Massachusetts Beirut Memorial honors Middle East peacekeepers

Twenty-eight years ago, one of the deadliest events in U.S. military history occurred.  On the morning of October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon, a suicide bomber drove a yellow Mercedes truck into the U.S. Marine Corps base at Beirut International Airport.  The truck was filled with 12,000 pounds of explosive materials.  The explosion decimated the four-story military base.  The attack killed a total of 241 U.S. service members: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel, and 3 Army soldiers.  At the time of the attack, there were 1,600 Marines in Lebanon serving as neutral peacekeepers for ongoing tension in the Middle East.  According to the FBI, the attack was (at the time) the biggest non-nuclear explosion since World War II.   

“For Americans, Beirut was a seminal moment on a timeline that led to the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond.  It was a first shot in a clash with a militant, fundamentalist Islam – exemplified by groups such as Hezbollah and nations such as Iran – that would replace Soviet communism as the USA’s chief adversary,” wrote Rick Hampton in an October 18, 2008 USA Today article commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the Beirut bombing.

In 1992, a memorial was built for the nine U.S. Marines from Massachusetts who died in the Beirut bombing.  The Massachusetts Beirut Memorial is located next to Christopher Columbus Park in Boston.  The Memorial has a circular granite-seating wall with all of the names of the nine Marines from Massachusetts who died in the bombing.  

On the wall it reads: “Massachusetts Beirut Memorial – Dedicated to the nine Massachusetts Marines who lost their lives in Beirut, Lebanon 23 October 1983.  Blessed are the Peacekeepers.”  

The names on the Memorial are: LCP Bradley J. Campus – Lynn, 1962 – 1982, LCP Michael J. Devlin – Westwood, 1962 – 1983, SGT MAJ Frederick B. Douglass – Cataumet, 1936 – 1983, CPT Sean R. Gallagher – North Andover, 1952 – 1983, SGT Edward J. Gargano – Quincy, 1962 – 1984, CPT Richard J. Gordon – Somerville, 1961 – 1983, CPT Michael S. Haskell – Westborough, 1950 – 1983, SGT Steven B. LaRiviere – Chicopee, 1961 – 1983, and LCP Thomas S. Perron – Whitinsville, 1964 – 1983.