25 years ago was the worst day of my life...

[Chris_]

Joe_VB (329 posts)      Thu Oct-23-08 01:24 PM
Original message

 Edited on Thu Oct-23-08 02:13 PM by Joe_VB
October 23 1983: I woke early to get a cup of coffee and to smoke a cigarette on the fantail. We were part of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force doing large circles just a few hundred yards off the beach as part of NGFS (Naval Gun Fire Support) for the Marines at the Beirut Airport. The previous month we had fired over 300 5" shells into the mountains, Souk al Gharb was the village name, supporting the Christian Militia there. We would come to find out that this is where Reagan ****ed up. That's when we ceased to be Peacekeepers and became participants in a civil war. I was in the Combat Systems department on the USS Virginia (CGN-38).

snip
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4294117

A Bouncy no doubt. I'll let the CC service members take it apart.

[TheSarge]

Ok I'm a ground pounder but even I know that a ship that big can't be "doing circles a few hundred yards off the beach"


That's one thing that jumps out to me.


Aside from his little Reagan bashing at the end of it...the middle part could have been taken straight from the Wiki entry about the Virginia.

Which is the first link that pops up in a Google search.

[dutch508]

October 25th, 1983.

Had just finish Jumpschool and had reported in to my new unit at Hunter Army Airfield.

In less than 30 days we would be in Grenada.

Not one person I have ever met who served in teh Military ever thought a negitave thing about Ronnie. After Carter, the guys thought Reagon was a saint.

[GOBUCKS]

Our division officer (a salty old vietnam vet who got his start on PBR's)

TomInTib was there.

[dutch508]

bertman  (1000+ posts)       Thu Oct-23-08 03:56 PM
Response to Original message
19. Thank you for the reminder, Joe. It is too easy to forget.
 And thank you for your service.

I remember a while before the barracks got hit I was talking to a navy man who I believe had just gotten out of the service. I'm remembering that he was on a battleship although I don't remember which one. What I do remember was him telling me with great pride how they fired the 16-inch guns with shells "as big as a '57 chevy" into the villages in the hills around Beirut. He was so proud and he was wearing his t-shirt with the ship's name on it. Being a Vietnam vet I was listening to him and thinking of how many civilians they were probably killing with those gigantic bombs. It was so eerie hearing him tell me about what he was doing. Then it was really weird when we heard about the barracks getting bombed. Very sad.

Yeah, that's what I think about too...

 

[Chris_]

TomInTib was there.

Yes, because he grabbed an incoming shell in his teeth and spit it out. Then he grabbed Raquel Welch and they danced the night away while doing pure Cambodian powder all the while.

[BamaMoose]

bertman  (1000+ posts)       Thu Oct-23-08 03:56 PM
Response to Original message
19. Thank you for the reminder, Joe. It is too easy to forget.
 And thank you for your service.

I remember a while before the barracks got hit I was talking to a navy man who I believe had just gotten out of the service. I'm remembering that he was on a battleship although I don't remember which one. What I do remember was him telling me with great pride how they fired the 16-inch guns with shells "as big as a '57 chevy" into the villages in the hills around Beirut. He was so proud and he was wearing his t-shirt with the ship's name on it. Being a Vietnam vet I was listening to him and thinking of how many civilians they were probably killing with those gigantic bombs. 
 It was so eerie hearing him tell me about what he was doing. Then it was really weird when we heard about the barracks getting bombed. Very sad.

Yeah, that's what I think about too...

 

On 14 December [1983], New Jersey fired 11 projectiles from her 16-inch guns at hostile positions inland of Beirut. This is the first 16-inch shells fired for effect anywhere in the world since New Jersey ended her time on the gunline in Vietnam in 1969.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/battleships/newjersey/bb62-nj.html

I don't remember December coming before October in 1983, but it was a while back.

[Vagabond]

Then there is the whole issue of Muslim civilians.  They aren't civilians the way we think of civilians.  The jihadis drive another group, then the "moderates" move in and stake their claim, which according to them is forever.

The muslims should have been tossed out of Lebanon.

[Crazy Horse]

Then this person (term used loosely) claims that he/she/it felt the blast on the fantail....................BULLSHIT

Then they manned a mike boat from the Virginia................................BULLSHIT

I have gone and read the wiki entry for the Virginia and I swear this person used those facts in their own twisted lie about that day to build veteran cred with the poo flingers.

[Airwolf]

October 25th, 1983.

Had just finish Jumpschool and had reported in to my new unit at Hunter Army Airfield.

In less than 30 days we would be in Grenada.

Not one person I have ever met who served in teh Military ever thought a negitave thing about Ronnie. After Carter, the guys thought Reagon was a saint.

My unit in the 101st got  called up for Grenada as well. Only we got as far as the trucks coming to take us to the airfield before it was called off for us. I was standing there with the platoon with my ruck and gear with an M-16 in one hand and an XM-21 in the other wondering if I was going to make it back .

[DumbAss Tanker]

My unit in the 101st got  called up for Grenada as well. Only we got as far as the trucks coming to take us to the airfield before it was called off for us. I was standing there with the platoon with my ruck and gear with an M-16 in one hand and an XM-21 in the other wondering if I was going to make it back .

I was at Campbell then, actually in the very first stages of lining up with the next unit in the MFPO-Sinai rotation to go over to Egypt in mid-1984.

In a purely broad factual way, the DUmmie's description of the military situation is more or less accurate.  The peacekeeping mission had (at least to the eyes of the locals) lost a lot of credibility as to its impartiality, which didn't help, though there were Muslim factions (one backed by Syria and one by Iran, both with some level of covert Soviet help in materiel at least) that were trying to provoke things to spiral further out of control, Hell for that matter even the Israeli ground commander was trying to provoke the muzzies so they would ask us to leave and he could get at them.  Ultimately the Marines on the ground failed to adequately appreciate the danger of the situation and so did not institute sufficient physical security/ROE measures for the guards to forestall or block the kind of attack that occurred.

Kind of odd that a Navy guy wouldn't remember it was the New Jersey, her participation was a huge deal not just in the Navy but the MSM at the time.