Posted on 10/23/2013 5:27:36 AM PDT by LSUfan
Oct. 23, 2013, marks the 30th anniversary of the Beirut Bombing. 241 American and 58 French service members were killed when two trucks filled with explosives crashed into the two barracks buildings. One of the 300 service members who lived in the building shares the story of the attack, his survival and how he lives with the memories.
(Excerpt) Read more at marines.dodlive.mil ...
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RIP Lance Corporal Stowe.
Thomas David Stowe had been promoted to Corporal before he was killed on 23 October. He was an 0352 Dragon gunner and spent most of his deployment attached to a rifle platoon (1/C/1/8) until a piece of shrapnel found his neck. If Stowe, Buckmaster, Boulos and McNeely hadn’t been chopped back to that damned headquarters building, they’d be 30 years older and gray today like the rest of us. RIP.
My first trip home from the Air Force was for the funeral of Danny Estes, killed in Beruit.
RIP
Major John Macroglou
Capt. Bill Winter
Semper Fi.
(LSUFan, I posted something similiar a few years back. Got a private reply from Major Mac’s widow. She was thankful the Major was remembered, along with all the other Marines, sailors and soldiers murdered that day. I will never forget or forgive.) JAB USMC 1970-1981
Thanks for the article. We’ll never forget. Unfortunately the Marines have never been able to get payback on the shiite Islamo Fascists...
May those good men rest in peace. Eric Hammel’s book, The Root, is an excellent read. It gives insights into some of these men, the mission, the region, and implications for the future. After reading it, I was better informed but hoped that WE had learned from it. I was also confused and angry, saddened and feeling we should celebrate these men! May they never be forgotten.
And we invaded Grenada, on OCT. 25th.
KT McFarland in a rare show of candor spilled the beans on WMAL radio one day. She was there in the situation room as an adviser to Reagan during the Beirut Barracks fiasco. In a nutshell Reagan was advised to not do anything and pull out. He actually wanted to pull the trigger but he went with the cowardly consensus. She is actually proud of that decision. Quislings all.
I was in a WW II barracks at Ft Bragg, NC., situated near the end of Pope AFB, when C5 Galaxy cargo planes began to land and take off, throughout the night and into the next day. “Cattle cars” with their distinctive jake brakes added to the cacophony. My teammates and I fist pumped, high fived each other and whooped and hollered as we surmised that Uncle Sam was opening up a can of whoop ass on the ragheads in Beirut. To a man, when word reached us that Grenada was the objective, we were left stunned and speechless.
What a colossal missed opportunity to bring justice to Tehran. Remember a little old episode where our embassy was overrun and the staff and security personnel were taken hostage? When some posters around here get on their soap boxes and go into a worship Reagan mode, I am reminded of the black eye that Hezbollah gave Uncle Sam. Needless to say, I don't get the same goose bumps as many of them do.
There were hijackings, bombings, kidnappings, tortures, murders, etc. We didn’t do jack!!! So... we got 9-11, and EVERYTHING that’s followed, which is a direct result of an emasculated nation doing too little too late. Cause... and effect.
The Grenada invasion was already started when the bomb went off, Reagan had his hands full, his eye was on the big picture that was seen as impossible to accomplish at the time, (destroying the Soviet Empire) and he made the right decision to not become mired in the Middle East.
Being less than Reagan I wanted revenge, but he was right and was fighting a global war for mankind and the future, a lessor man would have reacted emotionally.
Reagan made a mistake in Lebanon and knew it.
Reagan brought down the Soviet Union and invading Grenada was part of that, and the invasion that was already taking place when the bomb went off, Reagan was right.
I guess we will disagree. If Reagan had unleashed hell we wouldn’t have the muzzie problem we have now.
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