Today in Marine Corps History: 5 May 1986

In Beirut, Lebanon a UH-1N helicopter carrying the commander of the Americans peacekeeping force, Colonel James Mead, was hit by machine gun fire. The six Marines aboard escaped injury. Colonel Mead and his crew had taken off in the helicopter to investigate artillery and rocket duels between rival Syrian-backed Druze Moslem militiamen and Christian Phalangists that endangered French members of the multinational forces.