Time for a pop quiz.

I know, a rough way to start the week.

What major international event happened 25 years ago this week? If you said, the World Series. No, that isn’t what I am thinking. Oct 23 is the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Some people say this was truly the first shot in the current global war on terror. I guess that depends on who you ask. What we know for certain is that 241 Americans were killed in the attack. Moments later 58 French Paratroopers were killed the same way at their barracks.
USA Today did a nice article on this last week.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-10-15-beirut-barracks_N.htm

I had forgotten about one of those footnotes of history that get lost in the big picture and obscured by time. Here is how USA Today recounted the episode.

Many of the wounded were taken to military hospitals in Europe. Jeff Nashton wound up in Germany, where Marine commandant Kelley stopped en route to Beirut. Kelley walked into the ward where Nashton was lying in bed. He’d later say that he never had seen more tubes coming out of one man.

The dust had temporarily blinded Nashton, and when Kelley introduced himself, Nashton says he thought someone was putting him on. So he reached up and grabbed the man’s collar. He felt one star, two, three, four.

Nashton, who couldn’t speak because of the tubes, made a writing gesture. Someone handed him a pen and his medical chart. He wrote something and handed it to Kelley.

It read: “Semper Fi.”

A few weeks later, Kelley visited Nashton in a Maryland hospital and gave him the same four stars, framed in a case.

“You deserve them more than I do,” he said.

Today, men and women with the same esprit and pride as Jeff Nashton are protecting us. Iraq and Afghanistan are getting alot of press but let’s take a moment to remember those peacekeepers of the last generation.

All I ask today is that you pause to remember their sacrifice. Don’t choose a side based on politics, just remember. Raise a glass, say a prayer, maybe do both but don’t let their deaths be forgotten. As Americans we owe it to them to remember.

Semper Fidelis Marines.

Semper Fi.

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