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Thread: 37 years ago.....lest we forget

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by rero360 View Post
    When I first joined the Guard 20 years ago, the unit's full-timer was a former Marine. He once told me how he was sent to Grenada shortly after graduating Boot camp and that he was in Beirut during the bombing, said he would have been among the dead but couldn't sleep so he went down and hung out at one of the guard shacks.
    The bombing and invasion occurred two days apart. He could not have participated in both events.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by chuckman View Post
    Concur. The 22nd MEU (MAU then) was enroute to Beirut but then tasked to Grenada; the army took up their positions so they could reroute to Lebanon. Marines did not leave Beirut for Grenada, then go back.
    Correct, he may have been on Grenada THEN went to Beirut afterwards. It was still a mess in Beirut for a good while.
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  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by ABNAK View Post
    Correct, he may have been on Grenada THEN went to Beirut afterwards. It was still a mess in Beirut for a good while.
    One of my dad's friends was with the BLT S2 shop and in a different part of Beirut. According to him it was a mess into 84. The things he said (and still says) are quite damning to senior leadership, and generally unflattering to Reagan and the DOD's expectations in Beirut. Ironically my dad was in Beirut in the 60s, loved it..."Paris of the Middle East" and all.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by chuckman View Post
    One of my dad's friends was with the BLT S2 shop and in a different part of Beirut. According to him it was a mess into 84. The things he said (and still says) are quite damning to senior leadership, and generally unflattering to Reagan and the DOD's expectations in Beirut. Ironically my dad was in Beirut in the 60s, loved it..."Paris of the Middle East" and all.
    I too have heard and read that.

    The conditions the Marines were under in Beirut eventually became combat conditions, with firefights and shellings taking place. There were several guys KIA before and after the bombing. Hell, the only Army personnel killed in the blast (3 of them) were part of a counter-battery radar unit attached to the Marines because of all the incoming. The bombing was obviously the worst part of it, but IIRC anyone who served in one of those rotations got a Combat Action Ribbon.

    As Reagan was leaving office he gave an interview with someone who asked him what his worst mistake as POTUS was. His answer? Beirut.
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  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by ABNAK View Post
    Correct, he may have been on Grenada THEN went to Beirut afterwards. It was still a mess in Beirut for a good while.
    Quite possibly, or was at neither and was just trying to impress a young kid, I have no idea, I just remember him talking about not being able to sleep and going outside to a guard shack in Beirut, and that he shot a dude in the face practically point-blank range with an M79 while in Grenada, said he was so close that the round didn't arm and just crushed the dude's face, killing him.

    Don't know, I was like 17 or 18 years old at the time.
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    From a document I read online, the following had occurred within a month after the bombing:

    "General Joy also reduced access to the roads leading into the Marine perimeter with what amounted to a three-tiered system. The innermost tier was armed with direct fire weapons, such as Dragon, LAAW, and .50-caliber machine guns, manned and fully ready 24 hours a day. Each Marine position was issued special rules of engagement based on specific triggering situations that were most likely to occur."

    Too late unfortunately. Hindsight is always 20/20.



    Interesting read: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AMH...banon82-9.html Apparently it has nine chapters to it, pretty detailed information.
    Last edited by ABNAK; 10-26-20 at 15:57.
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    Lebanon in the 1980's had more war lords and militias, Islamic, Druze, Christians, and the baddest of them all gay clowns.

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by ABNAK View Post
    I too have heard and read that.

    The conditions the Marines were under in Beirut eventually became combat conditions, with firefights and shellings taking place. There were several guys KIA before and after the bombing. Hell, the only Army personnel killed in the blast (3 of them) were part of a counter-battery radar unit attached to the Marines because of all the incoming. The bombing was obviously the worst part of it, but IIRC anyone who served in one of those rotations got a Combat Action Ribbon.

    As Reagan was leaving office he gave an interview with someone who asked him what his worst mistake as POTUS was. His answer? Beirut.
    Let's not forgot the 16 inch guns of the USS New Jersey were used several times while the Marines were in Beirut. US Navy A6 Intruders also bombed targets within the country on many occassions.

  9. #29
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    Double post
    Last edited by Nightvisionary; 10-27-20 at 09:11.

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nightvisionary View Post
    Let's not forgot the 16 inch guns of the USS New Jersey were used several times while the Marines were in Beirut. US Navy A6 Intruders also bombed targets within the country on many occassions.
    That's right...one was shot down, December '83...

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