Local veteran who lost arm and Beirut Memorial Truck in crash says guardian angels were looking out for him

ROOTSTOWN, Ohio — A Navy veteran and truck driver from Challis is alive and recovering from a crash that nearly took his life in January.

Marc Robinson, 61, served in the Navy during the 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombings in Beirut, Lebanon. Since returning home, he’s been a semi-truck driver for 39 years. He turned his truck cab into what he calls the Beirut Memorial Truck.

On the side of the truck were the names of everyone killed in action in Beirut, Lebanon, between 1982 and 1984. It included the names of 241 Marines, 21 sailors, nine soldiers and one airman. He’s taken the truck to countless memorial events across the country over the years.

“It’s basically a rolling war memorial. The truck was owned by the company, and the owner of the company went 50/50 with me on the cost of doing all this to the truck,” he told EastIdahoNews.com. “I did it for the families of those who were left behind. People don’t (always) thank the families of those that died, and their service is still going on. … Every morning they wake up without their husband, their sibling, their child, their parent. It doesn’t end.”

The crash and aftermath

On Jan. 16, around 1 a.m., Robinson was hauling a load from Pennsylvania to its destination north of Kansas City, Missouri, when he got in a crash in Ohio. Robinson doesn’t remember what happened, but his first memory of the wreck is when first responders were cutting him out of his truck. His dog, Daisy, was traveling with him and had been thrown from the cab but was alive.

“During the wreck, my truck and the trailer I had on with me was smashed into another one,” Robinson said. “The cab was pinched off. … The cab of the truck basically flew 75 yards. … It pretty much exploded on impact.”

He said the only salvageable items first responders found inside his totaled truck were a phone, a CB radio and a zipper pencil bag with some challenge coins inside.

His wife, Theresa, received a phone call telling her that Robinson had been in a crash and might not survive if they tried to save his arm that was mangled in the crash. His left arm was amputated above the elbow, and he got stitches to close where his scalp was split open. He had bruises and scratches all over his body.

“It is devastating to me (to have my arm amputated) because ever since I got back from Beirut, I’ve been a truck driver. It’s what I do,” Robinson stated. “It’s hard to do that without both arms.”

On top of this, Robinson had no insurance and had no idea how he was going to get back home. Theresa got on Robinson’s Facebook page and posted about what happened. She received a message from a lady who Robinson said her brother’s name was on the side of his cab. The woman started the American Brother Foundation and had connections to help veterans like Robinson.

It didn’t take long before Beirut veterans from Ohio and two FBI agents who had family names on Robinson’s truck were standing in his hospital room to check on him and keep him company. He said Beirut veterans and veterans in general began reaching out to him.

“There is a lot of sadness that the Beirut truck is gone (and) my job is gone,” Robinson said. “(I was told) repeatedly, ‘You and your dog, neither one of you should have lived through this.'”

While Robinson was in the hospital, the Rootstown Fire Department, which responded to the crash, took care of Daisy at the fire station for a week. Firefighters even brought Daisy to visit Robinson in the hospital before she left for Idaho.

Daisy was unable to fly because of possible internal injuries, so an Ohio car dealership loaned the fire department a car. The Rootstown Fire Chief, his wife and the firefighter who rescued Daisy traveled to Missouri in that car. That’s where they met up with family members belonging to one of Robinson’s friends, who then drove Daisy the rest of the way home.

‘Another purpose for me’

“There is no way we are going to be able to repay anybody,” Theresa said. “The help we’ve gotten from so many people has actually restored my faith back in humanity.”

Robinson flew home Jan. 22. Although he admits he’s struggled because he’s typically the one that does things for other people and is a “giver not a taker,” he feels blessed for the miracles his family has witnessed throughout this experience.

“I think there’s got to be another purpose for me. There’s a reason that I survived that,” Robinson said. “Of course, I had 272 guardian angels on the side of that truck and two more in heaven, my mom and my brother. I didn’t survive just by chance. There’s something else that I’m meant to do, and I don’t know what it is yet but I’m going to figure it out and do it.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the Robinson family during this time. To donate, click here.