DICKSON-BOBBY

KILLED  IN  TERRORIST  ATTACK

Assignment as a Marine Security Guard at an overseas U.S. Embassy may appear to be an interesting and prestigious duty assignment but it can also be dangerous as was unfortunately demonstrated on June 19, 1985 in San Salvador, El Salvador.  In the early evening hours, four off-duty unarmed Marines assigned as Marine Security Guards to the U.S. Embassy were dressed in civilian clothes enjoying the music and a few drinks in a sidewalk café in the Zona Rosa nightclub district of San Salvador, when a pickup truck stopped in front of their table.  Without warning, several men dressed in military uniforms leaped from the truck and opened fire with submachine guns and automatic rifles.  According to eyewitnesses, the gunmen initially specifically singled out the four Marines and then sought additional individual targets as they methodically went from table to table looking for other targets among the patrons who were on the floor underneath the tables.  When it was over, the gunmen, later identified as leftist guerrillas of the Central American Revolutionary Workers Party, had killed the four Marines, two American businessmen and seven Salvadorans.

SSGT Bobby Joe Dickson, whose hometown was Northport, Alabama, was one of the four Marine Security Guards to die in the attack.  He has been buried at the Sunset Memorial Park in Northport.  He is survived by his step-father and mother.

                      

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)