Military personnel went to each site to help. Sutton arrived where the Marine headquarters once stood about 20 minutes after the explosion. He spent the rest of the day looking for survivors. He did not see a live body removed from the rubble.

"There was a guy about 100 yards away that had just been blown out the windows of the BLT building. There was a sergeant who had been in the service for over 25 years and was due to retire; I found him in the middle of the night," Sutton said.

"I saw many things that can't be unseen," he said.

Memory of that day was fresh at the memorial service at the Camp Lejeune Memorial Gardens in Jacksonville, N.C. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway gave an address, which was followed by a wreath-laying and a private candlelight service. "The mood was very somber," Sutton said.

"One of the toughest things about the remembrance was that I didn't really know some of the guys when they were alive," he said. "But I remember their names after, from dog tags or body bags."

At the service, Sutton met a fellow veteran who was the only member of a 15-man unit to survive the blast. The building collapsed around the pitch-black cellar where he had been. The Marine waited hours to be rescued.

"I can't imagine how it would have felt to lose all of my buddies," said Sutton.

A group called Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the bombings. But many scholars believe Hezbollah, backed by Iran, was behind the blasts.

The bombing changed the Marines' procedures,, said Sutton. The Rules of Engagement were strict before the attack. "After that, if we thought we were in trouble, we just lit things up," he said.

Today's "security first" doctrine, he said, likely descends in part from the Beirut attacks.

Sutton later received the Combat Action Ribbon. After the service attended college in New Jersey and pursued a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He works at Putnam Investments in Boston.

"There isn't a day that goes by where I don't think of it, but I've adjusted," he said. "Some people couldn't let it go. I feel for those guys."

Sutton is newly appointed treasurer of the Beirut Veterans of America. As such, he hopes people won't forget the cause the Marines were there to pursue. He also plans to write a book detailing his experiences and the attack on his fellow Marines.

"We were there to help people," he said. "We went in with a noble mindset and left with a body count."