BEIRUT VETERANS OF AMERICA? Beirut Veterans of America Guestbook Let us know you were there
There are currently 385 messages. Message Number: 385 - Monday, August 16, 2010 20:22:03 PDT [IP = 173.246.214.123] - 
Just a quick note to ask for prayers for Msgt. Tim Vannoy one of the finest marines I have known. He is also my son-inlaw he has all my respect as well the marines in his command. Leaving early am and due in country friday , lets hope they find Bin Laden and we all come home . I hope this reaches all my Root Brothers and hope all is well with your famlies .A special thanks to Cliff Walling for all you do for the BVA I know that your time is valuable to you but thanks form your brothers. as always SEMPER FI DEVEL DOGS AND GOOD SPEED FOR OUR YOUNG WARRIORS LETS GET ALL HOME. Then maybe we can have finial peace I cant imangine what goes through their eyes or minds. I need to say no more . Good Chesty. Message Number: 384 - Monday, August 16, 2010 00:43:06 PDT [IP = 173.246.214.123] -
It has been awhile since I have written. Spent the week with our daughter and family in swansbourgh 8-5-10 thru 8-12 10 mostley trying tie loose ends with my son -inlaw before his deployment. Yes after over 16 years he got the call to go to the middel east. Like we felt what the Hell for , we are never going to win against people who only know war. I am prowd to have served with my devil dog brothers and would trade places with my son-inlaw in a heart beat but as all of us age and stiffness has took over. As with my son-inlaw as well as any of your familes I hold my head up hope they keep their heads down and trust in God to return them home safely. Maybe our leaders in DC will reach down , feel that not and pull their heads out of their asses but I suppose that would be asking to much as they need to worry about bonuses owed to them from their bail out. As I saw with our marines ready to deploy as well as those who have had many tours and knowing the feelings of marines before them , they will do anything to keep this great country strong and safe no matter how much money or vacations our leaders take for themselves. God Bless my Beirut brothers and our young brothers who still believe that they can make a ( CHANGE ). And see all of them home safe. SEMPER FI to all who believe and keep prayers for all who are in country for our FREEDOM. Message Number: 383 - Friday, August 6, 2010 19:45:14 PDT [IP = 173.143.253.33] -United States 
Everytime I close my eyes; I'm there.... that morning... They will never leave me. Message Number: 381 - Monday, August 2, 2010 22:39:05 PDT [IP = 68.2.76.202] -United States
ALWAYS REMEMBER! I have a bunch of photos taken while we were on the "gun line" offshore. Some pretty good, some not as good. Anybody that was there will remember these sights, though. Many of the support vessels, gun platforms, air ops....even the ferris wheel, and tracer fire on the hillsides. I'll post them as soon as I get them organized and scanned......some are already up on FACEBOOK. Cosenza P.D. MM2 Message Number: 380 - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 10:12:19 PDT [IP = 74.218.128.10] -United States
Was Beirut Lebanon ever declared a combat zone in 1958 Message Number: 379 - Tuesday, July 20, 2010 10:20:12 PDT [IP = 192.138.48.34] -United States
I was a few years out of high school and wouldnt enlist in the army until 1988. I recall the Beirut bombing was the downside to the Reagan re-assertion of America abroad. The 80s are a muddle now, and I wont claim to be a great historian. Thru his eight years Reagan did so much: declaring an end to the Berlin Wall, derailing Soviet/Cuban plans to make Greneda an airstrip for reinforcing Sandinistas and El Salvadoran guerillas, chastising Muammar Gaddafi etc. Years later while at Ft Hood I asked a neighbor about his military history. To my surprise he had never joined up. I had assumed he was a retiree. He told me that he and 2 friends were going to enlist in the Corps. The older boys went in right after high school and he would join them once his senior year of school was over. But he never went in. One of the two older guys--a true Big Brother mentor to my neighbor--was sent to Beirut and died in the blast. When you go to Iraq you see the truly hard lessons we learned in Beirut. If you go to any FOB in either Iraq or Afghanistan you see immediately all the heavy concrete T-barrier walls (inverted T barriers some call them). How naive this country was to think that a mere barbed wire fence would halt a fanatic!! A fanaticism willing to die to kill you is something we didnt recognize in Beirut or on 9/11/01 for that matter. Semper Fi from an army nurse and woulda been USN corpsman Message Number: 378 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 15:06:22 PDT [IP = 216.246.151.59] -United States
Served on USS Inchon in Beirut,Lebanon later with Army 04-05 Iraq. Nice site. My Deceased father was an E 2/7 Marine Korea 51-52. Semper Fi. Bill. S. Message Number: 377 - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 17:42:05 PDT [IP = 24.178.139.93] -United States
Was with 1/8 wpns co 81s mm mortars,was promoted to HM3 was transfered to Bravo co. Was at south end of airport during the bombing where afterward I took a truck and Three Marines and half our company medical supplies and went down the runway to help my fellow Sailors and Marines. To my suprise I was alone with lots injuried and dieing.So I worked until more Corpsman came to help was sent back to Bravo co area. Where my nightmares then began through the years they have become just dark shadows in the night I still carry on. I will never forget those that never made it home and payed the extreme price for peace......... Message Number: 376 - Thursday, June 3, 2010 07:33:04 PDT [IP = 166.82.152.142] -United States
As the rain begins to fall during this final hour of Memorial Day 2010 and for the first time ever, I would like to share my deeply personal thoughts on the intervening 27 years since my days with the Marines of the 24th MAU in Lebanon. I find it interesting that no matter how much distance, time, and changes I've experienced as I traveled on this winding road of life, the time I spent in Beirut, Lebanon has been my shadow. It was a singular moment that has taken many forms. It has at times been a suffocating distraction, or, a soft whisper in my ear, a constant reminder to check my six, or to keep moving forward; and other times it's been a sanctuary of private memories that lull me from some tepid foible or office farce that personify the norm for others; sometimes it is even a source of inspiration that draws me back to Beirut and to friends and comrades, who with Jarhead chatter and a nod of understanding, help me pass another obstacle in my life; and still other times a burden of deep loneliness forged by the isolation of a self imposed exile from tangled emotions and my father's warrior code example. Most of all, it has been the defining point of reference for me when the need for some private soul searching arises or a good old fashion gut check is required. Regardless of how my memory of the experience has manifested throughout the years, or that the sights, sounds and smells may have been softened over time, the Marines and sailors of the 24th MAU have always and continue to linger in my mind and heart still with every passing day. And despite my best efforts over the years to hold firm to my father's warrior code, I awoke in the middle of the night, not long ago, from a dream not unlike many others since 1983, but for the first time in 27 years, I had shed real tears. It is apparent to me now, that the brave Marines and Sailors that I was priviledged to serve with, are as close to me now as they were then no matter where life takes me and that all my years of private memorials and salutations were not private at all, they have been with me all along. Mitchell T. McKell
|
