MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. (Oct. 23, 2006) -- October 23rd marks the 23rd anniversary for the tragedy in Beirut; the tragedy that killed 241 service members, 220 of them being Marines.

On Oct. 23, 1983, around 6:20 am, a yellow delivery truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines had set up its local headquarters.

The truck turned onto an access road leading to the Marines' compound and circled a parking lot. The driver then accelerated and crashed through a fence around the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate and barreled into the lobby of the Marine headquarters.

The Marine sentries at the gate were forbidden from using live ammunition, for fear that a discharge might kill a civilian, so they were powerless to stop him. According to one Marine survivor, the driver was smiling as he sped past him.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which were equivalent to 12,000 pounds of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story cinder-block building into rubble, crushing many inside.

“I hate going back to that day,” said, retired Navy Master Chief Joe Ciokon, survivor of the Beirut bombing in 1983. “I was a broadcaster at the time and even after the tragedy happened and we pulled together our survivors, I jumped back on the air and went on with my mission to motivate anyone I could.”

Ciokon was stationed in Beirut along with the 1/8 Marines. He survived the suicide bombing and helped the wounded since all the corpsmen were killed, except for the corpsmen on sick call.

“When I look back to that day one image stands in my mind,” said Ciokon, holding his right hand still with his left to keep it from shaking. “Seeing the Marines walk out of the rubble and smoke like zombies…like they had no idea what just happened.”



Ellie