and a lot of waiting, I was so exhausted I simply laid my head on the concrete and fell asleep. No blanket, no pillow, no pride. I woke up to the police clearing us out. They refused to let us get the pictures.

But last year, I discovered that being a war correspondent is not the most difficult job on earth. Traveling with a 12-pound baby is.

Just recently I was on my way from New York to Fort Myers, Fla., carrying a diaper bag, a stroller, a car seat, a bag filled with toys, bottles and formula and my now 1-year-old son, Fischer. At the checkpoint, an agent ordered me to disassemble the stroller and put it through the X-ray machine. That proved to be virtually impossible while holding my son.

“Could you please hold him for me?” I asked. “I can’t break down the stroller without your help.”

The agent shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

“It’s either that, or we put my son through the X-ray machine.”

Seeing the absurdity of the situation, the agent grinned and held Fischer for me. If he could navigate a baby through airport security, he may have a future as a war correspondent.

By Ashleigh Banfield, as told to Christopher Elliott. E-Mail: elliott@nytimes.com.

Christmas in Beirut Lebanon 1983

2006-12-16T21:29:00.001-05:00

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CHRISTMAS IN BEIRUT
Journal Entries from the Battlefield
BY Brian G. Lukas

Editor’s note: The name Beirut became a one-word symbol for the war torn Middle East of the late 1970s. Civil war had erupted in Lebanon in 1975, the result of clashes between Christian and Muslim groups, including members of the Druse religious sect and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and had escalated over several years. In 1982, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon; the two countries had already fought south of Beirut. As well, Syria had occupied the country since 1976. In 1983, the United Nations dispatched a multinational peace-keeping force, including U.S. Marines, to Beirut. The Marines left Beirut within a year because of terrorist attacks; on Oct. 23,1983, a truck loaded with explosives crashed into the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit Headquarters compound, killing 241 Marines.

“The Marines in Beirut seem to have gotten lost in the history books . . . they had a difficult mission,” says TV photographer Brian Lukas. He, along with news anchorwoman Angela Hill and editorialist Phil Johnson, all of WWL-TV/Channel 4, traveled to Beirut in late 1983 to cover Louisiana Marines stationed there at Christmastime. Lukas kept journal entries of his tense times there, excerpted here.
Christmas 1983 was just a few weeks away. I would travel to Beirut with Angela Hill and Phil Johnson to film and edit stories on local Marines from the New Orleans area. It was a time before portable satellite uplinks and the Internet, so we carried videotaped messages from the Marines’ families back in the United States. Our ambitious itinerary also included production of a documentary about this war-torn area. But as fighting between the various factions escalated, that idea was abandoned. Armed militias set up roadblocks in various sections of Beirut. The Islamic Jihad decided to add another element to its arsenal of terror and brutality: kidnapping Westerners.

•If there is hell on earth, it is here in Beirut. At the same time that I arrived in Beirut, the French Embassy was hit by a car bomb, with 20 people killed. Later that night, a French military base was blasted by a bomb-laden truck. Ten French soldiers were killed, and 23 were hurt. The explosion lit up the whole area. Terror – it is sheer terror. I can see it on the faces of the residents who walk cautiously on the streets. Here in Beirut, teenagers carry assault rifles, mainly M-16s. On the streets, women cradle their children tightly in their arms, begging any Westerners for help. The city smells like death. There is a stench of rotting corpses and smoldering trash strewn about from buildings destroyed by the fighting in the streets. To realize the inhumanity of war, you have to look deep in the faces of the civilian population. Then, if you dare, look deep into their eyes. There you will find the horror of war absorbed deep within the soul. I look into many eyes here in Beirut.

•In the eyes of the young Marines, I can see the uneasy and uncomfortable situation they are in. The U.S. Marines’ position at the Beirut International Airport keeps them under daily sniper and artillery attack. I remember when I was in Washington, D.C., for a White House press function when many of these same Marines from the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit invaded Grenada, a tiny island in the Caribbean. Now I am here in hell with them. The Marines, politically, are not invaders but are so-called “welcome guests,” strategically placed in Lebanon on a peace-keeping mission with the French and Italians as part of a multinational force. Our Marine contact is Capt. Dennis Brooks, the Marine public-information officer on the base, always “spring-loaded to say yes.” He remarked that the various militias near the Marine positions use their tanks like small arms fire: They quickly maneuver the tanks in firing position, release a shell and maneuver back quickly, then repeat the operation. Maximum destruction, I thought to myself. Total destruction was evident when we passed the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps – hundreds, perhaps thousands of Palestinians were killed here: men, women, and children. Our driver remarked, solemnly, that they were executed. The refugee camps are leveled, nothing remains, and where the victims of this civil war sought relief from the terror of war, only the bare reddish-brown earth remains visible from the nearby dusty road. Their graves are not even marked. It is as if they were never born.

•At night there is no time to dream; the evenings are fitful with the sounds of rifle fire. My bed is level with the window. Crazy, I thought, there are snipers on the roofs – one shot through the window and that’s it. I tried to sleep on the floor, but there is no sleep at night. The sounds of sniper fire and the thud of muffled mortar and artillery rounds are trying to find any “peace-keeper’s” position near the Avenue de Paris, the long, winding road facing the Mediterranean Sea.
•At one time Beirut played the Paris of the Middle East; now it plays a sorrowful tune of despair. My hotel in Beirut is owned by the Nassai family, Palestinian owners of the Commodore Hotel. The Commodore Hotel is on the Muslim side of Beirut. On the Christian side, the owner of the Alexandre failed to pay protection money to the thugs and every conceivable terrorist seeking consideration for the hotel’s existence. As a result, somebody exploded a huge car bomb in its parking lot, destroying the hotel. I couldn’t help but notice the line of cars ringing the Commodore Hotel here in Muslim West Beirut. Sometimes the cars were two or three deep. I quickly learned that these vehicles were buffers to prevent any car-bomb attacks on the Commodore. The ring of vehicles and payoffs couldn’t stop the instruments of distant destruction. My hotel room in the Commodore is on the fourth floor, room 405. I could not enter the room without noticing the shift in the door and several large cracks running down the length of the wall. A little later that day, I learned that room 405, my room, had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade just two weeks earlier.

•There is no sanctuary in this city. It’s a sad place and a sad time. Beirut is a city defined by fear, a city bisected by the green line – Christians in the East, Muslims in the West. This is a noisy, depressing, dangerous and disconcerting place to work. I tried not to sleep last night. It’s been several nights since I’ve had any sleep. The last thing I wanted was to be asleep when a car bomb went off and then to be buried under the rubble of concrete and steel from the top five floors. I often fall asleep at the dinner table. Veteran journalists from Europe and the U.S. networks in the hotel remark that this is one of the scariest wars they’ve covered. There is no “commuting” to this war; death and destruction are all around us.
Blackened pockmarks of war are carved into the façade of every building. The city is gravely wounded. And now a new threat is employed by the terrorists: They are kidnapping journalists and teachers at the American University in Beirut. A note was posted on the front bulletin board as we left the hotel. It was a warning from the Islamic Jihad. In very simple words, the note said that all Westerners must leave Beirut or “we will make the ground under your feet move.” It was a direct threat to destroy the hotel where the Western press reported the war. This is the same group that claimed responsibility for bombing the U.S. Marine base here in Beirut, and the U.S. embassies in Beirut and Kuwait.

•The war is escalating now. (A few months later, the Commodore Hotel would be completely destroyed by shelling and car bombs.) The American Embassy was heavily damaged by another car-bomb attack. Forty people were injured, and eight were killed in the suicide attack. The front of the embassy building, facing the seashore, is covered in what appears to be a seven-story green shroud. It hides the embassy’s exposed interior from probing eyes or people that pass through the zigzagged row of 55-gallon metal drums filled with dirt. The metal drums are defenses against another suicide attack. Marines are positioned throughout the building. Another contingent of Marines is stationed just across the street from the embassy. An American flag blew quietly in the wind next to a Marine guard watching the pedestrian movement in front of the embassy. The image of the American flag and the Marine standing with the sun setting on the Mediterranean Sea gave the drab gray seashore kind of a splendid appearance. In a melancholy way I felt a strong connection with home. The obvious presence of the American flag waving in the warm breeze made me feel very thankful that I live in and would return to the United States shortly. And if there is ever an image of the Marines in Beirut that will be forever stamped on my mind, it is that one single Marine and the American flag rippling in the wind next to him.

•On the corniche, in front of the American Embassy, the Marines are routinely targeted by snipers. It becomes very nerve-racking that at any time death may come by a sniper. As I filmed the area I noticed a small bunker with several Marines standing guard. One of them was Cpl. Brad Pellegrin from Slidell. It is the Christmas season, and he is making the best of a very bad situation by lining his bunker with makeshift ornaments. I forgot that we were nearing Christmas.
We were carrying messages from Cpl. Pellegrin’s family to give to him. It was a videotaped message to him from his wife, mother and child. As we showed the message to him I noticed an interesting effect on the other Marines . . . they gathered closer together to hear the family’s greeting to Brad. Closer the Marines came when Brad’s son said, “Daddy, I love you and miss you.” We played the videotape again and again. That’s when I realized that Brad’s family was now family to all the Marines that gathered to watch his videotape in front of the destroyed American Embassy. His family was their family; his son was their son or daughter. The Marines had a Christmas family now . . . and it was amazing to witness a little bit of loneliness disappear as they looked on. Christmas is family . . . even in Beirut.

•The makeshift Christmas ornaments lining the bunkers in front of the destroyed U.S. embassy were a welcome relief. It was a simple reminder of the hope that peace existed. Off in the distance, on the Mediterranean Sea, the sunset cast a shadow on the battleship New Jersey. The broad, flickering light from her was the firepower from her massive guns unleashed on the Druse militias, who rocketed the Marine base at the International Airport on Beirut’s southern edge. We would find out that a Marine was severely wounded; later he died.

•Overnight, hooded Shiite Muslims and their Druse allies drove Lebanese army units from most of their checkpoints on the Muslim West Beirut commercial thoroughfares and residential neighborhoods. I woke up to a very loud mechanical clanking just outside my hotel. The sounds of Lebanese military tanks rolling pass the hotel window quickly eliminated the little rest I hoped to get.

•Reports indicate at least 90 people killed last night and more than 300 wounded in the fighting; in just two days more than 160 people were killed, mostly civilians caught in the cross-fire. It’s a sickness – hatred is a cancer destroying everything here.

•At the Marine base this morning I could see the visible impact of the shelling by the U.S. 6th Fleet on the mountain range surrounding the base. Huge billows of smoke rose as the shells hit their targets. Cpls. Herbert McKnight and Greg Nelson, both from the New Orleans area, said the Marine base was shelled by rockets overnight. Herbert was stationed in a sandbag bunker on the rooftop of the base. This bunker, accessible only by a ladder, is the highest point on the Marine base. It also appears to be a very vulnerable position, an obvious target for a sniper. Cpl. Nelson, from Slidell, manned a .50-caliber machine gun overlooking the Kalda mountain range near the rear of the base. Cpl. Brian Campbell, only 19 years old and from Lafayette, was quickly unloading supplies from a helicopter. The copters didn’t stay long . . . they couldn’t – mortars usually found their targets. Brian, Greg and Herbert, these young Marines, were reminders that wars are fought by the very young, often placed in horrific circumstances and forced to grow up quickly. Several times I asked them to move their helmet up so I could see their eyes while filming. “Son, can you move your helmet up just a little?” I said. I would later say, “Marine, would you push your helmet back just a little?” Eighteen, 19 years old . . . here in hell, when others of their age are probably wrapping Christmas presents and acting goofy back home.
But on the Marine base at the Beirut International Airport, the one focal point no one can pass without some reflection of what happened months earlier is the huge crater. That crater once housed the Marines in a four story building. Every time I moved past it, I thought of the young men like Greg, Brian and Herbert, and then I said a small prayer for the families of the 241 Marines that died here.

•The Marine base alarm is sounding. The Druse militias are firing mortars now. In a few seconds, we must make the decision to stay on the Marine base during the shelling and miss our satellite deadline or leave and walk into the chaos and madness of the streets. We decide to leave. A condition-1 alert has been initiated . . . there are incoming mortar rounds in the distance, and the front gate will be locked shortly. The Marine base is the target.

We had to leave quickly. But as I left the Marine base I noticed a small memorial in front of the former Marine barracks. Despite the imminent danger, I couldn’t help but stop, notice and film the small bouquet of light blue flowers ringed around a Marine-issued camouflage hat. Above the flowers was a small, white sign facing east, toward the city of Beirut. The small sign simply described the Marines’ mission in Beirut: To the “24th MAU, they came in peace.”
It’s a dangerous world out there. •

Copyright New Orleans Publishing Group, L.L.C.

In our Backyard..............

2006-11-21T12:05:00.000-05:00

Two charged with providing Hezbollah TV in New York Mon Nov 20, 2:53 PM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - Two men have been charged with terrorist offences in New York for allegedly providing access to a television station banned in the United States and linked to the Shiite militia group Hezbollah, prosecutors said.

Pakistani-born Javed Iqbal, 42, and US citizen Saleh Elahwal, 53, are accused of conspiring to provide viewers with satellite broadcasts by Al-Manar, an Arabic-language station seen as a mouthpiece for the Lebanese group.

They face a sentence of up to 110 years in jail if convicted on the charges of providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organisation.

According to prosecutors, Iqbal and Elahwal ran a satellite television business and allegedly offered to provide Al-Manar to an undercover agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The station, which was listed as a terrorist entity by US authorities in March, allegedly paid thousands of dollars to Iqbal's firm in return.

Iqbal was arrested on related charges in August.

Court documents released at the time said that Iqbal was interviewed at New York's Kennedy airport in May on returning from a trip to Lebanon.

An FBI agent entered his satellite television store some two weeks later, when Iqbal was alleged to have offered broadcasts of the banned channel.

The indictment further alleges that the two shipped satellite receivers to Al-Manar.

"Javed Iqbal and Saleh Elahwal engaged in transactions that support the terrorist organisations Hezbollah and Al-Manar, and did so for financial profit," US attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement.

"As terrorist organisations become more sophisticated, it is critical that we respond using all the enforcement tools the law provides."

Terror: Iran's Chief Export

2006-11-19T10:39:00.000-05:00

(Thanks to Threats Watch)

From Somalia and al-Qaeda to Hamas and American Hizballah Cells
By Steve Schippert

One might ask: “Why should the average American bother reading yet another lengthy report on the threat posed by Iran?” Or, more to the point: “Why should I care? Why should I be concerned? Iran is in the Middle East and seems bent on Israel.”

The answer is because Iran’s Hizballah has active terrorist cells in the United States. This, coupled with Iran’s role as the Central Banker of International Terrorism, should compel the average American to take Iranian threats seriously – such as Ahmadinejad’s recent open Jihad ultimatum to Europe. Created by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and responsible for (among other attacks) the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut which killed nearly 300, Hizballah’s presence in the United States is well documented. While Iran openly states that the ‘Zionist Regime’ should be “wiped off the map” and pledges to do just that – as do Hamas and others – even Israel is referred to as the ‘Little Satan’ while America remains the ‘Great Satan.’

Hezbollah, Samir Kuntar, Leon Klinghoffer

2006-11-17T22:21:00.000-05:00

Remember the Achille Lauro? An innocent American was murdered by Hezbollah backed Samir Kuntar, now resting comfortably in an Israeli Prison. We know the evil that we fight, but here is it's face

Islamic Reformists -- A Matter of Life and Death

2006-10-08T12:09:00.000-04:00

By
Robert T. Jordan

For modern Muslim reformists, a 21st Century interpretation of the Qur'an assures that: Man was created free, with a mind and a mission on earth to do good and avoid evil. His allegiance is to God and no one else. God will judge man for his deeds in the hereafter –- not anyone else. Man bears full responsibility for his deeds. Thus, freedom and responsibility means accountability. If these are the bases of the relationship with God Almighty, it should be the bases for all human relations in this world as well.

As Islamic fascist groups, such as Al Aqsa, Abu Sayaf, The Egyptian Brotherhood, HAMAS, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, rein terrorism throughout the world, the question arises as to why Islam’s moderates do not restrain this supposedly minority faction that high jacked their religion.

I posed these questions at a church briefing about Islam by an Arab Christian convert. “What happened to the Islamic reformists? Why aren’t the Islamic moderates responding with outrage?”

Our guest speaker smiled wryly, making a motion as if casting a fishing line into the water. “They are in the pond,” he said. “And al-Qaeda fishes for them. If they do not covert, they are killed.”

What I was referring to is a struggling group of moderate Moslems who urge fellow Moslems to initiate a modern interpretation of the Qur'anic text that would be in harmony with 21st Century ethics and civil thought.

The reformists base their call for Moslems to respect freedom of thought upon their interpretation that Allah (God) refrained from providing any worldly punishment any deviation or change of heart or mind on matters of religious faith. They assert that any penalty for such would be the province of God on judgment day.

Advocating Servility

Saad E. Ibrahim, in his article: Democratization and Islamic Reformation, points to many Qur'anic verses where Mohammad is commanded to abstain from harsh manners in advocating the new faith of Islam:

"Invite all to the way of the Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious, for the Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His path." [Verse 125, Sura 16, al Nahl] "Those who spend freely, whether in prosperity or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon all men; for God loves those who do good." [Verse 134, Sura 3, Al Omran]

“In the last ten years, Muslim militants killed thirty times more fellow Muslims than non-Muslims. In other words, the wrath of Islamic zealots is more directed against other Muslims, whom they consider ‘corrupt’ or ‘decadent’.’” Ibrahim says. “The question, therefore, is, what are the roots of this madness, and whether something can be done about it?”

But Islamist radicals want to ignore these parts of the Qur'an. They want to take all of Islam back to the 7th Century’s strict punitive controls and ignore any parts of the Qur'an that support freedom and equality other than their limited view.

Former Tunisian Education Minister Mohammed al-Sharafi told a gathering of Moslem moderates in 2004 that, "if a child learns an idealized view of the past that sanctifies its history and tradition, then looks around and sees in society what goes against what he's learned, he will have some sort of a schizophrenia that might lead to violence." This disconnect is easily exploited as the terrorist leaders prey upon naïve youths to sacrifice themselves for their idealized goal of one global theocratic state.

Ibrahim wonders which version of the Qur'an will be taught to future generations.

The Charter of Medina

The Charter of Medina embodies the Prophet Mohammed's understanding and practice of pluralism. Upon his flight from Mecca to Yathrib in 622, he proposed a new name for it -- "civicus," or "medina" in Arabic. Muslim newcomers were to co-exist peacefully with non-Muslim communities and tribes in the same city. A written Charter negotiated and signed by the elders of 17 distinct groups in Civicus (The Charter of Medina) asserts the basic values and rights of the peaceful coexistence, including:

• Freedom of religious belief and worship for each and all;
• equality in all worldly rights and obligations,
• communal settlement of disputes, and
• shared responsibility in the defense of Civicus against outsider threats.

Coming nearly six centuries before the Magna Carta (1215), the Charter of Medina is probably the earliest formulation of the basis of what later on defined "civil society."

Conservative Reaction to Reform

Where Islamic reformists see peace and harmony in their modern interpretations of the Qur'an, conservative activists see danger. Ibrahim points out that conservatives closely allied with the heads of Islamic governments control all media and education. They also use Islamic law to proscribe, intimidate and persecute any reformists brave enough to speak out.

Ibrahim explains that the militant Islamists response to the reformist movement of the 1970s was to take direct action against the reformists by intimidating, assaulting or assassinating them.

“Two dramatic cases in point were the kidnapping and killing of Sheikh al Dhabi in July 1977 and the assassination in daylight of Dr. Faray Fouda, shortly after a public debate with an arch-conservative sheikh in June 1992,” Ibrahim explains: “Worse still is when the arch-conservatives incite the state to persecute Islamic reformists. The most dramatic case in point is the execution of four leading Sudanese Islamic reformists, known as the Republican Brothers, in January 1985, on charges of ‘heresy’ and ‘apostasy’. Their religious crime was their public rejection of the Shari'aa, as handed down from the ulama of ten centuries ago.”

What Must Be Done

The Islamic reformists stress that the Qur'an must be reinterpreted from an “ancient” 10th Century understanding into modern terms that harmonize with current thought.

They point to the dark periods of Christianity, such as the Inquisition and the crusades, when church and state were inseparable. They point out that “pure spirituality” came within the Christian faith only after the Reformation, which introduced the concept of separation of church and state.

That will only come through a democratization of Islamic governments that adopt concepts of individual liberty and the separation between religious belief and governmental law.

But democracy alone is not the answer. As seen in Palestine and Lebanon, democratic elections may be co-opted when fanatical factions are capable of unduly influencing the process by external support and influence.

The seeds of moderate thought and individual freedom cannot thrive very well in the hostile environment of Islamic fascism. But evidence exists that the planted seeds only need encouragement and support to flourish. The alternative is enslavement or death.

(Robert Jordan is a Former PAO Major with the United States Marine Corps and Beirut Veteran)

The 23rd of October

Jacksonville perfect place for museum honoring Marines

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01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 3, 2010

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Friday October 23 2009

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When will we get our Recognition?????

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Hero Honored

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We win again!!!!

U.S. court rules against Iran, in favor of widow

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Murderer visits Beirut

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