Anniversary of 1983 Beirut Bombing

USMCGrunt

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Dec 13, 2010
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36 years ago, a yellow Mercedes truck with 12,000 lbs of explosives was detonated outside the Marine Barracks in Beirut killing 241 US Service members and another truck bomb was set off at the French barracks killing another 58 servicemen.

This was the deadliest single-day death toll for the USMC since the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Never forget.
 
Thank you for posting.

It always seems apt to post this. The 4th stanza is the well-known one used in military toasts.



For the Fallen
BY LAURENCE BINYON
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
 
I will never forget the day. I was in basic training and we were told about it by the drill sergeants.
 
sadly, i went to high school with the sister of one of those killed. there is a lovely memorial in our park.
 
I had been deployed to Beirut for the first half of the year and was present for the bombing of our embassy. When this happened we were getting ready to go out on another short deployment and already had Marines embarked. We got put on alert for emergency deployment back to Beirut but they went with the next Med deployment group and sent us on the previously scheduled operations.
 
I had just returned from a 6-month deployment to Okinawa and we were expecting the birth of our first child any day. Rumors began to spread that we would be the first to go if additional troops were needed. Of course, I had mixed emotions on that. As it turned out, we weren't called up and my daughter was born 4 days later.
 
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