Chaplain recalls response after Oct. 23, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 Americans
Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff recalled to Fox News Digital the Oct. 23, 1983, suicide truck-bombing of U.S. military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 241 American service members and left survivors and rescuers scrambling through the rubble.
Resnicoff told Fox News Digital he was assigned to the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet as part of a three-chaplain team supporting about 40 ships in the Mediterranean and had arrived in Beirut on Oct. 21, 1983, to perform a memorial service for a Jewish Marine.
He said he refused a Navy order to return to his ship the following day because, as an observant Jew, he would not travel on the Sabbath. Resnicoff said he awoke at 6:22 a.m. on Oct. 23 when his building shook and doors and windows blew out; a nearby four‑story building was destroyed by the blast, he recalled.
According to Resnicoff’s account to Fox News Digital, 241 American service members were buried in the wreckage: 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors and three Army soldiers. He said Navy casualties included a complete medical detachment, leaving few medically trained personnel to aid those who survived the blast.
Resnicoff described working with Catholic chaplain George Pucciarelli and other first responders moving through debris to reach wounded men. He said the chaplains cradled and comforted the injured, tore clothing to wipe blood and dust from faces, and used improvised coverings when needed — including Resnicoff’s kippah, which he said became bloody and lost during the rescue effort.
Resnicoff told Fox News Digital that Protestant minister Danny Wheeler was the last living service member pulled from the wreckage about five hours after the explosion, and that it took about four days to recover hundreds of bodies buried in the ruins.
He said his approach to comforting Marines drew on Jewish mourning practices that emphasize presence over initiating conversation, and he cited the wider role of chaplains in attending to service members regardless of faith during mass-casualty events.
Resnicoff also recounted that, before the bombing, Jewish service members often struggled to gain permission to wear the kippah. He said the Congressional Record later told the story of a priest making a head covering for him; that account preceded passage of a Religious Apparel Amendment, and he said then–Vice President George H.W. Bush asked him to write a report that former President Ronald Reagan later shared with a group of 20,000 Baptists.
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