On this day in 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, Marine SSgt. Allen Soifert was killed by a sniper. Soifert's hometown was Nashua, New Hampshire. He was 25.

A member of the 1,200-member U.S. contingent in the Multi-National Force attempting to keep the peace in that city, Soifert was patrolling the camp's perimeter in a Jeep when the bullet hit him in the chest. Another Marine had been injured by sniper fire a half hour earlier, driving through that same area.

Chaplain Danny Wheeler administered Last Rites to SSgt Soifert (Interestingly, Wheeler was a Lutheran, Last Rites is a Catholic ritual, and Soifert was Jewish); Wheeler would be injured in the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks on October 23rd of the same year. Navy Lt. John R. Hudson, M.D., who had tried to save Soifert, was killed in that bombing.