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our progress.

      I’ve already contacted one man from the list you sent me, and I hope to order tapes and correspond with him by cassette tapes.

      I brought along some books and information on AA when we left the States in May. I’ve got a Big Book, a “Twelve and Twelve,’’ As Bill Sees It, Living Sober, and Came to Believe. These are the essentials that I can take with me everywhere I go, even to the bush on field operations.

      I got sober one year and two months ago, and I’ve been a member of a group in North Carolina since then. My unit deployed to Beirut for six months, and I’d like to begin a group within my unit here. So far, I’ve got two others besides me.

      I really appreciate the concern you show in your letter, and I hope we can keep in touch. Please feel free to write back with any information or experiences you would like to share with us. We wish you all the best.

      Sincerely,

      J.O.

      7 July, 1983

      Dear P. and friends,

      I was very glad to receive your letter of hope and support. Yours are some of the kindest people I’ve had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with.

      There have been no developments in our small group. We are two people who are supporting each other in sobriety. My friend is a beginner and is not anxious to completely surrender his alcoholic dilemma. I am busy trying to convince him of the futility of self-discipline and willpower when it comes to King Alcohol.

      Hopefully, if it is God’s will, we will get our group started here. I am busy working and writing my inventory at present time.

      So my Twelfth Step efforts have been premature but, I hope, helpful. Who says you can’t help another alcoholic because you haven’t worked Steps Five to Eleven? It would be a mistake to let the man slide deeper into a miserable world.

      Send advice and literature if you please. I’ll keep in touch.

      Baffled in Beirut,

      J.O.

      20 July, 1983

      Dear P.,

      Our group has grown here in Beirut. We now meet every Sunday at 4:30 PM. There are eight members. Our group name is the Peacekeeping AA Group.

      Please return another order form for us to use in future orders.

      Thank you very much for your service.

      Very truly yours,

      J.O.

      25 July, 1983

      Dear L.,

      Our group is now meeting at the Peacekeeping Chapel in the BLT [Battalion Landing Team] Marine Building Headquarters each Sunday. There are about five members. We’ve held two successful meetings there so far.

      No wonder we call our group the Peacekeeping Group. We are all marines, with the exception of two ladies who drive over from the far side of Beirut when they feel it is safe to come here. I’m sure you’ve heard how dangerous this airport is. We were shelled on Friday.

      Now I don’t need to join with the Loners/Internationalists, since our group is meeting regularly. But thank you for your help when I needed you.

      I hope to hear from you again soon, and send my hope for you in search of your dreams.

      Beginning in Beirut,

      J.O.

      2 September, 1983

      Dear AA Friends,

      Thank you for the much-needed literature you have so gener­ously supplied for us. We are continuing our growth progress in our group and holding meetings whenever circumstances permit them. You understand it is very difficult to attend meetings and fight a war at the same time, but we are struggling on.

      I have made changes or filled in blanks on the opposite side of the group information form. I hope this will help in recording information for our file there.

      We are very grateful to be able to attend meetings here in this ravaged city and will continue to hold meetings as often as we can to help carry the message of AA to newcomers. Our thanks to you for your letters and gifts of sobriety tools.

      Gratitude from Beirut,

      J.O.

      and the Peacekeeping Group

      21 September, 1983

      Dear S.,

      I’m sorry I haven’t written back to you sooner, but we have been very busy doing other things, like trying to stay alive.

      We have had meetings as often as possible (two or three a week) since July. Some of our members have difficulty leaving their field positions to get to Battalion Headquarters, so our meetings have only four people, with four other members on the front lines in the field.

      We’ve been successful in carrying the message to three newcomers, and the other five of us were already members of AA when we left the States in May.

      Two civilians from Beirut were very much the beginners of our group as we know it. They have been at our meetings often and even during a bombing attack one Sunday afternoon. (Since then, they have not returned.) I haven’t contacted those two girls for weeks because of the extremely dangerous situation we’ve been in. I will try to contact one of them again real soon.

      We are very grateful for the chance to begin our AA group here, and we thank you for your extra help in this project. We hope that when we leave in November our following marines and sailors will continue the group as it is now. Though they will be a new bunch of servicemen, we think it’s possible there may be an alcoholic in the bunch who’ll continue the Peacekeeping Group.

      God bless and goodwill to you good folks in New York.

      Sincerely yours,

      J.O.

      Peacekeeping Group

      On Sunday, October 23, 1983, the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building in the marine Amphibious Unit compound at Beirut International Airport was destroyed by a bomb, taking the lives of 241 U.S. military personnel.

      This letter was written to GSO by the Lebanese student who had requested literature the preceding summer.

      December 6, 1983

      Dear S.,

      Thank you very much for your thoughtful letter of October 27. I received it one month late due to the situation here and to the fact that the airport is closed. I am sending you this letter through the American Embassy.

      As for the marines, the young man who was in touch with you was killed by the explosion. The others have left, and a new company was brought in. All of the AA literature was lost, because we used to meet in the library, located in the basement of the same building that was blown up. [GSO sent more literature, which was returned because of mail problems.] I want very much to be able to start AA again for the men in the new company, but at the moment, this is impossible. The base is located right next to the airport, and there is a lot of shelling and fighting in that area. Also, it would be very difficult for me to get on base, because new precaution measures have been taken since the explosion. I hope that things will change soon. Keep them in your prayers. Also pray for the AA group in Beirut.

      Best regards from the AA members here, and they all thank you for your concern.

      Sincerely,

      S.M.

      FOUR

      Experience, Strength, and Hope

The

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