Bomb Blast at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

I have been an MSG for about four months, and I have to say, I have never had a more challenging duty. MSG program is a unique experience that has had nothing but a positive effect on my life. Here is my story.

It was a normal Thursday night in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Marines had just had a movie night and there was about three hundred people there. After the movie, myself and two other Marines went out to do some "bonding." We got home about 0400 and went to bed. If we had only known what the next day would bring.

August 7, 1998. I was sleeping in on the hot August day. We had just changed the rotation and I was in the middle of a four day break. That's when it happened. CRASH! My first thought was that either something had fallen on our house or one of the MSG's had slammed his room door in a high state of haste. Since the very name, Dar es Salaam, means city of peace, I would never have believed what we were about to engage in. We always trained for the worst, and we always kept our guard up, but, there was just no warning that there was a threat there.

I went to the door to take a look at the situation. In disbelief of what I saw, I closed the door and was heading back to my bed. That is when the severity of the situation hit me like a brick. Something bad had happened. I put on a shirt, a pair of shorts and a pair of sandals and went back to the door. I could see the thick, dark black smoke coming from a place that I recognized as the embassy. Another MSG came running to my door, explaining that there had been a bomb at the embassy. At the same time, the Marine vehicle rushed through the gate at the entrance to our compound. I told the Marine to go get our A/. I knew that I needed closed toe shoes on, so I went back in the room.

By the time I put my shoes on, All the Marines were in the vehicle ready to go. We were off! Fear, confusion, and adrenaline was going through all of us as we approached the embassy. We jumped out of the vehicle at a place where we had practiced many reacts, but this time it was different. One, we were doing this one for real, two, many of the buildings that used to be there, simply were gone.

About one hundred yards from the embassy, we heard what we thought, was gun fire. The A/ said, with a cool head, "Split up, we are taking fire!" The four of us split into two man teams. (Later we found out that it was fuel tanks of the cars parked near the embassy.)

As we scaled the wall, I could see the destruction. It was a real mess. Pieces of the building were all over. The other Marine in my team spotted a body. Clearly the person was dead, so we headed for the react room. The Corporal that was on post one was at the bottom of the stair case. There he was, in dress blue deltas, and in full react gear. Pictures of the Beirut bombing raced through my head. It was time to earn a paycheck.

Once I reached the react room, a sense of confidence come over me. I looked around at the Marines. These are the guys that I have trained with for the last three months. I knew everything about them, as well as they knew everything about me. Sure there were times when we had are fights but, what brothers don't. And what brothers were closer than the six of us, living together, working together, and training together. We ARE family, and our family sure was’t going to let some cowardly terrorists come between us. Devil Dogs up! We got a job to do!

The Gunny and RSO were at post one. Gunny told me to clear the mail room. It was down stairs. Going through the rubble, shotgun in hand, I headed for the mail room. I was glad to see that everyone down there had gotten out okay.

When I got outside, I could see all the embassy personnel going over the wall. I ran over there to provide them security and instructed them to go the evacuation point. Doc showed up with a nurse. Two peace corps guys said they were EMT's and asked if they could help. So the four of them climbed the wall. The lady had a dress on and she damn near fell. Now that I look back on it, it was pretty funny. We set up a hasty defense perimeter and drug a few bodies out of the rubble. Sadly, none of those people lived. As the day went on, we did what MSG's are supposed to do when there is a threat, we did our jobs. Never complaining about the conditions, just happy to be able to help.

All of the Marines radios went dead. Even though we lost Comm, we never had any problems. There were no individuals out there. It was like we were a hand, all connected and never losing touch with each other. Ready for a secondary attack, we were in position. The crowd gathered big and quick. There must have been over a thousand people there in a matter of ten minutes. The reporters came from all over. The A/ came over and told me to go see Gunny. I knew what was next. Sure enough, I was going to go to the evacuation point to provide personal security for the Americans. It was a job I was looking forward to because I knew that they needed to feel safe. We jumped in some guys vehicle and he took us to the point. You could see the relief on the peoples faces when we got to the house. They relaxed as I started to rove the compound. In my head, I was going over what I would do if we were attacked. Thankfully, we never were.

Gunny went back to the embassy to continue operations there. By 1800, the Americans were calming down, and some of them started to go home. One of the other Marines came over and told me to go back to the embassy. One by one, we relieved each other so that we could get showers. Gunny went to the airport at about 2000 because, his wife, who was working for the embassy, was going to be med-evac'd. It turns out she was going to be okay.

I got to go home at about 0200 the next morning. We went in shifts of two so that, we could "sleep." My buddy was the A/, and neither one of us slept a wink that night. The next day, we took turns doing patrols, while those who were not on patrol were clearing the embassy of things. By 2300, on the day after the bomb, we had six more MSG's on deck. We set up our command post in the ambassador's office. The Tanzanian military's special forces, were providing external security (they did a good job too!). With three of us, we continued roving, as one watched the phone, and the other tried to sleep. The next morning, a FAST team was on deck. Wow, in less the forty eight hours, we had over sixty Marines on deck! Now I knew I could get some sleep.

Eleven people died on that day, 7 August, 1998. It was a sad day for the free world. In Kenya, there was a Marine missing. That weighed heavy on our hearts throughout the weekend. As for us, the Marines in Dar es Salaam, we were proud of the job we had done. We did everything by the book, even though there was no book to cover this situation. We were the Marine Security Guards! And the Americans of that embassy, will NEVER forget us!

Semper Fi!

Corporal Cody McCabe