The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Urgent Fury - Grenada - Jan. 26th, 2003

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/urgent_fury.htm ^

[aomagrat]

Me? Open a foxhole? I'm a navy vet. I don't even own a shovel!

[SAMWolf]

LOL! When you hit water, stop digging.

[SAMWolf]

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

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Roscoe]

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.

BTTT

[martian_22]

BTTT!

[johniegrad]

Sam:

This one I had a limited role in.

I had attended medical school on the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program in a nice deal in which the Navy paid for my tuition, microscope, books, fees, and provided me with a $400/month stipend in return for a year of service for every year of school they funded.

I graduated from medical school in 1979, finished my internship and residency in psychiatry at the Naval Hospital Portsmouth Virginia in 1983 and was stationed at the Naval Hospital Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico from 1983-1986. During this time, I became the Director of Medical Services which entailed some administrative duties in addition to my full time clinical responsibilities.

When the troops invaded Grenada, Roosey Roads became the station for definitive medical care for casualties. As they arrived, we closed down access for civilians, retirees, etc and became a functioning wartime military hospital. We had a disaster plan which had been drawn up in peacetime which we immediately discarded as we figured out the real way to take care of the injuries. Two internists and a general surgeon had been with me at Portsmouth and we worked together with the rest of the medical staff to organize an efficient tirage system. We told the CO and XO to basically go to their offices and our young medical staff (virtually everyone just 2 years out of their residencies) ran the whole kit-'n-kaboodle.

Although I was a psychiatrist by training, I was only 4 years out of my internship and still stood emergency room duty so I was comfortable on the receiving end of the casualties. My job was initial triage, pre-operative examination, x-rays, lab, in preparation for surgery or medical stabilization.

The first casualty received I stepped forward to triage. He was a young helicopter pilot who had gone down in ground fire and who presented to the medical center as a double traumatic amputee in septic shock. He maintained some consciousness during the evaluation and was gushing with appreciation about the care provided. Our orthopedic surgeons took him to the OR and he did well. Without our facility to treat him, he never would have survived a trip to other places for definitive care. Several weeks later, I saw him interviewed on national TV newscast praising the medical care he got at our Caribbean outpost hospital.

There were more casualties received than the media was reporting on. I informed my parents about this between medivac flights and the phone went mysteriously dead right after I mentioned it.

There were other interesting events. The Cubans had their headquarters next to a psychiatric hospital, really no more than a prison, and knew their headquarters would be a target. They flew the Cuban flag over the hospital and put up a Red Cross flag over their headquarters. The hospital got bombed and we received these and other Grenadian casualties. One poor old black man who had probably been in that facility for years had literally had his testicles blown off by shrapnel. Fortunately for us, we had a Urologist on staff. The poor old fella was scared out of his mind but he made it too.

We also treated Cuban "construction workers" as they were claimed to be at the time. They had been there working on the airstrip which, if you recall, was being constructed to support larger military aircraft for the Cubans. I don't know how they managed to do it but several of the Cubans casualties were treated and hospitalized with smuggled weapons and had to be disarmed. It was quite interesting to see just how appreciative they were, however, for the medical care rendered. They thank us profusely for the care, food, shelter, and support they got. I imagine they were ultimately returned to Cuba however.

When the whole thing was over, we sat down and redrew the entire diasaster plan since we found the ways to make it work and scrapped the original drawn up by our predecessors.

Ultimately, we received a Meritorious Unit Citation for the hospital. I still have my ribbons and my tropical white longs.

Anyway, that's my story and contribution to this thread. Thanks for posting this.

[bonesmccoy]

I have a friend of mine who was a medical student on Grenada and was standing under a US Marine Chopper signaling the chopper into the school's landing zone.

Coming under enemy fire is not supposed to a medical student's job.

While liberals may continue to belittle the threat to American students and kids on the island, the reality is that my friend was there. He was standing on a ridge while locals were taking shots at the Marines.

He did say that the medical students noticed the Cubans arriving and building the airport. In fact, sometimes the Cubans and the American medical students would play soccer together.

Interestingly, he felt bad about the Cubans becoming enemies as they were enjoying the unique opportunity to meet each other. He wonders if any of the workers died in the assault.

On the other hand, as he stood on the ridge waving on the choppers, enemy fire occured. As he and his fellow students (obviously unarmed) fell to the dirt in fear, the shooting was occuring from surrounding ridges. The US military choppers opened up with a volley of supressive fire to eliminate the enemy from the ridges surrounding the students, saving the lives of the students.

This account was first-hand by the student. I do not know if the account matches military record of battle, but I would like to know when the media will stop their propaganda and start reporting the real, true stories.

I'll bet that the Marines on the chopper didn't think anything of the day. But that medical student is now a doctor. He knows better and we all know that much of the TV media are really a bunch of sicked-out Democrat mouthpiece losers.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks you for sharing your experiences and for your service. Knowing you helped to save those lives has to be somnething you can carry with you with pride.

Congrats on the Meritorious Unit Citation.

[SAMWolf]

This account was first-hand by the student. I do not know if the account matches military record of battle, but I would like to know when the media will stop their propaganda and start reporting the real, true stories.

Thanks, bonesmccoy. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the main Stream media to ever say anything good about our Military or President Reagan.

[manna]

Present!

[Dutchy]

Thanks Sam, for posting this letter from Mr. Menezes. At least there's some people who remeber the sacrifice of our serviceman for their country. Unlike the French, Germans or some South Korean's!!!

[bonesmccoy]

Yeah, you're probably right about the media's bias.

I heard that the liberals think Sam Donaldson can "be our Rush Limbaugh". LOL

Are there any battle histories that list the events in Grenada?

It would be interesting for my physician friend to have correlation of information with those battle records. Doctors don't normally think along those lines, but he's a good doctor and it would be of historical interest to locate any information on the internet with those historical accounts.

[fatima]

A bump for all.

[GailA]

Today's graphic

[firewalk]

good afternoon...is it afternoon or still morning where you are? (-:

Thanks for the ping & Bttt

[SAMWolf]

In St. George's the peacekeeping forces encountered the biggest surprise of the operation: the civilian population.

"We expected that the people would at least passively accept the situation," Scott said. "After all, they had been under a 24-hour shoot-on-sight curfew for several days before we got there."

But the reception the Grenadians gave the peacekeeping force was anything but passive.

"The thing that is most indelibly in scribed in my mind," said Brooks, 'in regard to Grenada, was how incredibly happy they were to see us." Brooks, on the fourth day of the operation, flew into Grenada with Admiral Wesley L. McDonald, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command, who had over all command of Urgent Fury.

"The people came up to Admiral McDonald--and they had no way of knowing who he was--shook his hand and said, 'Thank you and God bless you.' We encountered this all through St. George's," Brooks said. 'People were leaning Out of windows and saying 'God bless America.'

"As we were passing a street corner, three ladies were dressed up in their Sunday best. One of them held up her index finger and said, 'Reagan number one.' Then the ladies had a brief confab and I guess it must have been ladies day, because then one of the others said, 'Eugenia Charles (prime minister of Dominica) number one; Reagan number two!"' Brooks said, laughing.

"Uniformly and universally, they were very, very happy to see us there," he said. "I thought it must have been like it was a generation earlier, when Europe was liberated during World War II. We hadn't anticipated anything like that."

The Grenadians showed their appreciation with more than words. They gave away fresh fruit, ice water and cases of soft drinks. At Pearls Airport, they cooked rice, meat and fruit for the Marines. The gratitude of the people was a great reward for the members of the peacekeeping force. It made the hard ships endured worthwhile and made the troops feel they had done something very noble, that they were very much needed and appreciated.

"Morale is sky high," Faulkner said proudly. "One reason is how well we were received by the Grenadians. We were not treated as conquerors, but as friends of the people."

In fact, according to a survey done by an independent Caribbean firm, 87 per cent of the Grenadians believed the intervention by the Caribbean peacekeeping force was a "good thing." Only three percent didn't believe the intervention was justified.

That positive reaction came despite a heavy anti-American campaign by the New Jewel Movement.

"The Grenadians had obviously been fed a lot of anti-American doctrine," Brooks said. "We saw a lot of that down there. But it didn't take, which must have frustrated the Marxist leadership."

Fortunately, the Grenadians were so glad to see the Caribbean peacekeeping force that they turned in suspected PRA soldiers, and helped lead their rescuers to hidden arms caches. The PRA soldiers were questioned and, unless they were part of the upper echelon of the Grenadian military establishment, were released.

The remaining Cubans who had not been captured fled to the Cuban or Soviet embassies and were later flown to Cuba.

[SAMWolf]

Try these:

Ranger History - Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada)

Ranger History

[SAMWolf]

Great Graphic GailA!