USMC flag from Beirut being planted in Gaines Park

“Resilience,” the flagpole from the U.S. Marine Corps barracks attacked in Beirut in 1983, will be relocated to William R. Gaines Jr. Veterans Memorial Park in Port Charlotte. COURTESY PHOTO

A flagpole from Beirut — at the location of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks that was demolished by a terror attack in 1983 — is coming home to William R. Gaines Jr. Veterans Memorial Park in Port Charlotte.

It commemorates a tragic day in U.S. military history that has a local connection: At 6:22 a.m. on Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck into the lobby of the building serving as the barracks of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines stationed at Beirut International Airport. The detonation killed 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers, making it the deadliest single day for the Marine Corps since the battle of Iwo Jima during World War II — and the deadliest for U.S. armed forces since the Tet Offensive during Vietnam. Subsequent investigation by the FBI determined that the bomb was equivalent to 21,000 pounds of TNT, making it the largest non-nuclear bomb ever detonated.

Among those killed was USMC Cpl. William R. Gaines Jr., who graduated in 1981 from Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda.

Charlotte County Commissioner Stephen R. Deutsch noted the history and the significance of the pole:

In June 2023, Michael Gaines and Mireille Rebiez, a Lebanese war survivor, met in Beirut, Lebanon, at the site where Michael lost his brother, William Jr. (Bill, to his family and friends).

They wanted to see where the Marines were deployed to better understand the events that led to that tragic day. They also visited the site of the Marines BLT HQ building near the Beirut Airport.

Today, the bombed area is a large, empty, fenced-in lot, bereft of signs or memorials, given over to pine trees and overgrown bushes. Access to the parking lot area is controlled, but Gaines and Rebiez were allowed a brief accompanied visit. It was a solemn moment for each of them.

In the 15 minutes they were there, they spotted a disregarded large metal tube with shrapnel holes partly hidden under bushes and gravel. It had a ball on top and was recognized as a flagpole.

The flagpole that once flew the American flag in front of the BLT HQ building was a light pole converted from those that stood all around the airport. The pole was chosen by the survivors of the suicide attack — as they looked through the rubble for survivors and friends who had died that tragic day — and raised to fly the Marine Corps and American flags.

With the assistance of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, the flagpole was transferred to the embassy compound, where it was given the name “Resilience” by the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group detachment. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Marine barracks bombing, the recovered pole was temporarily raised again at the U.S. Embassy memorial on Oct. 23, 2023.

Through an interesting and undocumented trip, the flagpole was subsequently returned to the United States on Jan. 27, 2024. It will ultimately be located in front of the Beirut Peacekeepers Memorial Tower (presently under construction) at the William R. Gaines Jr. Veterans Memorial Park, 20499 Edgewater Drive, Port Charlotte, where it will proudly carry the Marine Corps flag.

“Some may look at this and think this is just a flagpole” Deutsch said. “Some may think this is just a piece of metal. It is not. It is a flagpole that witnessed history. It is a flagpole that Marines deployed in Lebanon passed by on a daily basis and reminded them of their duties, their commitment to each other and to their mission as peacekeepers. It is a flagpole that was erected with pride and was devotionally guarded.”

Rebiez, a Lebanese and American citizen, reminds us that this is not just a flagpole — it is a story of resilience. She notes what the Lebanese American poet Khalil Gibran once said: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ¦

The post USMC flag from Beirut being planted in Gaines Park first appeared on Charlotte County Florida Weekly .