USMC
ERDL Tropical Shirt
Lance Corporal William R. Hulet
(Kokomo)
Enlisting in 1976, Hulet served with as part of the Rapid Deployment Force.
The revolution in Iran, the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and hostages there, and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979 gave impetus to a Department of Defense plan to improve U.S. non-NATO military capability. The Rapid Deployment Force was created in response to the realization of the range of contingencies short of general war that faced the United States. In particular, the CONUS-based joint task force, with designated forces from all four services, was created with responsibility for operational planning, training, and exercises for designated rapid deployment forces worldwide with the initial focus on Southwest Asia and the Indian Ocean. The new force widened the FMF’s force in readiness role without compromising its amphibious mission.
Bombing of the Marine Barracks Beirut Lebanon 1983
Corporal Bradley Ulick
(Lagrange)
During the Lebanese Civil War, two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen. An obscure group calling itself 'Islamic Jihad' claimed responsibility for the bombings.
On October 23, 1983, suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs. In the attack on the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (Battalion Landing Team - BLT 1/8), the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers, making this incident the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.
CPL Ulick was assigned to the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit. Many years later he wrote of the attack: "As a part of the S-2 section of the Headquarters, we were housed on the third deck of the BLT headquarters. Due to a fire fight on the proceeding evening, I was forced to sleep in the basement of an adjacent building. Preparing to return to the building on the morning of October 23rd, I was forced to the ground by the shots and explosion. After the explosion of the barracks, I was NCOIC [Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge] of the Graves Registry Party. "
