Dvan
10-06-03, 07:26 PM
In the spring of 1983 Marines from my husband's unit at MCAS ElToro had been shipping out to Lebanon. My husband of six months was headed for re-enlistment We had a generous re-up bonus coming, schooling ahead for his MOS change and then our choice of duty station for the next 3 yrs. Ah, yes, it was a beautiful day in our Marine Corps...then through some unknown 'Admin foul-up' his entire re-enlistment packet was lost. He had spent months of late night studying, testing, interviewing, and gathering recommendations for an MOS change. We could kiss the bonus good-bye. It was a sickening setback. The FirstSgt tried hard to get my husband to extend for a year, while we started the whole process over again. He even called him in to the Admin office on several occasions, trying to talk him into extending. It just didn't make sense to us... but then, out of the blue, Pres. Ronald Reagan authorized a 90-day 'early out' for all Marines with our EOS date. We took it. It wasn't what we wanted, but life often doesn't go according to plan.
6 mos later sitting in front of the TV we watched in horror, shock and disbelief as the images of the bombed out Marine Barracks flashed across the screen. Then followed the list of names, 241 Marines, murdered, many of them in their racks, by a fanatical suicide bomber. We felt grief and rage, as we recognized the names of men we knew among the list of casualties. As Americans we were used to hearing of terrorist attacks on others, but not against our own.
Another 6 months later, a friend of ours from the Admin office of our old unit at ElToro called. He was out now too and had decided to look us up. There was laughing and talking and catching up...and then Beirut came up. Our friend remarked, "you got out just in time" "Whaddaya mean?", my husband asked. Our friend went on to explain how the FirstSgt had faked losing my husband's 're-up' package. We were shocked, but then it made sense, kind of.("that guy never liked me anyway") The kicker came when it was revealed that orders had been cut for my husband to go to Beirut, but because of the length of the tour he would have had to extend for one year in order to go. We were stunned. Orders can not be left unfilled. "Who did they send in my place?" he asked. 'Oh, remember the Cpl that married that California chick, got out and couldn't find work so he came back in...?' My husband laughed, 'That poor sucker, he'd probably like to kick my butt for getting out when I did!' Silence.
"Hey, man, you mean you didn't hear? He died over there."
Life often doesn't go according to plan.
We will never forget.
6 mos later sitting in front of the TV we watched in horror, shock and disbelief as the images of the bombed out Marine Barracks flashed across the screen. Then followed the list of names, 241 Marines, murdered, many of them in their racks, by a fanatical suicide bomber. We felt grief and rage, as we recognized the names of men we knew among the list of casualties. As Americans we were used to hearing of terrorist attacks on others, but not against our own.
Another 6 months later, a friend of ours from the Admin office of our old unit at ElToro called. He was out now too and had decided to look us up. There was laughing and talking and catching up...and then Beirut came up. Our friend remarked, "you got out just in time" "Whaddaya mean?", my husband asked. Our friend went on to explain how the FirstSgt had faked losing my husband's 're-up' package. We were shocked, but then it made sense, kind of.("that guy never liked me anyway") The kicker came when it was revealed that orders had been cut for my husband to go to Beirut, but because of the length of the tour he would have had to extend for one year in order to go. We were stunned. Orders can not be left unfilled. "Who did they send in my place?" he asked. 'Oh, remember the Cpl that married that California chick, got out and couldn't find work so he came back in...?' My husband laughed, 'That poor sucker, he'd probably like to kick my butt for getting out when I did!' Silence.
"Hey, man, you mean you didn't hear? He died over there."
Life often doesn't go according to plan.
We will never forget.