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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
CW2 WELCH KILLED IN BEIRUT EMBASSY ANNEX BOMBING
On Sep. 20, 1984, the U.S. Embassy Annex in Beirut, Lebanon, was attacked by Iran-supported terrorists. Among the victims was career U.S. Army intelligence specialist Chief Warrant Officer Two Kenneth V. Welch.
Kenneth Vernon Welch was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1951. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as an intelligence analyst shortly after graduating high school in 1970. He served in Vietnam from 1972–1973 and then in various locations in Europe before he joined the Defense Attaché Office (DAO) in 1978. His first assignment was as an intelligence assistant at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran. He remained there for about a year before being reassigned just weeks before that embassy was overrun in November 1979. His next assignment was in Dublin, Ireland, where despite his youth and professional inexperience, his commander encouraged him to apply for a warrant officer appointment, which he received in February 1981. He went on to serve in Cameroon, China, and finally, Lebanon.
The Lebanese Civil War had been ongoing since 1975. In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to drive out the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and in August, the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), comprised of Italian, French, British, and American troops, deployed to the region as a peacekeeping organization. However, the MNF’s support of the Christian government soon led to significant disputes between the various ethnic, religious, and political factions vying for power over the country.
On Apr. 18, 1983, an explosives-laden van drove into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing sixty-seven people, including several Central Intelligence Agency officials. Several months later, on Oct. 23, a truck bomb struck the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American military personnel, while a simultaneous attack killed fifty-eight French paratroopers. In both instances, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) claimed responsibility; U.S. intelligence experts believed IJO was a codename for the Iran-sponsored Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. Meanwhile, several high-profile kidnappings of Americans in Lebanon occurred between 1983–1984.
Amidst this backdrop, in May 1984, CW2 Welch was assigned as the DAO operations coordinator at the Beirut embassy. A few months after arriving, the embassy staff moved to the new embassy annex in Christian-controlled East Beirut, as the previous attacks had occurred in the west. Unfortunately, the move to the annex was rushed, and many of the advanced security measures had not yet been installed by September 1984, despite repeated warnings from the Defense Intelligence Agency and other U.S. intelligence organizations of an imminent attack by the IJO.
On Sep. 20, 1984, 33-year-old Welch was working at his desk on the annex’s third floor. Outside, a Royal Military Police (RMP) officer was waiting for the British ambassador when he witnessed a security guard arguing with the driver of a van with diplomatic license plates. The driver and guard exchanged fire before the van began speeding towards the building. The RMP officer fired several shots, striking the driver and causing the van to crash into another vehicle and explode several feet from the annex. The explosion killed at least twenty-three people, primarily Lebanese embassy staff and civilians. The DAO’s two American fatalities were CW2 Welch and U.S. Navy intelligence assistant PO1 Michael R. Wagner.
A congressional investigation by the Permanent Committee on Intelligence found that the problem lay not in the collection and dissemination of intelligence leading up to the event, but in its analysis and implementation at the embassy. Despite its best efforts, the U.S. intelligence community was unable to determine an exact time and place of the attack, leading to a lack of urgency in establishing necessary security. The committee concluded: “the probability of another vehicular bomb attack was so unambiguous that there is no logical explanation for the lack of effective security countermeasures at the East Beirut annex to thwart such an attack.” CW2 Welch and Petty Officer Wagner were both recovered and buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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| Date Taken: | 09.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.12.2025 16:13 |
| Story ID: | 548032 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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