September 7, 2021
A Tale of Two Evacuations
By Larry Gill
As I reflect on the recent news of leaving Afghanistan, it reminds me of the evacuation I participated in as a junior enlisted marine in Beirut, Lebanon in 1984. Despite both the differences and similarities between these two operations, the main thing to remember is, as Marines, soldiers, or whatever branch of service, we receive our orders from the top. Our orders descend from the commander-in-chief to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, through the chain of command, all the way down through the lowly private standing next to you. We go and we accomplish the mission, trusting in the decisions of our superiors and absent of politics. Or so we thought!
The fighting in Lebanon had been going on for years. I arrived in Beirut early December 1983. As a newly assigned member of the Marine Security Guard Detachment at the U.S. Embassy, I was motivated to be there. The embassy detachment was small but was as technically and tactically proficient as any unit in the Corps. Many of the detachment Marines had served in other embassies and diplomatic missions. Terrorist car bombings were practically an everyday occurrence, as were sporadic daily gun battles and artillery fire. It seemed the factions were all fighting each other, the Lebanese Army was fighting the factions, and on the edges of this chaos were the Iranians and Syrians firing on the Marines. The marines were on a “Peacekeeping Mission” and were stuck in the middle. We were augmented outside the embassy by “Foxtrot Co. 2nd Bn 8th Marines and had one mission; To protect the embassy personnel; to safeguard classified materials, and protection of government property.
There are similar circumstances between the evacuation in Beirut 1984 and the one recently conducted in Afghanistan 2021: terrorism, humanitarian issues, warring factions fighting each other, partisan congressional decisions, lack of diplomatic progress and politicians who ignore the intelligence reports from the operators in the field.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/a_tale_of_two_evacuations.html
