Marine barracks bombing, 30 years later

Marine barracks bombing, 30 years later
Cape Cod Times
George Brennan
October 20, 2013

CATAUMET — Shirley Douglass-Miller talks about her husband and a wide grin spreads across her face.

His 6-foot-4-inch, 220-pound frame. His warm, compassionate side collecting toys and delivering them at Christmastime through Toys for Tots. And those Saturday mornings "cooking up a storm" with his daughter, Gina, in the kitchen.

He was a fierce competitor — once breaking his leg in a pickup softball game in his mid-40s. "I was safe, wasn't I?" Douglass said to his wife when she questioned whether he could still play with the younger guys.

They are memories held close, like the handsome snapshots of him in dress blues.

Sgt. Maj. Frederick Douglass was gone too soon. One of 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers killed in a terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon, 30 years ago this week. Hundreds more were injured. Douglass, leader of the 1,200-member battalion, had just turned 47 a month earlier, six months shy of his retirement from the U.S. Marines — a military branch he embraced with the same passion he had for family.

"It was his job, and he loved it," his wife of 27 years said.
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Mass. victims of 1983 bombing remembered

Today, nine men from Massachusetts, victims of a terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon, 30 years ago, will be remembered by family and friends at a 1 p.m. rededication ceremony at the Massachusetts Beirut Memorial in Christopher Columbus Park in Boston's North End.

Along with the Sgt. Maj. Frederick B. Douglass of Cataumet, the ceremony will honor the memories of Capt. Michael S. Haskell, Lance Cpl. Thomas S. Perron, Lance Cpl. Bradley J. Campus, Lance Cpl. Michael J. Devlin, Lance Cpl. Sean R. Gallagher, Cpl. Richard J. Gordon, Sgt. Steven B. LaRiviere and Sgt. Edward J. Gargano.

The memorial, which had fallen into disrepair in part because skateboarders use it to perform tricks, has been fixed, but still needs work, Christine Devlin, chairman of the Massachusetts Beirut Memorial Fund, said. Devlin's son, Michael, was killed in the Oct. 23, 1983, attack.

"I think anybody who makes the ultimate sacrifice for the country should be remembered, no matter which war it's from," Devlin said. "I hope the next generation will keep this up." A fundraising dinner was held Saturday, which was attended by families of those who died. Devlin said $40,000 to $50,000 needs to be raised to fix the monument.

Checks can be made payable to: Massachusetts Beirut Memorial Inc., 211 Downey St., Westwood, MA 02090.