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Home >> Marine Amphibious Unit

Marine Amphibious Unit

Ship Designation: 
NULL-NULL
Date Lost: 
Sunday, October 23, 1983
Terrorist Bombing in Beirut
At approximately 0622 on Sunday, October 23, the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building in the Marine Amphibious Unit compound at Beirut International Airport was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. The catastrophic attack took the lives of 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers and wounded more than 100 others. The bombing was carried out by one lone terrorist driving a yellow Mercedes Benz stake-bed truck that accelerated through the public parking lot south of the BLT headquarters building, where it exploded. The truck drove over the barbed and concertina wire obstacle, passed between two Marine guard posts without being engaged by fire, entered an open gate, passed around one sewer pipe barrier and between two others, flattened the Sergeant of the Guard's sandbagged booth at the building's entrance, penetrated the lobby of the building and detonated while the majority of the occupants slept. The force of the explosion [12,000 pounds] ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself. Almost all the occupants were crushed or trapped inside the wreckage. . .more died than on the deadliest day of fighting in Vietnam, the invasion of Iraq or the entire 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Beirut Memorial Website


Lost At Sea Log

Number of sailors in this log: 237

Namesort descending Service Branch
CPL Terry Abbott USMC
LCPL Clemon Alexander USMC
PFC John Allman USMC
CPL Moses Arnold USMC
PFC Charles Bailey USMC
LCPL Nicholas Baker USMC
LCPL Johansen Banks USMC
LCPL Richard Barrett USMC
HM1 Ronny Bates USN
1stSGT David Battle USMC
LCPL James Baynard USMC
HN Jesse Beamon USN
GYSGT Alvin Belmer USMC
PFC Stephen Bland USMC
SGT Richard Blankenship USMC
LCPL John Blocker USMC
CAPT Joseph Boccia USMC
CPL Leon Bohannon USMC
SSGT John Bohnet USMC
CPL John Bonk USMC

Pages

Various, including official DOD report