MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- While the majority of Marines from 1st Bn., 8th Marines, lied in their racks and slept on the morning of Oct. 23, 1983, none of them could have imagined the horrors that would unfold.
At 6:22 a.m., a truck loaded with 2,000 pounds of explosives roared through the gates of the U.S. Marine Corps' barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Once inside, the truck exploded, taking the lives of 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers and injuring hundreds more.
Twenty-one years later, this cowardly act still remains a part of Master Sgt. Charles Anderson, regional assistant officer procurement chief, Eastern Recruiting Region, who was an 81 mm mortar man assigned to 1st Bn., 8th Marines in Beirut when the explosion occurred.
In 1982, Israel had invaded Lebanon to try and force out terrorists, but this act created more unrest in the Middle East and U.S. forces were sent to Lebanon to oversee the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon.
Nearly 1,600 Marines were serving as part of a multinational force trying to restore order and stability in Lebanon.
In the months leading up to the attack, the Marines there were operating in a hostile environment. The Marines faced constant verbal harassment from the locals as well as stray rounds coming into their positions.
"There was tension in the air, but it was still relaxed," said Anderson. "We'd hear random [gun] fire, but it wasn't that bad. I never thought there would be a bombing or anything like that," added the Brooklyn, N.Y., native who was a 23-year-old lance corporal while serving in Beirut.
Then, on the morning of Oct.23, 1983, chaos erupted.
While the majority of Marines were asleep in the barracks, a five-ton truck entered the public parking lot adjacent to the four-story, steel-reinforced concrete barracks that housed Marines and other service members. The truck rammed through a barbed-wire emplacement, over a sewer pipe that was placed as an obstacle for vehicles and hit a four-foot wide passenger entry into the lobby where the explosive cargo detonated.
A quarter of a mile away at the Beirut airport, Anderson had just spent the night sitting in a sandbagged position manning his mortar when the explosion occurred.
"I saw two mushroom clouds go up," said Anderson, who had only joined the Marine Corps in June 1982. "I looked through the binoculars and it [the barracks] was gone. We didn't know what had happened, but we started writing down the names of the Marines we knew who were in the barracks."
Thirty minutes later, Anderson heard what had actually happened - a suicide bomber had struck the barracks that he himself could have been in.
"I felt numb," said Anderson about how he felt upon hearing the news.
His unit was supposed to be training Lebanese soldiers that weekend and would have been in the barracks that morning, but because of the small arms fire the night before, the training was cancelled and he was put in position at the airport, he said.
"I think about it [that day] all the time," said Anderson. "Especially in the month of October when I get a lot of phone calls from friends who were there with me."
Though Beirut was not a war or a battle, it is still remembered by Marines and many Americans today for the tragedy our fellow Marines and service members faced that day.
"I'm just glad the Marine Corps still remembers it," said Anderson.