Phantom Blooper
10-24-05, 05:33 AM
October 24,2005
BY DIANE MOUSKOURIE
DAILY NEWS STAFF
They came in peace - then they paid the ultimate price through an act of terrorism.
It was Oct. 23, 1983, when 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers - most from Camp Lejeune - died after a delivery truck packed with 12,000 pounds of explosives was rammed full force into the Beirut International Airport where the Marines had built a makeshift home and established headquarters.
The young men with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, the sailors and soldiers were on a peacekeeping mission to help a war-torn country. On Sunday in Jacksonville, many of their fathers and mothers, sisters, brothers, wives, active-duty military, veterans and friends gathered to honor their memory at the Beirut Memorial.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael W. Hagee, a former commanding officer of 1/8, said he remembers well the sacrifices.
"Words fail us," he told those assembled Sunday at the memorial site. "I wish we could say - as with many anniversaries - that this is a time for peaceful remembrance; that we were gathered today to commemorate a danger that had long since passed; or that the attack of 22 years ago marked the ending, not one of the early shots in a protracted and difficult conflict. But we cannot."
Hagee said those who lost a son, a father or a husband during this attack likely want to know why it happened. More than two decades after the incident, the answers are still impossible to grasp.
"It is hard for free people to comprehend the mix of extremism and hatred that leads terrorists to murder people sent to help," Hagee said. "But perhaps we can take solace in the fact that throughout human history there have been those who seek power through fear and mass murder, but eventually all of them, every one, have fallen."
After the laying of wreaths at the foot of the Beirut Memorial, Gen. Robert C. Dickerson, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations East and commander of Camp Lejeune; and Hagee stood at attention for a 21-gun salute. Following the hour-long service, several family members and former comrades walked to the memorial to pay tribute.
President of the American Gold Star Mothers Judith Young traveled from Morristown, N.J., to attend. It was a special time to remember her son, Sgt. Jeffrey Young, she said. He was 22 the day he died.
"You never really get over something like that, but time does make it easier," she said.
Evi Cox-Jordan flew in from Orlando, Fla., with her husband, Bob Jordan. Evi was a 25-year-old wife and mother when her first husband, Sgt. Manuel Cox, was killed in the explosion, she said through tears.
"He died two days after my youngest son was born," she said. "You never really recover; you just learn to deal with it."
Maj. Lew Vogler, executive officer with 1/8 shared a story that illustrates the irony of life, he said.
When Lt. Col. Scott Alley, the current commanding officer of 1/8, was a captain at basic school, a young student came to him and asked for leave so he could attend a memorial in Jacksonville, Vogler said. The captain told the young man that leave was not allowed for those in basic training. But when the young man told the captain it was a service to honor his father, Capt. Peter J. Scialabba, who had died in the Beirut attack, he let him go.
Alley was a senior in high school in 1983 and remembers the bombing.
"Fully considering the war on terrorism on June 30 we changed the call sign of our battalion to the way it was at the time of the bombing," Alley said.
He said losing 220 Marines in a battalion of about 800 was a significant loss then as it would be now.
"One is too many," Alley said. "We just had 21 Marines killed in action during our last deployment to Iraq. We need to keep sight of what we're doing and remember those who went before us so that we always do what's right."
And the war on terrorism, which some say began with the Beirut bombing, continues, Hagee said.
"America did not wish to send Marines abroad, but we sent them," Hagee said about the Beirut bombing. "We did not ask for violence, but we've answered it. We did not begin the war on terror, but we will win it."
BY DIANE MOUSKOURIE
DAILY NEWS STAFF
They came in peace - then they paid the ultimate price through an act of terrorism.
It was Oct. 23, 1983, when 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers - most from Camp Lejeune - died after a delivery truck packed with 12,000 pounds of explosives was rammed full force into the Beirut International Airport where the Marines had built a makeshift home and established headquarters.
The young men with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, the sailors and soldiers were on a peacekeeping mission to help a war-torn country. On Sunday in Jacksonville, many of their fathers and mothers, sisters, brothers, wives, active-duty military, veterans and friends gathered to honor their memory at the Beirut Memorial.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael W. Hagee, a former commanding officer of 1/8, said he remembers well the sacrifices.
"Words fail us," he told those assembled Sunday at the memorial site. "I wish we could say - as with many anniversaries - that this is a time for peaceful remembrance; that we were gathered today to commemorate a danger that had long since passed; or that the attack of 22 years ago marked the ending, not one of the early shots in a protracted and difficult conflict. But we cannot."
Hagee said those who lost a son, a father or a husband during this attack likely want to know why it happened. More than two decades after the incident, the answers are still impossible to grasp.
"It is hard for free people to comprehend the mix of extremism and hatred that leads terrorists to murder people sent to help," Hagee said. "But perhaps we can take solace in the fact that throughout human history there have been those who seek power through fear and mass murder, but eventually all of them, every one, have fallen."
After the laying of wreaths at the foot of the Beirut Memorial, Gen. Robert C. Dickerson, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations East and commander of Camp Lejeune; and Hagee stood at attention for a 21-gun salute. Following the hour-long service, several family members and former comrades walked to the memorial to pay tribute.
President of the American Gold Star Mothers Judith Young traveled from Morristown, N.J., to attend. It was a special time to remember her son, Sgt. Jeffrey Young, she said. He was 22 the day he died.
"You never really get over something like that, but time does make it easier," she said.
Evi Cox-Jordan flew in from Orlando, Fla., with her husband, Bob Jordan. Evi was a 25-year-old wife and mother when her first husband, Sgt. Manuel Cox, was killed in the explosion, she said through tears.
"He died two days after my youngest son was born," she said. "You never really recover; you just learn to deal with it."
Maj. Lew Vogler, executive officer with 1/8 shared a story that illustrates the irony of life, he said.
When Lt. Col. Scott Alley, the current commanding officer of 1/8, was a captain at basic school, a young student came to him and asked for leave so he could attend a memorial in Jacksonville, Vogler said. The captain told the young man that leave was not allowed for those in basic training. But when the young man told the captain it was a service to honor his father, Capt. Peter J. Scialabba, who had died in the Beirut attack, he let him go.
Alley was a senior in high school in 1983 and remembers the bombing.
"Fully considering the war on terrorism on June 30 we changed the call sign of our battalion to the way it was at the time of the bombing," Alley said.
He said losing 220 Marines in a battalion of about 800 was a significant loss then as it would be now.
"One is too many," Alley said. "We just had 21 Marines killed in action during our last deployment to Iraq. We need to keep sight of what we're doing and remember those who went before us so that we always do what's right."
And the war on terrorism, which some say began with the Beirut bombing, continues, Hagee said.
"America did not wish to send Marines abroad, but we sent them," Hagee said about the Beirut bombing. "We did not ask for violence, but we've answered it. We did not begin the war on terror, but we will win it."