Map - Beirut Memorial (Beirut Memorial)

The Beirut Memorial is a memorial to the 241 American peacekeepers—220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers—killed in the October 23, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. It is located outside the gate of Camp Gilbert H. Johnson, a satellite camp of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. It is the site of an annual commemoration of the victims of the suicide attack that took their lives.

The official webpage for Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune describes the background for the attack memorialized by this monument as follows: "In the summer of 1982, at the request of the Lebanese government, the United States agreed to establish a U.S. Military presence in that country to serve as a peacekeeping force in the conflict between warring Muslim and Christian factions. On March 24, 1983, the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, received orders to Beirut, Lebanon in support of that commitment.

Initially, the U.S. Forces, along with French and Italian Forces, provided a measure of stability; however, as diplomatic efforts failed to achieve a basis for a lasting settlement, the Muslim factions came to perceive the Marines as enemies. This led to artillery, mortar, and small arms fires being directed at the Marine Corps positions—with appropriate, measured response being taken against identified targets. In the early morning of October 23, 1983, the First Battalion, 8th Marines Headquarters building was destroyed by a non-Lebanese, terrorist-driven truck, laden with compressed gas-enhanced explosives. This truck, like many others, had become a familiar sight at the airport and so did not raise any alarm on this morning. The resulting explosion and the collapse of the building killed 241 Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers.

Later investigations would assign the blame for the attack on Hezbollah, with Imad Mughniyeh, who later died himself in a car bomb in Syria, as the "mastermind" behind the attack. In a court case involving survivors and family members of the victims of the bombing, a May 30, 2003, ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth "found in favor of the survivors and the family members, ruling Iran responsible for the attack. The court finds that beyond question Hezbollah and its agents received massive material and technical support from the Iranian Government.”

Major Robert T. Jordan, USMC (Ret), one of the Marine officers present during the attack, has written that "The men who served with 24th MAU during the final, grim months of 1983, have taken their place alongside earlier Marines who endured at Samar, Wake Island, Chosin Reservoir, and Khe Sanh. The "Beirut Bombing," as the terrorist attack on 23 October 1983 has become known, is now a part of Marine Corps historical lore. But the event will serve to remind future generations of military planners and political policymakers to consider even the unthinkable when they conceive future commitments."