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Show Sgn-of-Tuesday, May 22, 1984 9A n Tragedy In Beirut Reaches Home ! I Signpost photoLaurie Call At approximately 6:20 a.m. on October 23, a suicide terrorist driving a truck loaded with 2,500 tons of TT1T blew up a U.S. Marine headquarters building in Beirut. The bombing killed an estimated 192 people and left 75 wounded. It was the highest number of American military personal killed in a single attack since the Vietnam War. Among the scattered debris of the building was a 30 foot deep and 40 feet wide crater. The crater was filled with piles of reinforced concrete, marines still in their cots, clothes and crates all intermingled. The blast was so strong that it threw some bodies up to 50 yards. Personal articles such as deodorant and radios were scattered everywhere. Marines on the scene recall the fire, the screams, the bodies, the "total devastation." Rescue workers used blow torches, pneumatic drill and cranes in their frantic effort to get the dead and wounded soldiers out. There might have been at least 300 men sleeping in the building, which doubled for a bunk house, at the time of the blast. Within minutes of the blast, the marines had organized themselves into search parties. The compound was full of the screams of the wounded and the helpless cries of those who were buired in the rubble. One marine said that he had never seen anything like it. Bodies had been blown in half. Men were walking in total hysteria while trying to figure out what had just happened to them. Some Marines were taken to nearby hospitals in unconsciousness. They awakened with questions: "Where am I? What has happened here?" The Pentagon said that the truck broke through series of steel fences and sand bag barricades and detonated in the heart of the marine headquarters. A marine sentry fired five shots at the suicide driver but was unable to stop him. Another threw himself in front of the truck, neither could block the entry. Security was "beefed up" and many government officials tried to place blame for the lack of security they thought made the bombing possible. Casper Weinberger said, "nothing can work against a suicide attack like that, any more than you can do anything against a kamikaze flight." War Games 1 ill hW tan i i I it i lllWitlm Urn The largest corporate reorganization in history changed the communication industry in January 1984, blowing it wide open. Because of an eight-year court battle between AT&T and the Justice Department, AT&T agreed to divest its 22 operating companies, and suddenly telephone customers had a multitude of companies eagerly vying for their business. Signpost photo Bob Oeorqe Divestiture introduced competition into the marketplace for long distance service, equipment, repair and wiring. Mountain Bell became no longer a one-stop shop for all communication needs. Telephones for sale began popping up everywhere. It's as easy to buy one at a department store as at a hardware store. Russians Play Game of Defense With 629 Lives A Korean Air Lines Jetliner disappeared near the Soviet island of Sakhalin, which is off the Pacific coast of Siberia, on September 1, 1983. It had 269 people on board. Early reports said that the plane was forced down by the Soviet Air Force. A heat-seeking missile was said to have fired without warning at the airliner by interceptors that tracked it over Soviet territory for two and a half hours. The downing of the South Korean jetliner touched off worldwide revulsion and the world demanded an explanation from the Soviet Union. After 24 hours of silence, the USSR, in a statement by the press agency Tass, confirmed that jet fighters in the far East intercepted and warned the uniden tified plane that it was intruding into Soviet airspace. Russian leaders claimed the jetliner pilot refused to respond to the Soviet pilots' warnings and that Russia, assuming the jet was an enemy plane, was justified in shooting it down. Col. General Semyon F. Romanow, Chief of Main Headquarters of Soviet Air defense, stated that the Soviet pilots could have confused the airliner with the RC-135 reconnaissance plane, the kind used by American forces off the Pacific Coast of the Soviet Far East. U.S. Representative Larry P. McDonald was one of the passengers on board the Korean jetliner. Thirty Americans were also on the flight, including Eastman Kodak Co. employee Meil Qrenfield, his wife and two children. There were no known survivors of the attack. President Reagan expressed revulsion at the shooting. The U.S. joined with other countries in demanding an explanation for the tragedy. The flag was flown at half staff at federal installations for the U.S. passengers who were on the plane. The U.S. navy made an urgent effort to recover the wreckage of the airliner. Top priority was to find the planes two crash-resistant data recorders. These recorders were never recovered and the facts of the event may never be known. Martin Luther King's Dream Lives On 4. On november 2, 1983, President Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Joining him were Vice President George Bush, Coretta Scott King, Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Robert Dole, and Representatives Jack F. Kemp, Katie Hall, and Jesse Jackson. A crowd of several hundred people sang "We Shall Overcome" while the bill was signed in the Rose Garden of the White House. Blacks described it as an exciting, historic day. Mrs. King said that America was a more peaceful nation because of her husband's work. The law establishes the third Monday in January as a federal holiday starting in 1986. Federal offices will be closed throughout the country. Dr. King was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929, and was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Reagan stated that those 39 years changed American forever. Reagan said, "If American history grows from two centuries to 20, people will still remember Dr. King's 'I have a Dream' speech delivered before the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963." Barry Henderson from the WSC organization Black Scholars United said that "King's holiday was a definite motivator. It has opened up a gateway for all people. People are now recognizing King for what he stood for. People are more aware of what he did that ever before." |