Carrying on a tradition he had begun in World War II of spending Christmas with U.S. forces overseas, Bob Hope and his troupe of entertainers gave a show on board the "New Jersey" on 24 December 1983. Four hundred Marines stationed in Beirut attended the show. On 8 February 1984, "New Jersey" fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Shi'ite positions in the hills overlooking Beirut. Some 30 of these massive projectiles rained down on a Syrian command post in the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut, killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several other senior officers. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War.