America's first violent encounter with radical Islam

[ABNAK]

Oct. 23, 1983.

Guy second from the left was a year ahead of me in high school.

http://www.beirut-memorial.org/memory/23OCT1983/held-sliwinski-inglalls-fluegel.jpg

I was in Infantry OSUT at Ft. Benning when that happened. Being in a controlled basic training environment we didn't get to see the nightly news. Didn't know about Stan until some time later. We weren't best buds or anything but I knew who he was and he seemed like a laid back kinda guy from what I recall. When I eventually heard his name I was like "I knew that dude."

You look at the faces. They've been dead for 36 years tomorrow. September 11, 2001 was round #2.

I will also add that Beirut shaped force protection measures from then on. You can bet your ass that the jihadis have been trying for the last 18 years to pull off another Beirut barracks-level event. It hasn't happened (thank God). It was a VERY hard-learned, costly lesson.

Hezbollah will always hold a dark place in my mind. (Islamic Jihad was a Hezbollah front group). Maybe that contributes significantly to why I f****g hate Iran to this day.

[chuckman]

I was thinking the Barbary pirates in Libya....

[just a scout]

I was thinking the Barbary pirates in Libya....

Me too.


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[Averageman]

R.O.E. will kill you.
Every time I think about Beirut, it burns.

[Todd.K]

I was thinking the Barbary pirates in Libya....

That was regular everyday islam...

[ABNAK]

Sorry if some were disappointed, but the Barbary pirates were small change compared to 1983. That was the single largest loss of Marines (might be Army too, I haven't checked) in one day since Iwo Jima. Hell, in one incident it eclipses U.S. losses for a LONG time (forget in one day).

Just wanted to give a nod towards some guys who've largely been long forgotten.

[lsllc]

I was thinking the Barbary pirates in Libya....

Me three


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[Straight Shooter]

I was on Parris Island. IF I recall, it was on a Saturday night.
Anyway...late Saturday night/Sunday morning, we were all in the rack sleeping.
WAY before reveille.the DI's came screaming in, even unlike anything we had heard before, saying."you think this is a joke..this is a game..this is bullshit"? ect, ect.
My Lord, they were PISSED. For the first time, they rolled in a small, very small tv with rabbit ears, cut it on, and filled us in on what had just happened.
If I recall, some of them had friends there.
Well, we were scared shitless, no doubt. As recruits..the "IM GONNA GET ME SOME" mentality was far from setting in yet.
Those DI's were truly, to the core of their souls, filled with murder & hate & rage & anger, of course rightfully so.
We knew then that shit was gonna hit the fan. Not withstanding what happened to the dead, wounded and all involved in the bombing of course, but they made it rough on us from then on to get us ready for what EVERYBODY thought was gonna be a sho' nuff war.
About two years later, I served with a few guys that were there, had some tape recordings of some gunfights & stories about this & that.
Those poor guys, many never knew what happened.
Ive loathed those Islamic bastards ever since.
THANK YOU brother ABNAK for the reminder.

[JoshNC]

I was thinking the Barbary pirates in Libya....

Yep that’s what I was expecting

[NWPilgrim]

Yeah Lebanon use to be a major resort destination for Europe and ME. Until the Islamists went on the war path. I believe the Marines were there just as “keepers of the peace” over watch. Trying to keep a lid on the inter faction fighting. Not allowed to have mags in their rifles on guard duty. As I remember Reagan pulled them out shortly afterward because it was either that or go full Monty invasion. Who knew how many more Islamic terror groups and nations we would be fighting the next 36 years? That was a truly dark day for some of America’s finest and for all of us.

[titsonritz]

And with the ****ed up border round three will be here soon enough.

[chuckman]

Sorry if some were disappointed, but the Barbary pirates were small change compared to 1983. That was the single largest loss of Marines (might be Army too, I haven't checked) in one day since Iwo Jima. Hell, in one incident it eclipses U.S. losses for a LONG time (forget in one day).

Just wanted to give a nod towards some guys who've largely been long forgotten.

My father had retired from the Corps by that point, but we were in Jacksonville/Lejeune the day after to visit family and friends. There was a palpable, heavy grief hanging over the base and town. We had a few family friends die in that event. We have never forgotten; no Marine or Corpsman has ever forgotten. But thanks for pulling it back to the center of the mind's eye. Semper Fi.

[chuckman]

Yeah Lebanon use to be a major resort destination for Europe and ME. Until the Islamists went on the war path. I believe the Marines were there just as “keepers of the peace” over watch. Trying to keep a lid on the inter faction fighting. Not allowed to have mags in their rifles on guard duty. As I remember Reagan pulled them out shortly afterward because it was either that or go full Monty invasion. Who knew how many more Islamic terror groups and nations we would be fighting the next 36 years? That was a truly dark day for some of America’s finest and for all of us.

Beirut, Tehran, Mogadishu, Kabul...they were all once jewels and beautiful, thriving cities. Then Islam....

[glocktogo]

I was already signed up and in the pipeline to USMC boot camp when this happened. When I reported to my unit, there were guys in my platoon who'd been there and knew guys who died in the bombing.

This was the beginning of a major change in doctrine, from theater warfare with the Soviets to asymmetric counter-terrorist ops against non-nation belligerents. Heady times indeed.

[SteyrAUG]

Sorry if some were disappointed, but the Barbary pirates were small change compared to 1983. That was the single largest loss of Marines (might be Army too, I haven't checked) in one day since Iwo Jima. Hell, in one incident it eclipses U.S. losses for a LONG time (forget in one day).

Just wanted to give a nod towards some guys who've largely been long forgotten.

I have not forgotten. In 1983 I had a bunch of high school friends who joined the Marines.

[lowprone]

Politics always ends up putting our forces in untenable positions where young Americans die for no reason, we always blame the aggressor instead of the
politicians who put them there showing how tough they are.
It will happen again, command does not trust our forces with loaded weapons and endangers them because " we don't want to have an incident ".

[ABNAK]

Politics always ends up putting our forces in untenable positions where young Americans die for no reason, we always blame the aggressor instead of the
politicians who put them there showing how tough they are.
It will happen again, command does not trust our forces with loaded weapons and endangers them because " we don't want to have an incident ".

I remember in the late 80's, towards the end of his presidency, Reagan was asked during an interview what his greatest mistake/regret was. He replied "Beirut".

[ABNAK]

When I went to jump school in Panama during January of 1985 there were two Marines from the garrison down there who were in our class as a kind of an "inter-service good faith" type thing.

One of them was about my age, but one was a couple years older and a SSG. American Indian dude. Quiet, kinda kept to himself. One evening we were sitting around bullshitting and he said he'd been in Beirut at that time. They rotated guys between the line and the barracks. It was his turn out on the line, otherwise he would've been in the barracks. The morning of the bombing they heard the blast, and looked towards where it had come from. He said from where his position was you could not see the airport tower because the barracks were in the way. That morning he said they looked after the smoke cleared and could see the tower, so they knew something really bad had happened. His section of the line overlooked the Muslim sector of Beirut. He said once they realized what had happened (word filtered down to them) they started shooting anyone they saw in that sector. Didn't give a damn. He said all the attention was focused on the barracks rubble and no one was really paying attention to what happened out on the bunker line. He said this rather matter-of-factly, didn't bat an eye, then didn't say anything more about it. We all kinda looked at each other like "F**k!"