Twenty years ago today, the US Marine Barracks in Beirut was blown up by the terrorists, killing 241 Marines, Navy and Army personnel.
When the Beirut bombing of sleeping US fighting men occurred, I had been in the Air Force for two years. Before this cowardly attack, I had been intimately associated with our versions of weapons of mass destruction and had begun to question the wisdom of war in general and my role in perpetrating war in particular. Minus all the pertinent facts and naïve to the nature of humans, I had decided to put in a request for Conscientious Objectors Status. I nearly had the paperwork done when my comrades were murdered and maimed in their sleep.
Paperwork trashed.
It was then when I realized that evil truly existed and must be opposed…”by any means necessary.” I have not regretted this decision once.
Rest in Peace, good men and Semper Fidelis.
