Veteran walking to honor those lost in ’83 bombing

Few Americans these days can readily recall what happened on Oct. 23, 1983.

Ed Brown can never forget. Standing on the shaded side of the Friendly’s Express on Blythe Island Highway to escape the midmorning heat, Brown took a moment to explain why we all should remember.

“It was a peacekeeping mission, but we became a target,” Brown said. “We were subject to one of the first terrorist attacks on Americans.”

The 22-year-old Navy corpsman was assigned overnight to the sick bay for a U.S. military outpost in Beirut, Lebanon. The truck loaded with explosives and driven by a fanatic on a suicide mission barreled into the nearby marine barracks around 6:20 a.m. on that Sunday morning, catching most still in slumber.

“I was asleep on a stretcher on sick call in case anybody came in overnight,” Brown said. “The explosion blew me out of the rack and onto the floor, about a 3-foot drop. We were 100 yards from the barracks. Everybody was sleeping.”

The deadly terrorist attack killed 241 servicemen, including 220 marines, 18 sailors and three army soldiers. It marked the largest single-day loss of U.S. servicemen since the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive. A group identifying itself as the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for what is considered among the first terrorist attacks on Americans.

After guzzling down a cold sports drink and refreshing his water bottles, Brown stepped back out into the blazing sun. He began walking north on Blythe Island Highway, headed for a stopover for the day on the grounds of Boatright and Associates along U.S. Highway 17 in Glynn County. His ultimate destination is Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

Brown, 57, aims to complete the trek by Oct. 22, arriving in time for the next day’s ceremony commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Beirut bombing.