Danbury To Hold Ceremony Marking Anniversary Of 1983 Barracks Bombing

**News Release Submitted by Office of The Mayor of The City of Danbury, **

Oct. 23, 2024

The Danbury Veterans Council in partnership with the Lebanon American Club of Danbury and Danbury Office of Veterans Affairs invites the public to attend a remembrance ceremony commemorating the 41st Anniversary of the bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon on October 23, 1983.

The ceremony will take place at the Beirut Veterans Memorial at the Danbury War Memorial in Danbury, CT at 10:00AM on Saturday, October 26th.

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Saadi, a first-generation Lebanese American, who met many U.S. Marines serving in Beirut when he was a boy in Lebanon in 1983, will lead the ceremony which will include the reading of the names of the service members from Connecticut killed while serving in Lebanon and the placing of memorial wreaths from the Danbury Veterans Council and the Lebanon American Club. Among those in attendance will be area Veterans and Veterans who served in Lebanon.

Delivering remarks will be Lieutenant Colonel Saadi, a Beirut Veteran, and Danbury Mayor Roberto L. Alves. The Danbury Veterans Affairs Director Danny Hayes, the Danbury Police Department Honor Guard, and the Lebanon American Club of Danbury are also supporting the ceremony.

The terrorist bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut killed 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy Sailors, and 3 U.S. Soldiers and wounded another 183 U.S. Service personnel. It was the deadliest single-day death toll for the U.S. Marines Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II and remains the deadliest single-day death toll for the U.S. Armed Forces since the first day of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War.

“The service and sacrifice of our Beirut Veterans, who were on a mission of peace in a war-torn land, is too often overlooked and that is why we hope the public will attend the October 26th ceremony to memorialize those who fell in service to our Nation and to honor the living Beirut Veterans as we must never forget their service and sacrifice,” said Dan Hayes, an Army Gulf War Veteran and Danbury Director of Veterans Affairs.

Below are the names of the fallen Connecticut service members to be read during the Ceremony:

U.S. Marine Corps 1983

• Thomas A. DiBenedetto
• Joseph J. Mattacchione
• Thomas G. Smith
• Devon L. Sundar
• Stephen D. Tingley
• Dwayne W. Wigglesworth
• William Hart

U.S. Army 1983

• Randall A. Carson

U.S. Marine Corps 1958

• Scott B. Sanborn

U.S. Navy 1985

• Robert Stethem