Morning Gentlemen.
In light of the recent explosion in Beirut and the awareness of the bombing there in 1983, when I was 3, I'd like to ask a few questions. Please understand that I have read about this conflict for years and am not asking lightly.
What role did military snipers play there? I read a few books in the early 2000's that mentioned sniper activity there.
I figure that maybe there were hostile counter snipers in the region too. How did they fight and what did they use?
What rifles and other gear were used? (I love this thread and have read through it trying to take it in).
What lessons or changes in tactics were taken in the military sniper community? How about in the military generally?
There’s a lot to unpack regarding all of your questions. I’m happy to answer some of them now, but I could write a book answering the rest. There’s a lot that lead up to and took place there, that has never been mentioned in anything I’ve ever read.
The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) had gone into Lebanon in response to being attacked from their shared Border. Yaser Arafat and the PLO , along with Syrian backed Militias were those responsible.
IDF had extended themselves into Beirut and the Beqaa Valley. They had the PLO trapped up in Tripoli.
The UN wanted to go in there with “Peace Keepers” to allow the IDF to return back to Israel and create a buffer zone between them.
Reagan was our President at that time and he would not allow the UN to control our Armed Forces. So, he sent the Marines there to be a part of the Multi National force but only under US control, not the UN.
since we were supposed to be there to keep the peace, Scout/Snipers like myself and our STA Platoon teams were told not to speak to the Press and the Press were never allowed near us. They didn’t want the visual back in the States to show that we had Snipers or Assassin’s as one Major described us, in Country during a peace keeping mission.
We carried the M40A1 , 40x spotter scope, M16’s and .45 pistols
The enemy used AK 47’s of course as well as rockets, mortars and RPG’s
Im going to skip over a lot of details because I could write a freaking novel here explaining all of the shit lol
Once we started taking people out, the Press pushed the higher ups to talk with us. That’s when we began to get coverage and interviews. I was the Senior ranking Scout/Sniper in my area that consisted of (3)2 man Teams at the time, I spoke with the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune etc…
Last part of your question was “What lessons or changes in Tactics were made”?
We learned so much during our time fighting over there. A lot! Things that were not taught at Scout/Sniper school.
Upon returning to the States, you would’ve thought that we would be debriefed and asked a ton of questions? Not the case at all. We were the first Snipers since Vietnam, to get kills and yet no one asked us shit about what we did or learned.
That left future generations of Marine and Army Snipers, to learn what we already had learned the hard way.