Leatherneck Magazine - October 2008

25 Years Ago

The 1983 Beirut

Bombing

Who Did It and How

It Has Affected History

By CWO- 4 Randy Gaddo, USMC (Ret)

Twenty-five years after what many now believe was the first shot fired in the global war on terror- ism (GWOT), new information is coming to light about exactly who did it, why it was done and how it impacted America’s f uture. It was the highest loss of life for U S. Marines in a single day since Iwo Jima.

For the FBI, it was the largest non-nuclear explosion they”d ever investigated. It was a defining event for Marines, sail-ors and soldiers who survived. It was the first major operation against Americans for Hezbollah and its Iranian backers and would establish the terrorist tactics that paved the path to Sept. 11. The 23 Oct. 1983bombing ofthe US.militarybarracks in Beirut, Lebanon, was an unimaginable crime against humanity and a harbinger of the coming GWOT.

Inset: The 23 Oct. explosion was caught on film by a Marine in a Battalion Landing Team 1/8 company on the perimeter of the Beirut International Airport.

Right: Coming in for a closer look, the “ unimaginable crime against humanity” is even more evident. (Photo by SSgt Randy Gaddo)

The U.S. Marine sentry in Beirut on 23 Oct. 1983 frantically snapped a magazine into his M16A1 service rifle, locked and loaded, hastily took aim and squeezed off passing rounds at the speeding 19-ton truck. He saw the driver clearly for a split second.

The driver was a young Middle Eastern man; court documents later would reveal he was an Iranian named Ismalal Ascari. In testimony his dark eyes were described asdazed-lookingandstaringstraightahead. Some speculate he may have been on drugs. He stiff-armed the steering wheel, and he was smiling.

Thesuicidalfanaticsmiledashesmashed throughperimeterbarriers,overranthesen-

try s position, crashed through another guard post and drove the truck into the atrium of the four-story-tall barracks that was home to about 400 U.S. “ Peacekeepers.” No sooner had the truck stopped be- fore it detonated, creating what FBI investigators later would describe as the largest non-nuclear blast that they ever

had studied. Three soldiers, 18 sailors and 220 Marines died, and dozens more were trapped in the debris, many severely injured. Some of those died months or years after the bombing. Most of those who survived still carry the mental and/or physical scarstoday.