Today in US military history: 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing kills 241

Unto the Breach ^ | Oct. 23, 2018 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

Today's post is in honor of Lance Cpl. Stephen E. Spencer, 23, or Portsmouth, R.I., who was one of 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers killed in the Beirut Barracks Bombing (see below). A majority of the casualties from the terrorist attack were members of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines.

1864: In Westport, Mo. (present-day Kansas City), Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis' 22,000-man Army of the Border defeats a heavily outnumbered Confederate force commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price in the largest battle fought west of the Mississippi River. The Union brings an end to Price's Missouri Expedition with his defeat in the "Gettysburg of the West," and Price retreats into Kansas. After the Battle of Westport, the border state of Missouri will remain under Union control for the rest of the Civil War.

1918: When a battalion commander needs to send a message to an endangered company on the front lines, he realizes sending a runner would be too hazardous due to heavy incoming fire. However, Pfc. Parker F. Dunn volunteers for the job and races through the fire-swept terrain toward the unit. He is hit once and gets up. He is hit again, and continues. Undaunted, Dunn carries on towards his objective, but is finished off by an enemy machinegun burst. He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

1942: On Guadalcanal, Imperial Japanese soldiers and tanks attempt to cross the Matanikau River, and are quickly defeated - signaling the beginning of the Battle for Henderson Field. For the next three days, the 1st Marine Division and the 164th Infantry Regiment, supported by the "Cactus Air Force", will shatter wave after wave of Japanese assaults on the ground and in the air. The battle marks the final major Japanese ground operation before they abandon the island.

1944: Three

[fugazi]

The French were hit moments later, killing another 58 peacekeepers.

[11th_VA]

What a sad Sunday morning that was ...

[fugazi]

Ping list

[mass55th]

Thanks for the history!!

[fugazi]

Not to shift the focus to politics, but when you consider that Iran funds Hezbollah (the terrorist group that attacked the Marines 35 years ago today) to the tune of $1 billion per year, Barack Obama essentially wrote a check to the mullahs to fund Hezbollah for well over 100 years when he sent $150 billion to Iran. Disgusting.

[IronJack]

Gen. Sterling Price was the name of Rooster Cogburn’s cat in the movie “True Grit.”

[central_va]

I was about 5,000 yards from the blast. It made perfect mushroom cloud and looked like a small nuclear bomb went off.

[A_Former_Democrat]

I remember a parishoner announcing it to the congregation during Sunday services

[pepsi_junkie]

An old friend who served in the USN in the 80s was telling me about drinking at the VFW and I asked if he was considered a veteran of a foreign war. He said ‘yup, my ship was sent to Beirut after the bombed our base there’. Learned something new about the VFW eligibility process. And it makes perfect sense. Looking back now it can be seen as an isolated event. But in the moment, at the height of the cold war, it was a different story.

[shanover]

Makes my blood boil. President Reagan should have bombed the sh*t out of Iran and told the Russians to stay out of it.

[DCBryan1]

There should have been tactical nukes going off in the Bekka valley the next day after this...maybe a demonstration air burst over Tehran for good measure. NOT striking back HARD only emboldened these savages.

[Sam Gamgee]

Yes, I think Beirut was indication number 2 that the US was a paper tiger. The first mistake was how quickly the West retreated in their support for the free speech of Salmdan Rushdie. Then Beirut showed once again you could mount terrorist attacks against the US without any consequence.

[phormer phrog phlyer]

One of the guys I went through TBS with, was killed.

[central_va]

I was personally demoralized with the lack of response. That kind of carnage deserves a huge retaliation and here was a lot there to retaliate with include the USS New Jersey.

Side note: I gave blood twice. The corpsman were draining everyone in striking distance.

[dis.kevin]

I did a Med cruise on the Nimitz in the 80’s and received the Navy Expeditionary Forces medal which qualifies for VFW membership. One night our A-6’s were loaded to bomb the runway of the Beirut airport but final permission never came. This was related to the airline hijacking.

[DCBryan1]

I was about 5,000 yards from the blast. It made perfect mushroom cloud and looked like a small nuclear bomb went off.

This bombing, and an SAS call-in to the UK when a MOAB went off in Iraq, are two well known Pinnacle - Nuke flash transmissions from the field.

[Shark24]

I remember it well, was USAF then. Still hurts.

[central_va]

My first thought was the ragheads have nucs now?

[phormer phrog phlyer]

Thank you for your service, I was in Embark school at Little Creek, I agree we did little to respond.

I too was demoralized about it.

Did a year in Baghdad in 07/08, I was really torqued off when Dear Leader Obama bailed, thousands of lives lost, injured and changed, it is as if he took a leak on the graves of the fallen and spat in the face of those of the living.

Obama sure took care of his buds the Iranians.

[MrEdd]

I was out in Jacksonville with men from my platoon, and we were on secondary air alert. I remember I was sitting at Tino’s (where the food was bad, but the street walkers could not accost you because the cops ate there) when vans and MPs showed up to cart us back to base.

One of Sixth Marine Regiment’s battalions was sent over and we became the primary Air Alert battalion.