Speaker recollects Beirut bombing during Flagler County Memorial Day Ceremony

Former Navy Chaplain Mark Schreiber spoke about his bittersweet memories stemming from a catastrophic day.

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At Flagler County’s Memorial Day Ceremony held in front of the Government Services Building, U.S. Rep. Randy Fine spoke about a radio advertisement he heard during his drive that morning. The ad promoted a Memorial Day mattress sale.

Memorial Day, he said, is often considered to be the start of summer when people celebrate with picnics and pool parties. But that’s not what Memorial Day is about, Fine said.

During the past 249 years, over a million American servicemen have died to preserve an experiment, he said, — “to make America the kind of country that unlike any existed in the history of the world. We weren't started by kings or emperors. We weren't started by military. We were started by an idea, an idea of freedom and liberty where everyone had the right to pursue their God-given dream. In America, where you end up is defined by you, and not by anyone else.”

The ceremony’s guest speaker, Palm Coast resident Mark Schreiber, told the dozens of people in attendance what it’s like to have to deliver the news to a family that their loved one won’t be coming home.

Schreiber, an ordained Lutheran minister, was a Navy chaplain who rose to the rank of captain. He spoke about the suicide truck bombing on a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 23, 1983. Two hundred and forty one American service members died in the attack, which included 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers.

Schreiber was in his first tour of duty, assigned to Marine Corps Air Station New River near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he served as chaplain for Marine Aircraft Group 29. Schreiber and his fellow chaplains were tasked with making “CACO” calls to families of Marines killed in the attack. CACO stands for Casualty Assistance Calls Officer.


For three days, no further word came from Beirut, but by that time every family in the area knew whether their Marine was coming home again, and they were waiting for the dreaded knock.
— MARK SCHREIBER

“It's one of the hardest duties any chaplain will ever have to execute,” he said. “Because the blast was so horrific, identifying body parts took time. They had to be compared to dental records. For three days, no further word came from Beirut, but by that time every family in the area knew whether their Marine was coming home again, and they were waiting for the dreaded knock.”

Schreiber described his first call after the bombing. He and a fellow officer received a phone call at 4:30 in the morning to visit a home. The Marine’s wife appeared in the doorway, her eyes already puffy with tears, Schreiber said. One by one, he said, four children emerged from a back bedroom.

“They all walked over to mom, gave her a hug and wondered, ‘Who are these two people in uniform in the wee hours of the morning in our home?’ All four went back down toward the bedroom, all crying, all sobbing. Daddy won’t be coming home again,” Schreiber said. “As I looked around the room desperately seeking to find the right words of love and comfort, I saw on the wall where the children were going back to their bedroom, a cross. Then, I saw another small cross hanging around the neck of the wife. I said to her, praise Jesus has promised us eternal life. Your Marine is with the Lord. His soul is with God. Rest in his eyes. Trust in him. You will see your husband again. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know.’ Then she cried. Then I cried.”

Schreiber said our sons and daughters put themselves in harm’s way for a just cause.

“They all deserve our thanks, our prayers, our honor and our respect upon every turn,” he said.

Schreiber donned a purple stole to add one more story related to the Beirut bombing. When chaplains conduct services in the field they wear a purple stole around their neck. There were five or six survivors in the bombing, Schreiber said.

The last survivor was Lt. j.g. Danny Wheeler, the battalion chaplain. Wheeler and Schreiber, both Lutheran chaplains, went through basic training together. When the rescue team arrived, Schreiber said, a Marine spotted a purple stole fluttering in the wind, half-buried in the rubble.

“So they began to dig,” Schreiber said. “Five and a half hours later the last survivor to be pulled from the rubble was Danny Wheeler. Alive.”

 

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