Khobar Towers’ Attack 25 Years Ago
The Khobar Towers eternal flame monument and memorial wall at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., were dedicated one year after the Khobar Towers bombing June 25, 1996. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)
Eggs reminds us of the Khobar Tower terror attack in Saudi Arabia,
on this day, 25 years ago.
Remembering the Khobar Towers bombing
Bruce Riedel
Twenty-five years ago, at about 9:30 pm in the evening of June 25, 1996, a huge explosion rocked the barracks for the United States Air Force 4404 Provisional Wing in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The blast from a truck bomb was so massive it was felt in Bahrain 20 miles away. Nineteen American airmen were killed and 498 people were wounded, most of them Saudis and foreign guest workers in nearby buildings next to the parking lot where the bomb exploded.
The terrorist attack on the Khobar Towers was the bloodiest attack on America between the Beirut Marine barracks disaster in 1983 and September 11, 2001. Its legacy still haunts Washington’s relations with Iran.
The Iranians have been at war with us since November of 1979. Thanks for the timely reminder, Eggs.
Category: None
May He extend comfort to the remembering and rest to the remembered.
I arrived for a 1 year Saudi tour the day after……….for want of a day………..
I’m still not sure there is much difference between a wild rabid dog and the Iraqi leaders – and ought to be treated the same.
I rotated in and out of them for DS/DS, that construction was a death trap, you could shove your closed fist between the gaps in the concrete structure stacked together like a bad cardboard box.
Inshallah! (Built by the bin Laden family, no less.)
Who was running CIA field office when it went down? Oh yeah, it was Brennan’s sorry ass.
I was troop commander for a group of deployers (about 50 from my unit) We went commercial from OKC to PHL via DFW. We had to picj up our bags at baggage claim and take them to the AMC counter to recheck for the rotator. We’d been on the road for about 9 hours by that time. Right after I’d checked my stuff in I was paged over the intercom to pick up the white courtesy phone (just like in the movies). I found the phone and they relayed the message to call our command post at home drome.
I did and the airman at the CP told me that they had called our families and told them we were alright and there was nothing to worry about. So I asked what was going on and he told me to go find a TV.
I went to the bar through security and found out about Khobar. We caught the rotator op stopped in Germany and then flew into Dharhan. They held us on the plane when we landed as they loaded the remains on the C-5 to take them to Dover. A couple hours later we continued our trip to Riyadh via C-130.
The next 49 days were very interesting/memorable.
Timing……… occurrences like this makes one ask, what further plans does God have for me?
PETDR(SAH)NBWDVESS, fear not. He will let us know a lot sooner than we’d expect.
Rise to meet His challenge, behold the glory, fear not.
The Iranians have been at war with us since November of 1989.
Not to pick at this but haven’t we been at war with these fucktards since the hostage crisis in 1979?
I mean, I’ve kinda always thought that was the touchpoint. Hell, I’m sure we can make shit up about being enemies with them for some reason before that.
Typo fixed, thanks.
Was over in Saudi there one one-year anniversary… with binos, you could still see bloody handprints on exposed walls from where we were. F*ck terrorists.
PHUQUE ARABS…ALL of the Arabs…and the Persians too. Their Religion teaches them to destroy all people that won’t convert. When are we going to understand that their goal is to destroy us. To paraphrase a lesson we should have learned from the early 70s…”We can burn our grains, let them eat their oil”.
Active duty Wing Wiping Brother and I were on the way to Dakota to put a car back together and drive it to GA. Had reservations to stay on Whiteman AFB when this came down. Took a call to a 2 Star he used to serve with to get us on Base.
Part of my unit in Desert Storm used it for billeting. They sucked back then, and were run down while still under construction. They still would have been better then the converted conex I lived in on Camp Jack.
Beat Eagletown that replaced it at Dhahran, too. (Very much Gulf War I retro… although the SEA huts with pea gravel were a nice upgrade.)