Last Known Activity:
ETC (SW) Michael W. Gorchinski...While serving as a crewman aboard USS New Jersey (BB-62), ETC (SW) Michael W. Gorchinski, volunteered to assist the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit with a radar installation problem they were having at the Marine Barracks in Beirut.
On the morning of 23 October 1983 he was among the 240 Marines, sailors and soldiers killed by a suicide truck bomber. On that day, Chief Gorchinski left his wife Judy, and their 3 children, Christina JoAnn, 6 years old, Kevin Michael, 3 years old, and Valerie Marie, 10 months old.
According to Judy Gorchinski When Mike died, he was 3 months away from 17 years on active duty in the navy. He had arrived at the Marine barracks on the morning of October 22nd, worked all day and late into the afternoon, and missed the last helo back to the ship
In documents provided by Judy Gorchinski, there were comments sent by Captain David Scheu, USN (Ret.), and who was then Head of the New Jerseys Operations Department. Chief Gorchinski, Chief Ski), was a member of the Operations Department aboard New Jersey, and was with the ships advance recommissioning crew in 1981. He served with the electronics division (OE), charged with overseeing the ships installation of new search radars and display equipment.
The equipment was all new, and state-of-the-art, with New Jersey as the first of the four Iowa-Class battleships being brought back into service. Mike Gorchinski was breaking new ground that would be used for outfitting the other three battleships, and what they had learned would soon be shared with these other ships. On top of the Marine Barracks, was equipment that the Marines used to detect and backtrack mortar and artillery rounds fired from the heights above Beirut. Colonel Geraghty, CO of the Marine Barracks, radioed to the ship that they were having a problem with this equipment, and that they lacked two pieces of test equipment to complete the repairs. USS New Jersey had the needed equipment, and as Captain Scheu related : It was Chief Gorchinskis gear, he knew how to operate it, and it wasnt going anywhere without him. He knew that he could provide this service to the Marines..
Department of Defense Commission Report:
"At approximately 0622 on Sunday, 23 Oct. 1983, the Battalion Landing Team headquarters building in the Marine Amphibious Unit compound at Beirut International Airport was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. The catastrophic attack took the lives of 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers and wounded more than 100 others. The bombing was carried out by one lone terrorist driving a yellow Mercedes Benz stake-bed truck that accelerated through the public parking lot south of the BLT headquarters building, where it exploded. The truck drove over the barbed and concertina wire obstacle, passed between two Marine guard posts without being engaged by fire, entered an open gate, passed around one sewer pipe barrier and between two others, flattened the Sergeant of the Guard's sandbagged booth at the building's entrance, penetrated the lobby of the building and detonated while the majority of the occupants slept. The force of the explosion [12,000 pounds] ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself. Almost all the occupants were crushed or trapped inside the wreckage."
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