23Oct83

May you continue to rest in peace, my Brothers!

Lest we forget....
 
I was a couple weeks away from turning 15. My dad had retired from Lejeune at that point but we had family in Jacksonville so still went down four, five times a year. We were there a week or so after, right before my birthday. The whole town, the base, were very somber, and there was a very palpable pall in the air. I have been in/around that base and town since I was born, and I had never seen it like that.
 
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I was in Bad Toelz when both the Embassy and Marine barracks were bombed...in both cases, we spun up, stood down and got frustrated...

FLASHBACK: April 18, 1983: U.S. Embassy Attacked in Beirut — Central Intelligence Agency

There was a company from 2nd Battalion there at the time (or perhaps a pilot team, I forget...) I guess the plan was if anything was needed, they'd take care of it...we'd just returned from a JCET in Greece and thought we'd be the logical choice to go, but logic is rarely applied in these circumstances...
 
I was a farmer with a Wife and a Son. Enlisted afterwards and because of having 2 dependents I had to enter "open contract". I learned years later that the reason I became a Field Radio Operator was because so many were lost that day.
 
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