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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 01/26/2003 12:01:57 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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On March 13, 1979, the New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation (New Jewel) movement ousted Sir Eric Gairy, Grenada's first prime minister, in a nearly bloodless coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG), headed by Maurice Bishop, who became prime minister. His Marxist-Leninist Government established close ties with Cuba, the Soviet Union, and other communist-bloc countries. In October 1983, a power struggle within the government resulted in the arrest and subsequent murder of Bishop and several members of his cabinet by elements of the people's revolutionary army.  To secure objectives in Grenada and to facilitate operations, the island was operationally split in half. The Marines covered the northern half of the island while Army rangers covered the south. The invasion in the south focused on an unfinished runway at Point Salines. A Navy SEAL team which was to have provided intelligence on the airfield at Salines was unable to get ashore. At 0534 the first Rangers began dropping at Salines, and less than two hours elapsed from the first drop until the last unit was on the ground, shortly after seven in the morning. After the rangers had secured the runway, 800 more troops would land, freeing the rangers to press northward where they were to secure the safety of American medical students and bring under control the capital of St. Georges. At the end of the first day in Grenada, the Rangers had secured the airfield and True Blue Campus at a cost of five dead and six wounded. Once the Rangers had secured the runway, elements of the 82nd Airborne Division landed, and late in the evening of the 26th the 82d Division's 3d Brigade began to deploy across the island. In the north, 400 Marines would land and rescue the small airport at Pearls. Preceding the operations in the north and south, Navy seal teams were airdropped near St. Georges to secure the safety of the Grenadian Governor General who was being held under house arrest by opposing forces in the governor’s mansion and to capture the government radio station at St. Georges. The 22d Marine Amphibious Unit was diverted to Grenada while en route to Lebanon. The Marine amphibious unit conducted landings as part of Operation Urgent Fury at Grenada on 25 October and at Carriacou on 1 November. By 3 November, the Marine amphibious unit was reembarked aboard its amphibious shipping and had resumed its passage to Lebanon.  In total, an invasion force of 1,900 U.S. troops, reaching a high of about 5,000 in five days, and 300 troops from the assisting neighboring islands encountered about 1,200 Grenadians, 780 Cubans, 49 Soviets, 24 North Koreans, 16 East Germans, 14 Bulgarians, and 3 or 4 Libyans. Within three days all main objectives were accomplished. Five hundred ninety-nine (599) Americans and 80 foreign nationals were evacuated, and U.S. forces were successful in the eventual reestablishment of a representative form of government in Grenada. That is not to say, however, that the invasion went without challenge. The first challenge was the lack of good intelligence data. For example, at Point Salines operations bogged down because resistance was much greater than expected. In attempting to rescue the Governor General, American forces were stymied by larger Cuban and Grenadian forces than anticipated. By listening to Cuban radio broadcasts, it seemed that the resistance was being directed from a place called Fort Frederick. As it turned out, but not previously known, Fort Frederick was the nerve center for the Cuban and Grenadian forces and once it was destroyed resistance simply melted away.  The invasion force lacked precise data on the location of the American medical students they were to rescue. One account noted that attack planners did not realize that the American medical students were spread out over three locations. The final challenge to invading forces was the lack of a fully integrated, interoperable communications system. Unlike the fighting elements which were organized to conduct operations independent of one another, communications systems were not allowed such freedom. Communications was to have been the glue that would tie together the operation of the four independent United States military service elements. Unfortunately, communications support failed in meeting certain aspects of that mission. It cannot be said that communications capability itself was abundant. Several participants cite shortages of communications.  Shortages were not the only communications problems found during the invasion of Grenada; interoperability was another. For example, uncoordinated use of radio frequencies prevented radio communications between Marines in the north and Army Rangers in the south. As such, interservice communication was prevented, except through offshore relay stations, and kept Marine commanders unaware for too long that Rangers were pinned down without adequate armor. In a second incident, it was reported that one member of the invasion force placed a long distance, commercial telephone call to Fort Bragg, N.C. to obtain C-130 gunship support for his unit which was under fire. His message was relayed via satellite and the gunship responded. Several factors have been cited as the cause of the communications problems which were confronted in Grenada. Among them were insufficient planning for the operation, lack of training, inadequate procedures, maldeployment of communications security keying material for the different radio networks, and lack of preparation through exercise realism. One of the more noted intelligence shortcomings of the operation was the lack of up to date topographical information (maps) on Grenada. When adequate maps were found, they apparently had to be flown to the Grenada task force rather than being sent by electrical transmission.  No journalists were on the island of Grenada to provide live reporting on the invasion, nor had any been taken along with the invading force. Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf, in charge of the operation, had originally planned to exclude the media completely from the operation until he was convinced that they could do no harm. As word of the imminent invasion spread, hundreds of journalists moved into the area but were blocked from proceeding to Grenada. Indeed, there were no first-hand reports from Grenada until 2½ days after the operation began. The media, citing the American people's right to know, and frustrated at their inability to provide the current reporting that they would have liked, protested loudly about the military's gross oversight in failure to permit journalists to accompany the operation. An advisory council, named by the governor general, administered the country until general elections were held in December 1984. The New National Party (NNP), led by Herbert Blaize, won 14 out of 15 seats in free and fair elections and formed a democratic government. Grenada's constitution had been suspended in 1979 by the PRG, but it was restored after the 1984 elections.
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BTTT
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.
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.
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