No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

books:


	• 24 MAU: 1983: A Marine Looks Back at the Peacekeeping Mission to Beirut, Lebanon Glenn E. Dolphin PublishAmerica, 2006 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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I was there

I will never forget the smell of bodies everywhere and the smoke and carnage, yes i can identify with 9-11, i was about 19 then and i remember for the first 3 months living in fear for my life then slipping into a routine of knowing each day could be my last.
i was just a young pfc unsure as to why we were there. serving also as net control taking and authenticating calls for fire from an entire fleet battle group which included the uss new jersey, i used to think what if they new i was just 19

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

This is the story of the United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that was destroyed by a suicide truck-bomb. It is not a history; it is a memoir. It is the recollections of the author with respect to what he saw, heard, felt and otherwise sensed during the course of this horrific event. The author was a junior officer in the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, the second in command of the communications section. He was well situated to observe the operations of his battalion. This memoir humanizes the members of the 24th MAU.

The reader gets to know many of the Marines, their likes and dislikes. We feel the oppressive heat and humidity. We sense the danger in the armed militia organizations that are ravaging Beirut and the surrounding area. We get to know the challenges of dealing with senior officers and senior staff NCOs. And we get some small sense of what it was like when a five-ton bomb detonated at daybreak and destroyed the Marine barracks, killing 241 of its occupants. The before-and-after photos of the building provide a dramatic contrast.

It is a powerful reminiscence that will appeal to anyone who has spent time in the military, particularly the Marine Corps.

Like any memoir, the scope of this work is limited by the limitations experienced by the author. A junior officer was not privy to the considerations and objectives of presidents, diplomats or even his own commanding officer. His was but to do and die; but that applies to all of us. His story is his story -- and it is well worth reading.

There are little things in this book that tend to become annoying. For example, the author repeatedly dismisses embarrassing and offensive incidents provoked by senior officers, and calls them "lessons in leadership." Bullshit!

One questionable aspect of the book is in the last chapter and its unfounded reliance on a decision of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia as the final authority for facts that place responsibility for the bombing on Iran. The court case was one in which victims of the bombing, including the author, sought money damages from Iran as compensation for their injuries. The case was not contested and the testimony of FBI personnel and other "expert" witnesses was not subject to the scrutiny of cross-examination. By the way, the term "expert witness" does not mean a person who is highly qualified; it means one who is minimally qualified. Interestingly, the author makes no mention of the fact that he is one of the claimants in that case.

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A Masterpiece...

As an American Studies and Education major at Rowan University, I am often required to read books on pivotal events in the history of our country. I find most of them to be tedious and written in such a language that they are difficult to follow. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE BOOKS! Mr. Dolphin, you've written an insightful and poignant recall of the events that occurred during your time in Beirut. I was a teenager when these events occurred and knew only what I remember seeing on the news. Your first hand account brought me a new found clarity on the lives of Marines stationed outside of the U.S. borders. My nephew is a Lance Corporal and is presently stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. He recently returned from Iraq, so I will be sending him this book before he returns to Iraq in September. I feel blessed to have gotten an autographed copy here on [...] and I will treasure it always...
Penny Kowalski, Williamstown, New Jersey

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Throughout the 1980s, Glenn Dolphin served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. During that turbulent time there was no more dangerous place in the world than the chaotic and fractured city of Beirut, Lebanon. In 1983, Beirut was ruled by private militias, Islamic fundamentalism and state-sponsored terrorism. It was into this explosive environment that the Twenty-Fourth Marine Amphibious Unit was sent to accomplish a mission for which no Marine unit had ever been trained to do: ?provide a presence?keep the peace.? In a direct, personal manner, Dolphin details the day-to-day lives, struggles and courageous acts of the Marines and Sailors of the 24 MAU. This personal narrative includes a powerful eyewitness account of the infamous bombing of the Marine barracks on October 23, 1983.

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