The Crisis

In 1979 Maurice Bishop took power in Grenada. Concern grew in the U.S. State Department as his government moved closer to Cuba and the Soviet Union. He allowed Cuba to build a runway on Grenada that was suitable for landing aircraft that could interdict U.S. air and sea routes to Europe and the Middle East. This constituted a strategic concern for U.S. military planners.

When Bishop's government was over thrown in October 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan decided he must act. The new anti-U.S. Marxist government appeared to pose an immediate threat to the nearly 600 American students and 400 other foreigners living in Grenada. With memories of the hostage crisis in Tehran fresh in their minds, the U.S. State Department believed that the rescue of these American citizens was a matter of national security.

In the early morning of 25 October 1983, Operation Urgent Fury began with an airborne assault on the Point Salinas airfield and a heliborne assault upon Pearls. Over the next nine days the joint U.S. forces encountered surprisingly stiff opposition as they sought to remove the pro-Cuban forces and restore the democratic government.

The Jump

The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 75th Rangers had very little time to prepare for their role in Urgent Fury. They marshalled at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia within a few hours of receiving their orders to move. There they boarded C-130 and MC-130 Hercules aircraft for their flight to Grenada. Once in the air their communications were limited. All messages had to be passed through the Air Force. Special antennas existed that would have allowed the Rangers to use their own equipment but these antennas were not mounted on the aircraft.

In some of the aircraft, Rangers were told that they would be Air-Landing and that they should remove their parachutes. Later this order was changed and the men had to quickly don their chutes in the plane. The latest photographic intelligence showed obstructions on the airfield. This information was passed to the Rangers in flight.

The drop was scheduled for 05:00 hours to coincide with the Marine helicopter assault. Due to a malfunction in the inertial navigation system of the lead C-130, the P-Hour was delayed for 36 minutes. This was the time required for the aircraft to adjust their sequence of approach. The delay cost the Rangers the protection of darkness and the element of surprise. Changing the order of the aircraft also mixed the Ranger units on the drop zone. To reduce the time of descent and vulnerability to ground fire, the commanding officer of the 1st Ranger Battalion ordered the jump altitude to be a lowered to 500 feet. At 05:36 on 25 October 1983, the U.S. Rangers began dropping onto Point Salinas Airfield on the island of Grenada.

On the DZ

On the ground the Rangers assembled into their companies. Although their aircraft had been fired upon, the men on the ground were not immediately engaged. They began to clear the obstacles from the runway. They even hot-wired a bulldozer to assist in this work.

At 07:07 the 2nd Battalion began to drop. Their aircraft had been orbiting offshore waiting to come in. One Ranger was hung-up by his static line and was retrieved back into the aircraft while another suffered a broken leg.

By 10:00 the airfield was secured and ready to begin the Air-Landing phase. Elements of the Ranger units moved off and began offensive operations against their initial objectives.

The Cost

The American plan was to win through the use of overwhelming force. They managed to do this but they did suffer a number of loses due to accidents and through fratricide. The total cost in human lives was 19 Americans killed and 116 wounded. Grenadian forces suffered 45 killed and 358 wounded as well as at least 24 civilians killed. The Cubans lost 25 killed, 59 wounded and 638 captured. Of the 19 Americans killed, five were Rangers.

The media were also kept off the island for the first three days for operational safety reasons. This created a tremendous backlash in Washington until certain influential Senators and Congressmen managed to get the press onto Grenada.

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