Remembering a brother who died in Beirut bombing
Resident recalls October, 1983, loss
By Lindsay Kalter lkalter@patuxent.com
Posted 10/28/09
For Catonsville resident Jeff Haskell, October means more than changing leaves and the new chill of fall.
For him, October is a time to remember, honor and mourn.
On Oct. 23, 1983, Jeff Haskell, 54, lost his older brother.
Capt. Michael Haskell was one of the 220 Marines killed when terrorists drove a truck bomb through his barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. He was 33.
It was the largest single-day loss of life for Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, according to an Arlington Cemetery Web site.
Three Army soldiers and 18 Navy sailors also died in the explosion.
Each time the anniversary arrives, the younger Haskell said he tries to remember not only his brother’s death, but the life preceding it.
He reflects on the days when he was the eager kid brother lucky enough to be included in his older sibling’s social activities; the days before he grew older than Michael Haskell would ever become.
“I got to do a lot of things with him, and I didn’t realize at the time that most people wouldn’t include their little brothers like that,” said Haskell, who works as a project officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Security Boulevard. “And I don’t think my parents threatened him on a lot of it. He did it on his own.”
The two brothers, five years apart, grew up in Westboro, Mass. Their father, Richard, worked in construction, and their mother, Marion, did office work for a moving and storage company.
Haskell said he and his brother always played hockey, but Michael played all sports, depending on the season.
“He was picked first, and I was picked last, because of the age difference,” he said, laughing.
When Michael wasn’t playing sports, he was working at various odd jobs. He began earning a living at the age of 12, working at places that included a green house, a restaurant kitchen and a rat farm.
After Michael Haskell graduated from Westboro High School, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He served in Vietnam for nine months, and spent two years as a drill instructor at the Marine Corps
Recruit Depot Parris Island in Beaufort, S.C.
In 1974, he entered the reserves and enrolled in Massachusetts’ Framingham State College, where he graduated in three years with a history degree and a 3.8 grade point average.
Jeff Haskell attended Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts, and the two played against each other on opposing hockey teams.
“Yeah, I still have scars,” he said. “He was good. He hit anything that moved, and I could skate better.”
The older Haskell went on to get a master’s degree in political science from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
At the time of his death, he was working on his doctorate at Washington, D.C.’s George Washington University and was married with a son and daughter, then 5 and 3.
His son, Jason Haskell, now works for a tile manufacturing company in Fredricksburg Va.
His daughter, Melissa Miller, teaches fourth grade in Fredricksburg. She is married with her own daughter.
Jeff Haskell said his wife, Frann, a kindergarten teacher at Trinity School in Ellicott City, has heard stories about Michael Haskell since the day they met in 1981.
And memories of him have trickled down to their three children, all of whose names contain small remembrances of their uncle: Caitlyn Michelle, 21, Brian Michael, 19, and Michael Philip, 12.
Jeff Haskell said his brother is a difficult man to sum up.
He said Michael equally admired former president Ronald Reagan and rock star Mick Jagger, and would quote actor Bill Murray and conservative author Bill Buckley, Jr. with the same enthusiasm.
But, he said, being a Marine was Michael Haskell’s core identity.
Charles Henderson, a former Marine who served with Michael Haskell in Beirut, remembers a thoughtful man beneath the rough drill instructor exterior.
Henderson, who now lives in Peyton, Colo., recalls the May in 1983 when he ran out of chewing tobacco and was “biting the heads off of everyone,” he said in an e-mail.
Michael Haskell approached him one morning, and without a word, set a bag of chew in the warrant officer’s hands.
“To this day, now 25 years later, the gift of a case of chewing tobacco from Mike Haskell remains significant,” Henderson, who is now a writer, said in an e-mail. “It was not the tobacco, but it was the
act of love of fellow Marines. Selfless devotion. The good heart at work.”
Jeff Haskell said he still remembers watching a hockey game on television with his brother, and getting an earful from him after talking during the National Anthem.
“I’ll tell you what, because of Mike, my children and I never talk through the National Anthem,” he said.
For him, October is a time to remember, honor and mourn.
On Oct. 23, 1983, Jeff Haskell, 54, lost his older brother.
Capt. Michael Haskell was one of the 220 Marines killed when terrorists drove a truck bomb through his barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. He was 33.
It was the largest single-day loss of life for Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, according to an Arlington Cemetery Web site.
Three Army soldiers and 18 Navy sailors also died in the explosion.
Each time the anniversary arrives, the younger Haskell said he tries to remember not only his brother’s death, but the life preceding it.
He reflects on the days when he was the eager kid brother lucky enough to be included in his older sibling’s social activities; the days before he grew older than Michael Haskell would ever become.
“I got to do a lot of things with him, and I didn’t realize at the time that most people wouldn’t include their little brothers like that,” said Haskell, who works as a project officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Security Boulevard. “And I don’t think my parents threatened him on a lot of it. He did it on his own.”
The two brothers, five years apart, grew up in Westboro, Mass. Their father, Richard, worked in construction, and their mother, Marion, did office work for a moving and storage company.
Haskell said he and his brother always played hockey, but Michael played all sports, depending on the season.
“He was picked first, and I was picked last, because of the age difference,” he said, laughing.
When Michael wasn’t playing sports, he was working at various odd jobs. He began earning a living at the age of 12, working at places that included a green house, a restaurant kitchen and a rat farm.
After Michael Haskell graduated from Westboro High School, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He served in Vietnam for nine months, and spent two years as a drill instructor at the Marine Corps
Recruit Depot Parris Island in Beaufort, S.C.
In 1974, he entered the reserves and enrolled in Massachusetts’ Framingham State College, where he graduated in three years with a history degree and a 3.8 grade point average.
Jeff Haskell attended Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts, and the two played against each other on opposing hockey teams.
“Yeah, I still have scars,” he said. “He was good. He hit anything that moved, and I could skate better.”
The older Haskell went on to get a master’s degree in political science from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
At the time of his death, he was working on his doctorate at Washington, D.C.’s George Washington University and was married with a son and daughter, then 5 and 3.
His son, Jason Haskell, now works for a tile manufacturing company in Fredricksburg Va.
His daughter, Melissa Miller, teaches fourth grade in Fredricksburg. She is married with her own daughter.
Jeff Haskell said his wife, Frann, a kindergarten teacher at Trinity School in Ellicott City, has heard stories about Michael Haskell since the day they met in 1981.
And memories of him have trickled down to their three children, all of whose names contain small remembrances of their uncle: Caitlyn Michelle, 21, Brian Michael, 19, and Michael Philip, 12.
Jeff Haskell said his brother is a difficult man to sum up.
He said Michael equally admired former president Ronald Reagan and rock star Mick Jagger, and would quote actor Bill Murray and conservative author Bill Buckley, Jr. with the same enthusiasm.
But, he said, being a Marine was Michael Haskell’s core identity.
Charles Henderson, a former Marine who served with Michael Haskell in Beirut, remembers a thoughtful man beneath the rough drill instructor exterior.
Henderson, who now lives in Peyton, Colo., recalls the May in 1983 when he ran out of chewing tobacco and was “biting the heads off of everyone,” he said in an e-mail.
Michael Haskell approached him one morning, and without a word, set a bag of chew in the warrant officer’s hands.
“To this day, now 25 years later, the gift of a case of chewing tobacco from Mike Haskell remains significant,” Henderson, who is now a writer, said in an e-mail. “It was not the tobacco, but it was the
act of love of fellow Marines. Selfless devotion. The good heart at work.”
Jeff Haskell said he still remembers watching a hockey game on television with his brother, and getting an earful from him after talking during the National Anthem.
“I’ll tell you what, because of Mike, my children and I never talk through the National Anthem,” he said.
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