Forty years ago today, 241 United States Marine Corps and Navy service members – many from Camp Lejeune – lost their lives when a truck bomber burst through the gates of the airport in Beirut, Lebanon where U.S. Peacekeeping Forces were sleeping.
In a remembrance ceremony at the Beirut memorial at Lejeune Memorial Gardens, General Eric Smith, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps., paid tribute to those that lost their lives, as well as the survivors.
"The Marines that are here, these men dug into that rubble and rebar with their bare hands. They got in there looking for their friends, their fellow sailors, the docs, the chaplains, their fellow Marines,” he said, “They showed us what it was like to be a warrior. To leave no one behind.”
And General Smith noted that not much is different in the Mediterranean than it was in 1983.
“There's a unit just like it today that's in the area, and we'll leave it at that. The 26 Marine Expeditionary unit, they're in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the unclass level, we'll just leave it there.” He added, “They're there also to come in peace if called, but they, too, bring with them the weapons of war if needed.”
He also offered a word of warning to anyone in that region that would do the Marines harm.
“If you target them, someone else will raise your children,” Smith said.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah was determined to be responsible for the bombing.
This weekend, the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines ran 241 miles, one mile for each service member that died in the suicide bombing.
