HISTORY LESSON: Urgent Fury -- The 1983 Invasion of Grenada

http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/golf/grenada1983.htm ^ | unknown date | unknown author

[doug from upland]

I paid attention at the time to the invasion of Grenada --- Urgent Fury. For those who didn't or were too young, here is what happened.

At dawn, on October 25, 1983, US Marines, Army Rangers, Navy SEAL commandos and elements of the 82nd Airborne Division invaded Grenada, a member of the British Commonwealth. The announced mission of the American suprise attack, in which troops from a number of Caribbean nations took part, was to ensure the safety of some 1,000 Americans, whose presence on Grenada (most were medical students) was considered endangered by the new marxist military government that had seized power from and murdered Prime Minister Maurice Bishop (1944-83) six days earlier. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and Grenada's Governor-General Sir Paul Scoon (1935-) had requested US help to combat the growing influence of Cuba and other communist countries on the island. The small Grenadian army, assisted by Cuban soldiers and workers who were constructing a large airport at Point Salines, put up fierce resistance for several days, but were eventually overwhelmed by the invasion force, which had grown from about 1,200 to over 7,000. Numerous rebels fled to the interior jungles and kept fighting; within a month the leaders of the military government were arrested, and Cubans, Russians, North Koreans, Libyans, East Germans, Bulgarians and suspected Grenadian communists had been rounded up and put in a detention camp. By mid-December 1983, all US combat forces had left Grenada, and Scoon had appointed a nine-member advisory council to govern until elections could be held.

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from the following site: http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:HQVs5gKONEoC:www.nightstalkers.com/urgent_fury/uf.html+grenada+invasion&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 ---

Guest Book Started on November 26, 1998

I live in Grenada and was eleven(11) years old when operation Urgent Fury took place. I thank GOD everyday for the US intervention, and Ex-Pres. Ronald Reagan's decision.

It was such a long time ago when it happened but the name Lucas cannot be forgotten. This brave soldier lost his life in battle, not to far from my house in the south of the island...I also had the pleasure of meeting his father when he came to Grenada some time after. This soldier died fighting in my country, which I can say today because of brave soldiers like Mr. Lucas.

May GOD rest his soul....

Richard Menezes

[doug from upland]

It was the height of the Cold War. Fidel Castro was causing trouble in Central America and trying to export weapons, guerillas, and grief everywhere he could in the region. The left always mocks the Grenada invasion. It was in our interest, it protected Americans, it insured freedom, and it prevented a Soviet base on the island capable of landing their aircraft, weapons, and supplies.

[maica]

"...and it prevented a Soviet base on the island capable of landing their aircraft, weapons, and supplies. "

The Soviets with Cuban 'workers' were also building a sub pen on the southern end of the island. I am not sure how close to operational state it was in 1983. It was under construction, along with the airport runway when I was there in 1979. Grenada would have been such a strategic location for patrolling and controlling sealanes to the Panama Canal and to the Gulf of Mexico.

Our leftist press was so busy siding with the communists in central America that they never wanted Americans to know what President Reagan had really accomplished and why he did it.

[doug from upland]

Thanks much for the additional insight.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks Doug!

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