The public and all service people are invited to participate in Mesa Market Place Swap Meet’s Beirut Barracks Bombings Remembrance at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 20. The POW MIA KIA Honor Guard will officiate and lead the remembrance.
The event is free, and will take place in the Main Food Court in the middle of the second row: Row B.
Before and after the remembrance, adults and children are invited to write notes and color pictures to go into ‘Packages From Home’ care packages headed to service people serving in the Middle East.
Here is some background information about the Beirut Barracks Bombings. On October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War, two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen.
In the attack on the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (Battalion Landing Team – BLT 1/8), the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers, along with 60 Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since World War II’s Battle of Iwo Jima, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.
The Mesa Market Place is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 7:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and is at 10550 E. Baseline Rd., Mesa, AZ 85209, at exit 193 Signal Butte Rd. and Hwy 60. Info: 480-380-5572 and www.mesamarket.com. Fully handicapped accessible. Free Parking, admission, and entertainment.
