The War Of 33: Letters From Beirut To BerlinUS Marines in Lebanon, 1. At this time, the MAU consisted of BLT 2/8 (Lt. Col Ray L. Smith), HMM- 2. Lt. Col Granville R. Amos), and MSSG 2. Maj Albert E. All the MAU's Marines, and their. Navy colleagues, conducted the usual pre- deployment training and exercises, and boarded. Commodore (Captain, USN) Carl R. Erie's Phibron 4 shipping at Morehead City on 1. October. 1. 98. 3 for the trip to Beirut. The squadron's ships consisted of the Guam (LPH 9). Trenton (LPD 4); the Fort Snelling (LSD 3. Manitowoc. (LST 1. Barnstable County (LST 1. On 1. 8 October, they stood out of the. The United States' role: Israel was not . Hundreds of volunteers, pilots, and military officers with American scientific spying equipment of the most advanced type photographed the. The war against the Jews. Behind the Balfour Declaration. Britain's Great War Pledge To Lord Rothschild. Freedman, who committed himself to finding and telling the facts about Zionism and Communism. North Carolina port city for Beirut. This new T/O reduced the Marine infantry battalion by 1. Marines. Despite this reduction, the new. Dragon antitank weapons (for a total of 3. M- 2, . 5. 0 caliber machine guns. At a future date, each of the new infantry battalions would. SMAW (Shoulder Launched Multipurpose Weapon), and the. Mk 1. 9 4. 0mm machine gun. A rifle platoon now consisted of 3. Marines- -including the platoon leader. All of Lieutenant Colonel. Smith's squad leaders and more than one third of his fire team leaders had completed the. Marine Division's Squad Leader's Course. All the BLT's rifle platoon commanders had. Infantry Officer's Course at the Marine Corps Development and Education Command. Quantico following their graduation from. The Basic School. About midnight of 2. October, as Phibron 4 shipping passed north of Bermuda en route. Mediterranean, Cin. CLant ordered Commodore Erie to turn south to a holding position. Grenada. Because the Phibron's ships' radios had been monitoring. The surrounding district can be seen on the map. Coordinates: Country: Lebanon: Governorate: Beirut: Government We remember the contribution of Cold War veterans and the significance of their service through education, legislation, and remembrance. Grenada, both Navy and Marine Corps officers presumed that they might be. American and foreign nationals from. The Amphibious Task Force had trained for this types of operation and. Messages could be received, but not sent, as all. As Phibron 4 essentially became a ghost squadron. Grenada operation unfolded. At 2. 20. 0 on 2. October. Commodore Erie was ordered to head his ships toward Grenada. A second message then gave order. Grenadian forces. No further directives were issued to the. Phibron at this point. Admiral Joseph Metcalfe III, Second Fleet. Photograph by the author. En route to Beirut from Grenada on board Trenton (LPD 4) (left to right). Maj Joseph J. Streitz, Ex. O, BLT 2/8; Lt. Col Ray L. Smith, Co, BLT 2/8; and Maj Albert E. On 2 November, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald R. Rice. 2. 2d MAU executive officer, led an advance party ashore on Grenada, where it boarded a plane for. United States and then on to Beirut. The next day, Colonel Faulkner and his operations. Major (later lieutenant colonel) Ernest A. Van Huss, were flown ashore to Grenada. Senator John G. Tower of Texas on Operation Urgent Fury. Shortly after this. Norfolk to brief Lieutenant General Miller at FMFLant headquarters. George's harbor with battle flags flying. When this task was completed and all helicopters. Guam, the Amphibious Ready Group set a course for Beirut. Joy, the Assistant Division Commander of the 2d. Marine Division would relieve Colonel Faulkner as commander of the MAU, whereupon the. MAU chief of staff. General Joy was to bring a small staff. Lebanon to expand the MAU staff. The rationale behind this high- level decision. Beirut. In considering the terrorist bombing of the BLT building and the. Multi- National Force units and to supervise the relief of the 2. MAU by the 2. 2d. Marine general officer as MAU commander. Additionally. this would make him co- equal in rank to the French and Italian MNF commanders. In response to the heavy fighting. August and early September, the 3. MAU was sent to Beirut from Kenya to serve ashore. At this time, General Miller had directed General Joy. Camp Lejeune to put together a . MUlti- National Force be increased to. General Goy then organized what he called a . Marine Corps staff sections, by the State Department, and by the. Defense Intelligence Agency. The staff. remained on alert until early October. When the 3. 1st MAU left Beirut on 1. October to return. Western Pacific area, the concept of sending General Joy and his staff to Beirut. After the bombing of the BLT headquarters building, however, General Joy was. Beirut as soon as possible and assume command of the 2. MAU before. it landed to relieve the 2. One day out of Rota, Spain, 1. November, all embarked Marines and their Navy hosts celebrated. Birthday of the Corps in traditional manner, with the reading of Major General. Commandant John A. Lejeune's birthday message. Another tradition observed was the cutting. Marine present, and the. Lieutenant Colonel Ray L. Smith, the BLT commander, on the. Trenton, was to lead the second advance party into Beirut, flying from the Guam. Rota on the 1. 1th. As he had to leave the Trenton on. Faulkner (left) and MAU Chaplain Kevin L. Anderson. look over a few of the thousands of letters sent to the 2. MAU following its successful. Grenada. He then briefed his key staff and command personnel about the new Marine command. Beirut and the relief of the 2. MAU. General Joy and his staff boarded. Guam, where he relieved Colonel Faulkner as 2. MAU commander at approximately 1. Cin. CEur sent him a message on 9 November, directing a number of actions to enhance. U. S. Multi- National Forces ashore in Lebanon. Among these was a requirement. BLT and MAU headquarters ashore to an essential few, with the. Following this, the rifle company. MAU with. integrated and coordinated security. The company's former positions were to be occupied by LAF. Company E, 2d Battalion, 6th Marines, which had reinforced the 2. MAU after the bombing. Camp Lejeune by 1. November. In addition, General Joy was to spread out the. Marines providing security for the U. S./British Embassy. Further. he was directed to return to shipboard all but the forward (or Alpha) command groups of. BLT and MAU until protected command posts with overhead cover could be constructed for them. General Joy then threw the MAU's entire efforts into improving the safety and security. Meanwhile. the MAU headquarters had been moved to the airport maintenance building just east of its. The new BLT command post was now on a piece of land between the coastal highway and. Located on the same stretch of land. U. S. Navy photo. The battleship New Jersey (BB 6. Beirut. in support of Marines ashore when hostile rocket and artillery rounds threatened Americans. Two rifle companies. F and G) were dispersed on the eastern side of the northeast- southwest runway within. LAF and SHiite positions near Khaldah, were the Marines were still. The reporting Seabee officer concluded that these MAU- built bunkers. According to General Joy's plan the MAU command post was to be built near the new BLT. By 1. 9 November, preparation of the site was underway. The possibility. of heavy rains in December and the immediate requirement of the MAU to dig in influenced the. Seabee survey team leader to recommend that 4. Seabees from the 1st Naval Mobile Construction. Battalion Detachment, Rota, be sent to Beirut to assist the Marines in their barrier and. The recommendation was approved, the Seabees arrived in Lebanon. November for a 3. MAU positions. At the same time, General Joy. The Seabee team recommended that sea- land. Beginning in December 1. Beirut International Airport.- -1. At the same time, General Tannous provided the MAU with. Seabees began reinforcing and. MAU, MSSG, battery, and company command and control facilities. As these construction efforts. BLT assisted the rifle companies in improving and. The Seabees were tasked with building . General Joy concluded his situation report by saying, . At the same. time, he recognized that the terrorists might resort to such other tactics as mining the MAU. Marines. The MAU commander further reported. Durrafourd Building, the U. S./U. K. Embassy, and the MAU/MSSG areas. Marines against terrorist attacks. To refuse entry into the MAU positions by. General Joy replaced the fixed positions along the. He also placed tactical and protective wire around the strongpoints. The innermost tier was armed with direct fire weapons, such as Dragon. LAAW, and . 5. 0- caliber machine guns, manned and fully ready 2. Each Marine position. The MAU commander had also recognized the potential threat of suicide air attacks. Redeye and Stinger missiles in an air defense role, but. Beirut International. Airport, those weapons were not initially used. And so air defense was assigned to . M- 6. 0 machine guns. This consisted of the 2d Counterintelligence Team, a composite team with. Counterintelligence Teams (FMFLant), and the 8th. Counterintelligence Team (2d Marine Aircraft Wing), augmenting the counterintelligence. MAU. The composite team operated with a. One subteam. was assigned to counterterrorism activities and physical security of the MAU area of operations. U. S. Lebanon also marked the first time since Vietnam that a counterintelligence team. While all this activity was going on ashore, Colonel Faulkner, as chief of staff of the MAU. Guam, coordinating with the Phibron staff as well as. MAU staff functions afloat. His days ashore were spent at the MAU forward. MAU staff functions there. This permitted. General Joy to devote more time to improving the MAU's defensive positions, . No Lebanese vehicles were permitted inside the area and all other autos. The old gates and weak portions. On the same day, the Seabee. MAU headquarters' new bunkers. Earthen berms were thrown. BLT and MAU command post sites, and bulldozers were working at the rifle. The existing bunkers were used as. On the perimeter, the Marines were awakened each day for. General Joy set Alert Condition 1 in the predawn hours (0. There was no early decision for or against the proposal, however. In addition, the helicopters flew VIP shuttle and diplomatic flights. Tel Aviv. Amos, put two of his Cobras on the Trenton, fully armed and. Cobra pilots and maintenance crews were rotated from the Guam. A third armed Cobra was ready as backup on the Guam, while the. The. Cobras were never flown over the beach, but when the turnover took place in November, they. They were airborne again when the.
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