The battalion participated as part of the multinational peace keeping force in Lebanon, May – November 1983. On Sunday morning at 06:22, October 23, 1983, Battalion Landing Team 1/8, the ground combat element of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, was the main victim of what came to be known as the Beirut barracks bombing when a truck loaded with 12,000 pounds of explosives crashed through the gates of the BLT headquarters at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon. Casualties that day were 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and 3 soldiers killed with an additional 100 injured. The majority of these casualties were from 1/8.