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thedrifter
10-16-08, 07:02 AM
Remembering Beirut attack

By KAREN BOLIPATA
October 16, 2008 12:22 am


The men scanned the wall.

In pictures, military men lay in bed, a building crumbled and a cloud of smoke billowed over Beirut.

Many of the men, about a dozen of them, had been there Oct. 23, 1983, when a suicide bomber drove a truck into the Marine headquarters and killed 241 Americans. They exchanged stories, sometimes looking to the pictures for reference.

Yesterday, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle introduced "Where do we get such men," a temporary exhibit about the Beirut bombing.

Lt. Gen. Ron Christmas, president of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, prefaced the opening, saying, "This was the 25th anniversary of an unbelievable historical event that too often has gone forgotten."

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan sent troops to Lebanon to evacuate civilians and remove Palestine Liberation Organization and Syrian soldiers from Beirut. After 18 months, 268 American military personnel had died, 238 of them Marines.

Many historians refer to the Beirut bombing as the beginning of global terrorism, museum director Lin Ezell said.

Retired Lt. Col. Paul Roy, 34 at the time, can still hear the explosion. At Lebanese University, about 2 miles from headquarters, he felt the ground shake.

"I looked up and I saw this huge mushroom cloud develop," he said. "A black cloud. It was just rising and rising and rising. And I said, 'We got hit hard.'"

He called the building but got no answer.

"I knew then and there that we had taken a major hit," said Roy, now a senior Marine instructor at Quantico High School.

Cpl. Mike Bangert arrived in Beirut months after the attack, and he has made it his mission to tell people about it.

He has launched a more than 500-mile bike ride from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to honor the fallen and to educate people about a bill proposing to create a Beirut memorial stamp.

At the exhibit, he wore a shirt bearing the names of those killed.

"Why do I do it? It's because of the names on my back," he said. "I think about their families, their moms."

Wearing fatigues, Charles Dallachie shied away from questions.

The commanding officer for the Marine Corps said he will go to Arlington National Cemetery this weekend to mourn with families of the dead.

"Every year, I wonder, 'Was it worth it?'" he said.

Has he found an answer?

He paused.

"I still wear the uniform."

Karen Bolipata: 540/374-5418
Email: kbolipata@freelancestar.com


DISCUSSION

Veterans will speak at a Beirut panel discussion Saturday; $10, reservations required.

For information, call Pamela Dodson, executive assistant of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, at 703/649-2350, or e-mail her at dodson@marineheritage.org.

Ellie