28 Years Ago Today, 219 Marines Died in Beirut Barracks Bombing

In addition to the 299 deaths, sixty Americans were injured in the blast but survived.

1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing photo courtesy: corpsman.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - Twenty eight years ago on this date, on 23 October 1983, a truck carrying a suicide bomb managed to get past Marine Corps guards and the driver detonated its charge at the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon.

The blasts, equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT, killed 220 U.S. Marines, 18 sailors and 3 Army soldiers. 58 French paratroopers were killed in an attack that happened almost simultaneously. A total of 299 western people were killed, as well as an elderly Lebanese man who was the custodian of the Marines' building.

This is a bitter memory for Marines like myself who were on active duty at the time. For many the event meant the loss of friends, and it raised Middle east tensions in a pattern that continues to escalate to this day.

The Beirut Barracks Bombing took place during Lebanon's Civil War. Marines had been in place since 1982, when they were sent to Lebanon as allies of Israel during the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization, during Israel's 1982 Lebanon invasion. The bombings spelled the end of the U.S. occupation of Lebanon, and the multinational peacekeeping force (MNF).

In addition to the 299 deaths, sixty Americans were injured in the blast but survived. Wikipedia explains that this was:

'... 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.'

There are wars that stand out in the American psyche and always receive attention due to films, books, other media, history books, etc. Then there is the Korean War, and other military conflicts where the veterans feel their roles are essentially unknown or overlooked.

I can tell you from personal contact with Marines who were in Lebanon in '82 and '83, that they believe their participation in this violent chapter of history are indeed forgotten. Well, you guys are not forgotten, and we will always increasingly deliver information about historic events like this.

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People without military experience may not easily grasp this thought, but Marines are the closest thing the United States is ever going to have to an actual 'peacekeeping' force; and what happened in Lebanon was a tragic overreaction to the blindly supportive U.S. policy of backing Israel. It always comes back to this. The Marines should not have been in Lebanon to begin with, and they should never been in condition four (no magazine inserted and no rounds in the chamber). In the time the driver of the truck gained speed and blasted through the barbed wire fence, eventually driving into the lobby of the Marine headquarters, the Marines on guard duty didn't have time to adequately respond.

The Details

An account of the tragic disaster that left 300 dead in Beirut, begins 28 years ago, at 6:20 in the morning. A yellow Mercedes-Benz truck rolled up to Beirut's International Airport which was at the time, the home of the 2nd Marine Division- 1st Battalion 8th Marines.

The force of the blast brought down the substantial four-story building, turning it into rubble. Many people inside of the building were unavoidably crushed.

According to Eric Hammel in The Root, his history of the Marine landing force:

"The force of the explosion initially lifted the entire four-story structure, shearing the bases of the concrete support columns, each measuring fifteen feet in circumference and reinforced by numerous one-and-three-quarter-inch steel rods. The airborne building then fell in upon itself. A massive shock wave and ball of flaming gas was hurled in all directions."

Wikipedia explains that:

The explosive mechanism was a gas-enhanced device, probably consisting of bottled propane, butane, hexane or acetylene, placed in proximity to a conventional explosive such as primacord, all of which are readily available on the retail market. The bomb was carried on a layer of concrete covered with a slab of marble to direct the blast upward. Despite the lack of sophistication and wide availability of its component parts, a gas-enhanced device can be a lethal weapon. These devices are similar to fuel-air or thermobaric weapons, explaining the large blast and damage.

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent of The Independent, believes that a major motivation for the bombing was ill will generated toward the MNF among Lebanese Muslims who were disturbed by the western military forces. The presence of the Marines in particular, upset the Shiʿa Muslims living in West Beirut'a slums, and also those near the airport where the Marines were based.

Fisk says they saw the MNF siding with the Maronite Catholics in their domination of Lebanon, and that Muslim feelings against the U.S. presence were "exacerbated when missiles lobbed by the U.S. Sixth Fleet hit innocent by-standers in the Druze-dominated Shuf mountains."

According to Wikipedia:

There was a growing feeling of frustration inside the Muslim and Druze community in Lebanon with US direct backing of Israel in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and other pro-Israeli factions within Lebanon. These factions had been responsible for multiple attacks committed against the Muslim and Druze Lebanese population.

The commander of the Marines in Beirut at the time, Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, stated that "the Marine and the French headquarters were targeted primarily because of who we were and what we represented."

He added: "It is noteworthy that the United States provided direct naval gunfire support -- which I strongly opposed for a week -- to the Lebanese Army at a mountain village called Suq-al-Garb on September 19 and that the French conducted an air strike on September 23 in the Bekaa Valley. American support removed any lingering doubts of our neutrality, and I stated to my staff at the time that we were going to pay in blood for this decision."

New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman, attributes the deadly reaction against Marines to the use of naval gunfire. This Friedman says, marks the point in time when U.S. forces became and were viewed as participants in Lebanon's Civil War, instead of peacekeepers. To cut to the chase, Friedman believes the actions of the U.S. Navy opened the U.S. Marines up to the deadly retaliation experienced 28 years ago.

The bombing has certainly been a crime to hang on Lebanon's Shi'ite political organization, Hezbollah, which like Hamas, is eternally blamed for acts it denies. For the record, Hezbollah officially denied any involvement in the attacks on U.S. Marines and French forces that day. They had every opportunity to add their name to the crime, they never did.

1983 Beirut barracks bombing