This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt John Boyd (leprechaun)
to remember
Marine LCpl Mark Payne.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Binghamton
Casualty Date Oct 23, 1983
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Terrorist Attack
Location Lebanon
Conflict US Multinational Force Lebanon Peacekeeping Mission
Location of Interment Vestal Hill Memorial Cemetery - Vestal, New York
LCpl Payne was killed on October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon when a suicide terrorist drove a truck laden with explosives into the building housing Battalion Landing Team 1/8.
Comments/Citation:
Department of Defense Commission Report:
"At approximately 0622 on Sunday, 23 Oct. 1983, the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building in the Marine Amphibious Unit compound at Beirut International Airport was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. The catastrophic attack took the lives of 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers and wounded more than 100 others. The bombing was carried out by one lone terrorist driving a yellow Mercedes Benz stake-bed truck that accelerated through the public parking lot south of the BLT headquarters building, where it exploded. The truck drove over the barbed and concertina wire obstacle, passed between two Marine guard posts without being engaged by fire, entered an open gate, passed around one sewer pipe barrier and between two others, flattened the Sergeant of the Guard's sandbagged booth at the building's entrance, penetrated the lobby of the building and detonated while the majority of the occupants slept. The force of the explosion [12,000 pounds] ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself. Almost all the occupants were crushed or trapped inside the wreckage."
