Targeted Beirut

The 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) landed in Beirut Lebanon on May 29th, 1983, as part of a peacekeeping force during Lebanon’s Civil War. Once ashore, the MAU’s battalion landing team, BLT 1/8, took up positions around Beirut International Airport. Things escalated and the Marines began regularly taking fire. They suffered their first deaths on August 29th when Staff Sergeant Alexander Ortega and Second Lieutenant George Losey were killed by mortar fire. Then on October 23rd, the Marine barracks was attacked by a suicide truck bomber. 241 U.S. personnel were killed. This attack remains the single deadliest day in Marine Corps’ history since Iwo Jima. Jack Carr and James Scott tell the story in “Targeted: Beirut”.