A student from Mt. Vernon High School's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps
in Alexandria, Virginia, salutes a grave where one of the Marines killed in Beirut,
Lebanon in 1983 was laid to rest. Twenty-one out of 220 Marines killed were buried in
Arlington National Cemetery. A memorial stone marking the gravesite sits alongside a Lebanese cedar
symbolizing the nation in which they died.

by Sgt. Melvin Lopez Jr.
Henderson Hall News

A remembrance ceremony was held at the Arlington National Cemetery Saturday to remember the Marines who were victimized by a gruesome terrorist attack 21 years ago.

On October 23, 1983 at 6:22 a.m., a large delivery truck drove to the Beirut International Airport where the Marine Barracks was located.

After turning onto an access road leading to the compound, the driver rushed through a barbed-wire fence, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through the gate, and slammed into the lobby of the barracks.

The driver detonated explosives with the power equal to more than 12,000 pounds of TNT. The explosion crumbled the four-story building, crushing service members to death while they were sleeping.

The terrorist attack killed 220 Marines and 21 other U.S. service members who were stationed there to help keep the peace in a nation torn by war.

It was the bloodiest day in the Corps' history since World War II, when Marines fought to secure Iwo Jima.

On the 21st anniversary of the bombing, the ceremony began with words from the Master of Ceremonies, retired U.S. Navy captain, Capt. William Perry. He explained how one comrade expressed what it was like to lose a friend.

"The whole idea of knowing that this person gave his life for something he truly believed in," said Perry, reiterating words spoken by 1st Sgt. James Richard, "how the flood of memories of that person burned into your mind, is lost in people who have never experienced it."

Following the captain's opening statements were commentary from several speakers including the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps, retired General A. M. Gray.

During the somber ceremony, they spoke about the Marines who went to Beirut on a peacekeeping mission, and that their actions should not be forgotten.

"That is why we're here today," said Carmella LaSpada, director, White House Commission on Remembrance, "and why we'll be here next year, and each year after that."

Gray repeats the words spoken to him by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a funeral service at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, following the bombing.

"Our former warriors have now joined a long line of Soldiers of the Sea who have given their lives in the service of a grateful nation," said Reagan.

"They had one simple mission," said Gray. "They came (to Lebanon) in peace, and they wanted to provide an opportunity for people to live in peace.

Afterward, students from Mt. Vernon High School's Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in Alexandria, Va., marched onto the gravesite where 21 out of the 220 Marines killed were laid to rest. They placed a rose on each gravestone and immediately thereafter, saluted to show respect for those who gave their lives.

A wreath-laying proceeded in which a Marine lance corporal, in his dress blue uniform, marched slowly to a memorial stone marking the spot of the site. He placed the wreath alongside the stone and a Lebanese cedar, symbolizing the nation where the Marines died.

"We pledge that we would never forget their memories, their sacrifice," said Gray.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

ARLINGTON, Virginia - Under cloudy and chilly skies, diplomats, Marines and some family members who lost loved ones to terrorism gathered at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday to remember service members killed in the October 23, 1983, blast at the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

The somber ceremony, coming on the 20th anniversary of that horrific truck bombing, took place in an area of the cemetery where 21 of the 241 U.S. service members killed by the blast are buried. A memorial stone marks the spot, along with a tree, a Lebanese cedar.

"Their loss is not in vain," said Marine Lieutenant General Jan C. Huly. "And we will not break faith with them in the tasks we have ahead."

The bombing of the Marine barracks was, as one speaker describe it, a "watershed" moment for this country, bringing home the horrors of terrorism. The blast was preceded six months earlier by a deadly bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

The U.S. military eventually withdrew from Lebanon, where it and France had gone to help bring peace to a country torn by civil war. A separate blast on the French compound in Beirut on October 23, 1983, killed 58 French service members.

Relations between the United States and France have been strained by differences the two countries had over the war in Iraq. But the defense attache to the French Embassy in the United States, in his comments Wednesday, made a point of stressing the two countries' "enduring relation and common objective."

"In this dangerous world, America and France must stand together," said Gen. Pascal Vinchon.

Several speakers drew parallels to the between the 1983 blast and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"We did not know they would be the first casualties -- among the first -- in the war on terrorism," Huly said of the service members killed in 1983.

No one has ever been held accountable for the 1983 blasts.

David Satterfield, the deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the U.S. State Department, said efforts to find the culprits "will not cease."

The tribute, an annual event, was organized by the White House Commission on Remembrance. The tribute was the brainchild of No Greater Love, an organization dedicated to remembering service members who have died in war or acts of terrorism.