Beirut: When the US Embassy Annex Was Bombed

Melvin "Mac" McField was in a shoe store in Beirut when the walls shook. The radio said the American Embassy annex had just been bombed. He raced back to the compound. That night, the RSO came to the Marine House with a warning — they were next. Mac and his buddy climbed to the rooftop armed and ready. What happened up there, he still can't fully remember. What followed were decades of untreated PTSD, drinking, fighting, and NJPs — things he never told anyone because he didn't want to be seen as broken. Somehow, through all of it, he made it to Master Gunnery Sergeant. This episode is about the bombing and the long road after.You can hear about this incident from another perspective on Episode 11, Burying Ghosts: A Marine's Account of the 1984 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut