makefast: In the military there are a lot of collateral duties that go along with whatever your job is. You have the stuff that you have to do for your specific job, and then you’ll have a bunch of other things to do just to keep the machine moving properly. One such collateral duty is just that: duty. As the Duty Officer you get a gun and a phone. You don’t shoot anyone or anything, you just watch the phone and ensure that if anything crazy happens, the right phone calls get made. It’s usually a slow day in a quiet office with a few small tasks to be performed to ensure the overall security of your area. Sitting at the desk last weekend, watching the phone, I noticed these dog tags hanging on the wall. When my curiosity got the best of me, I got up and read them. IN MEMORY OF ALL MARINES, SAILORS, & SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN BEIRUT FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE 83 The Lebanese Civil War that led to our involvement in Beirut doesn’t fit into our national storyline very conveniently so I think we usually just leave it out. If it hadn’t been for the Marine barracks bombing in 1983, I doubt we’d even mention it in the history books. I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, history gets complicated, it’s not feasible to keep track of every single event in a nation’s history. I don’t know who had these tags printed up, or why they are hanging by a window on a thumbtack in the duty office, but it’s little things like this that remind me I’m in the right place; the fact that even though the names didn’t make it into the history books and there’s no parade or day off of work, that didn’t stop some Marine from taking the time to remember. High-res

makefast:

In the military there are a lot of collateral duties that go along with whatever your job is. You have the stuff that you have to do for your specific job, and then you’ll have a bunch of other things to do just to keep the machine moving properly. One such collateral duty is just that: duty.

As the Duty Officer you get a gun and a phone. You don’t shoot anyone or anything, you just watch the phone and ensure that if anything crazy happens, the right phone calls get made. It’s usually a slow day in a quiet office with a few small tasks to be performed to ensure the overall security of your area.

Sitting at the desk last weekend, watching the phone, I noticed these dog tags hanging on the wall. When my curiosity got the best of me, I got up and read them.

IN MEMORY OF ALL MARINES, SAILORS, & SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN BEIRUT FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE 83

The Lebanese Civil War that led to our involvement in Beirut doesn’t fit into our national storyline very conveniently so I think we usually just leave it out. If it hadn’t been for the Marine barracks bombing in 1983, I doubt we’d even mention it in the history books. I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, history gets complicated, it’s not feasible to keep track of every single event in a nation’s history.

I don’t know who had these tags printed up, or why they are hanging by a window on a thumbtack in the duty office, but it’s little things like this that remind me I’m in the right place; the fact that even though the names didn’t make it into the history books and there’s no parade or day off of work, that didn’t stop some Marine from taking the time to remember.

Notes

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    I was there during that bombing. There is no mention of it in history books and if you ask anyone most have no idea what...
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    Semper Fi
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