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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 ascending Service Branch
CPL Leonard Walker USMC
CPL Eric Walker USMC
PFC Donald Vallone USMC
PVT Lex Trahan USMC
LCPL John Tishmack USMC
PFC Stephen Tingley USMC
SSGT Thomas Thorstad USMC
CPL Dennis Thompson USMC
LT James Surch USN
LCPL Devon Sundar USMC
LCPL Eric Sturghill USMC
LCPL Thomas Stowe USMC
LCPL Jeffrey Stokes USMC
PFC Craig Stockton USMC
LCPL Horace Stephens USMC
LCPL Bill Stelpflug USMC
LCPL Stephen Spencer USMC
LCPL John Spearing USMC
LCPL Michael Spaulding USMC
1stLT William Sommerhof USMC

Pages

Various, including official DOD report