Remember 23 October, 1983 Beirut Lebanon. 24th MAU....
In the attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241
American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers, along
with sixty Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day
death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo
Jima of World War II, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United
States military since the first day of the Tet Offensive during the
Vietnam War, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since
World War II.
At around 6:20 a.m., a yellow Mercedes-Benz
truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th
Marines under the 2nd Marine Division had set up its local
headquarters. The truck was not the water truck they had been expecting,
but a hijacked truck carrying the explosives. The truck turned onto an
access road leading to the compound and circled a parking lot. The
driver t
hen accelerated and crashed
through a barbed wire fence around the parking lot, passed between two
sentry posts, crashed through a gate and drove into the lobby of the
Marine headquarters. The sentries at the gate were operating under rules
of engagement which made it very difficult to respond quickly to the
truck. Sentries were ordered to keep their weapons at condition four (no
magazine inserted and no rounds in the chamber). By the time the two
sentries were able to engage, the truck was already inside the
building's entry way, armed.
The suicide bomber detonated his
explosives, which were equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT.
The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story building into
rubble, crushing many inside. According to Eric Hammel in his history of
the Marine landing force,
SEMPER FI, MARINES, RIP to all brothers lost.
The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which were equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story building into rubble, crushing many inside. According to Eric Hammel in his history of the Marine landing force,
SEMPER FI, MARINES, RIP to all brothers lost.
