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Phantom Blooper
10-08-03, 09:09 PM
By Capt Eli Takesian, CHC, USN (Ret.)

Twenty years ago a terrorist attack on the Marine compound in Beirut left 241 dead. A former Chaplain of the Marine Corps remembers the event and the emotions.

In early November of each year a religious service is conducted at the Washington Cathedral in Washington, D.C., honoring the United States Marine Corps. As the Chaplain of the Marine Corps, it was my task to prepare the order of worship for 1983. Several weeks prior to the service, Gen. Paul Xavier Kelley, the 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps, agreed to read the Gospel lesson. After looking over my recommendations, he called me and said:

“Eli, I like your choices, but for this, my first year as Commandant, I would like to read the passage in which Jesus tells his disciples about the Good Shepherd. That particular teaching never fails to inspire and challenge me.”

It was an appropriate choice for this Commandant, with whom I had served in Vietnam, where I first observed his charismatic qualities and, above all, his faithful shepherding of troops.

23 October 1983

All Marines on active duty on Sunday, 23 October 1983, can remember exactly where they were upon hearing of the terrorist attack at Beirut International Airport that took the lives of 241 soldiers, sailors, and Marines. I was on an official visit to the Marine Corps Base, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Returning to Washington the following day, I learned that President Ronald R. Reagan had asked the Commandant to fly to the Marine unit in Beirut as his personal representative. General Kelley and SgtMaj Robert E. Cleary, the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, had already departed. Otherwise, I would have gone with them.

My first opportunity to meet with the Commandant took place a few days later after he had returned from Beirut. It was at the Pentagon helicopter pad. We shared an embrace and, with tears in his eyes, he said, “Eli, I have just lost 241 sons.” Minutes later he and his party, including me, departed for the U.S. Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, to greet and honor the first planeload of our fallen comrades.

At Dover, in a cold and drafty aircraft hangar, the Commandant addressed grieving families who had so suddenly lost loved ones. He underscored the quality, vitality, and importance of those superb troops whose lives were unexpectedly taken by terrorists. Then, looking down the line of flag-draped caskets, he asked, “Lord, where do we get such men?” During moments that were emotionally wrenching, draining, and spiritually consoling, General Kelley met with members of each family and together they shared their mutual, heartfelt grief.

On the return trip to Washington, the Commandant informed his party that he had requested that the Secretary of Defense convene a commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the terrorist attack and that Secretary Casper W. Weinberger had consented. A panel was soon established. It became known as the Long Commission.

The next week was one that would test to an extraordinary degree the leadership, loyalty, emotions, endurance, and values of the Commandant, who had assumed the office only four months before the terrorist attack. His frustrations were particularly obvious when, during four days of grueling testimony before Congress, not one member of either body asked him if he knew the identity of the terrorists who had planned and executed the attack. In his closing remarks before four congressional committees, the Commandant said:

“I would hope that the Congress would use this incident of cruel and premeditated mass murder to help us determine ways to tell nations that they cannot export and support terrorists who kill innocent Americans with impunity. The perpetrators and supporters of this challenge to the rights of free men everywhere must be identified and punished.”

The Commandant and I met frequently during that long ordeal, most often in private. I shall always remember one particular morning when, speaking with his usual candor, he said:

“Eli, I've spent many years of my Marine Corps career here in Washington, and have a lot of respect and admiration for politicians on both sides of the aisle. Several of them have given me invaluable advice and counsel on how the Marine Corps should deal with this, the worst tragedy in its entire peacetime history. However, some others have jumped the gun and are looking for a quick and easy way out.

One suggestion, which I find particularly offensive, is that I should become less visible and let responsibility roll down hill. I've always lived by the principle that authority and ultimate responsibility are inseparable. The law gives me the authority of the Commandant, and therefore, I have certain inherent responsibilities. First and foremost, to obviate any suspicion of a cover-up, I have, as you know, requested an independent investigation to determine the facts.

Another suggestion I strenuously reject is that we should sweep as much dirt as we can under the rug. Eli, five words stick in my mind that night last June when I became keeper of the Marine Corps Colors: courage... devotion... compassion... honesty... and integrity. If I learned nothing else from the Augustinian Fathers at Villanova, those last two words made an indelible impression, for without honesty and integrity, the others are meaningless.”

On another occasion, General Kelley addressed the matter of sweeping dirt under the rug. I vividly recall his words:

“Marines would never expect, or want, their Commandant to lie to them... or to lie for them. Therefore, I will not lie to my Marines... to the President of the United States... to Congress... or to the American people!”

Washington National Cathedral

This brings me to 6 November 1983. The worship service at Washington National Cathedral that Sunday afternoon honored all Marines, past and present, focusing primarily on our casualties in Beirut.

At the appropriate moment, the Commandant walked with dignity to the lectern and recited the moving words of Jesus as recorded in Chapter 10 of Saint John's Gospel, beginning at verse 11. Ironically, it was the same reading he had chosen several weeks before, excerpts of which are printed here:

“He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees... He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me...”
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Captain Takesian joined the Marine Corps in 1949 and served with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1960 and served as Chaplain of the Marine Corps from 1982-86.

The above article appears in the October, 2003 edition of the Marine Corps Gazette.

thedrifter
10-08-03, 09:21 PM
Thanks for sharing...........

May They Rest In Peace.......


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

MillRatUSMC
10-08-03, 10:42 PM
Echoing Drifters words;
Thanks for sharing...........

May They Rest In Peace.......

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

PS No betters words than those spoken by General Paul Xavier Kelley, the 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps
“Marines would never expect, or want, their Commandant to lie to them... or to lie for them. Therefore, I will not lie to my Marines... to the President of the United States... to Congress... or to the American people!”
These are the "Core Values" that we live by...

thedrifter
08-04-04, 08:08 AM
Never Will Forget


Ellie

airframesguru
08-04-04, 10:25 AM
Semper Fi

Wendellg
08-04-04, 07:08 PM
Never Forget.