Pictured are (from left): Gene Hutto, Kenneth Ramsey, Joy Hutto, Theresa Hume, Carolyn Umbrell, Jan Ramsey, Larry Hume, Mike Wulf, Richard Lundie, and Mike Langford.
October 31, 2022 - VFW Post 8904 and Auxiliary members gathered at the Shelby County Veterans Memorial October 21, 2022 to remember those who lost their lives in Beirut, Lebanon due to the bombing of a Marine compound.
"It was early on a Sunday morning when around 06:21 hours, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon that housed American and French service members in a multi-national force in Lebanon," said Larry Hume, Post Quartermaster.
Hume explained they were performing peacekeeping operations during the Labenese civil war. The attack killed 307 people, 241 of which were American military, 58 were French military, six were civilians plus the two attackers.
"The first suicide bomb detonated a truck bomb at the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion, Eighth Marines, Second Marine Division; killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three Army soldiers," said Hume. "This was the deadliest single day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II and the deadliest single day [death] toll for the U.S. Armed Forces since the first day of the Tet offensive in Vietnam."
Hume added, another 128 were wounded in the blast and 13 others later died of their injuries.
Minutes after the first bombing, a second bomber attacked a nine-story building where the French contingent was stationed, a few kilometers from the first.
In honor of those who died that day and the days that followed, a wreath was hung on the Shelby County Veterans Memorial by Mike Wulf, Post Member, and Taps was then played as presented by Gene Hutto, Past Post Commander.
