I'm a Beirut Marine (Feb.-May'83 & Oct.-Dec.'83)with 2/6 H&S Co. Comm. Plt. I was coming home from work one day and I was behind a truck with a "Beirut Marine" bumper sticker (from Sgt. Grit.com of course). First of all,ever since I've been out of the corps,I have never heard of Sgt. Grit or have I ever met any Beirut vets here in my hometown of Lynn,Mass. As I was saying,I'm behind the truck with the bumper sticker. I hollered out,"when were you in Beirut?",he hollered back at me,"Oct.-Dec.'83". I asked, "who were you with?" he responded,"2/6". Well that blew my mind. I proceeded to tell him that we were there at the same time during my 2nd tour and to follow me to my house,which was right around the corner. His name is Joe Cafferelli and he was a police officer on his way to work. Well, we shot the sh** for what seemed like forever. I told him that we should exchange numbers and talk later so he wouldn"t get in trouble from his boss for being late. He asked me,do you see these bars on my shoulders?…I am the boss (LMAO). It felt so good to finally talk to someone who has seen what I've seen and experienced the same losses as I have. He then told me about the Beirut memorial in N. Carolina and the one here in Boston,Mass. I never knew…please forgive my ignorance. Out of the 241 who gave there all,9 were from Mass. The BVA Mass. chapter is headed by a remarkable woman by the name of Christine Devlin. Her son,L/cpl. Micheal J. Devlin 1962-1983 of Westwood,Mass. was taken from her on that fateful day of Oct 23,1983. This woman organizes the memorial event every year and should be commended for her own personal sacrifices she makes so that those brave peacekeepers will never be forgotten. Finally,Joe told me about the Sgt. Grit website,where he got that sticker.I tell every marine that I meet now,young and old alike,to grab a couple of six-packs when they go to your web-site…"because you're going to be there awhile." It feels like coming home every time I'm on the site. If it weren't for you Sgt. Grit,I wouldn't have never been able to expand my Marine Corps family (including your Co.) with these wonderful people in it. "Semper Fi" to all. Les we forget,"The first duty is to remember". Sincerely, L/cpl. Darryl J. Bradley Sr. Mar.'82-Mar.'85.