Sacrifice, valor and Semper Fi

“THEY CAME IN PEACE,” are the poignant words enshrined on the Beirut Memorial, just outside Camp Lejeune, N.C. Sadly, peace was the opposite goal of the terrorist who drove an explosive-laden truck through the First Battalion, 8th Marines Headquarters building on Oct. 23, 1983. The blast took the lives of 241 Marines, soldiers and sailors. It was the single deadliest day for the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima.

As we mark the 40th anniversary of that horrible day next week, policy analysts and historians will no doubt point to that early Sunday morning attack as an omen of what was later to become the global war on terrorism.

In the spirit of separating the war from the warrior, I wish to focus on the bravery and nobility of the servicemembers who deployed on that complex and still controversial mission in Lebanon.

Shortly after the bombing, Gen. P.X. Kelley, commandant of the Marine Corps, visited his wounded troops at a hospital in what was then West Germany. The New York Times provided a detailed report of an encounter Kelley had with Lance Cpl. Jeffrey L. Nashton, who was in critical condition and described by the general as having “more tubes going in and out of his body than I have ever seen.”

Kelley said that when Nashton had heard the commandant introduce himself, “he grabbed my camouflage coat, went up to the collar and counted the stars. He squeezed my hand, and then attempted to outline words on his bedsheet. When what he was trying to write was not understood, he was given a piece of paper and pencil, and then wrote ‘Semper Fi.’”

When the wounded Marine returned to the United States, Kelley presented him with the stars that he touched during the hospital visit. “They belonged to him more than to me,” Kelley said.

As all Marines know, Semper Fi is shorthand for Semper Fidelis, which in Latin means “always faithful.” It is the motto of the Corps.

Semper Fi is also an apt description of The American Legion’s relationship with anyone who has served in our U.S. Armed Forces.

We must always “preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in all wars.”

Always faithful.

Semper Fi.