Beirut Bombing
October 23, 1983, in Marine Corps history.
October 23, marks the anniversary of the single deadliest day for the Marine Corps since Iwo Jima in World War II. However, the chain of events that led up to this tragic event began more than a year prior, in June of 1982.
On June 6, 1982, the Israeli Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon in response to an assassination attempt on Israel's ambassador to the UK by Palestinian terrorists, in an attempt to create a buffer zone between Israel and a joint Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Syrian force stationed in Lebanon. After two and a half months of fighting, a 2,000-member multinational peacekeeping force, including 800 Marines from the 32d Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU), was deployed to Beirut to oversee the withdrawal of PLO guerillas on August 25.
Photo Credit: The Marine barracks building in Beirut, Lebanon, prior to the bombing. (Photo Courtesy of II MEF)
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