At around 6:20 a.m., a rainbow Mercedes truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines had set up its headquarters. The truck had been substituted for a hijacked water delivery truck. 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 barbed wire fence around the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate and drove into the lobby of the Marine barracks headquarters. The Marine sentries at the gate were operating under rules of engagement which made it very difficult to respond quickly to the truck. By the time the two sentries had locked, loaded, and shouldered their weapons, the truck was already inside the building's entry way.  The Beirut bombing was the largest conventional explosion in history.

According to Eric Hammel in his history of the Marine landing force, "The force of the explosion initially lifted the entire four-story structure, shearing the bases of the concrete support columns, each measuring fifteen feet in circumference and reinforced by numerous one and three quarter inch steel rods. The airborne building then fell in upon itself. A massive shock wave and ball of flaming gas was hurled in all directions." 


                         

ALMAR 043/08
R 151520Z OCT 08
MSGID/GENADMIN/CMC WASHINGTON DC CSG//
SUBJ/25TH OBSERVATION OF BEIRUT BOMBING//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/1.  A QUARTER CENTURY AGO IN BEIRUT, LEBANON, A
SUICIDE DRIVER DROVE HIS EXPLOSIVE-LADEN TRUCK INTO THE MARINE
BARRACKS OF BATTALION LANDING TEAM 1/8.  THE EXPLOSION KILLED 241
MARINES AND CORPSMEN AND STRUCK THE FIRST BLOW AGAINST AMERICAN
FORCES IN THIS LONG WAR ON TERRORISM.
2.  IN COMMEMORATION OF THE MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY IN 1983, PRESIDENT
REAGAN WROTE TO THE 24TH MAU, "ALL AMERICANS ARE DEEPLY IN YOUR
DEBT.  EVEN AS WE GRIEVE FOR YOUR SACRIFICE, WE TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR
EXCELLENCE AS MARINES."
3.  TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, THOSE WORDS ARE AS RELEVANT AS THEY
WERE IN THE WAKE OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK.  THE MARINE CORPS REMAINS
ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN COMBAT OPERATIONS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.  THE
PERFORMANCE OF OUR MARINES HAS BEEN MAGNIFICENT; THEIR DETERMINATION
AND COMMITMENT TO WIN THIS LONG WAR HAS BEEN UNWAVERING.
4.  THE MARINES AND SAILORS IN BEIRUT ACCEPTED A WAY OF LIFE THAT
EMBODIED SELFLESS SERVICE.  MANY OF THEM PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE FOR
THE DANGEROUS AND NECESSARY WORK OF FIGHTING OUR NATION'S ENEMIES.
FOR THOSE OF US WHO CARRY ON THEIR LEGACY, IT IS OUR OBLIGATION TO
PAUSE IN REMEMBRANCE AND TO HONOR THOSE WHO FELL IN DEFENSE OF OUR
NATION THAT SUNDAY AFTERNOON OF 23 OCTOBER 1983.
5.  SEMPER FIDELIS, JAMES T. CONWAY, GENERAL, U.S. MARINE CORPS,
COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS.

                        


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