Operation Urgent Fury - Grenada patch - Ranger, 82nd Airborne - 5.5\" embroidered For Sale

HIGHLY DETAILED 4

LARGE 5 1/2\" DIAMETER EMBROIDERED\"HIGHLY DETAILED\" OPERATION URGENT FURY - 1983 - INVASION OF GRENADA

THE GRENADA INVASION

Operation Urgent Fury was a1983 United States-led invasion of Grenada, a Caribbean island nation witha population of about 91,000 located 100 miles (160 km) north ofVenezuela, that resulted in a U.S. victory within a matter of weeks.Triggered by a bloody military coup which had ousted a four-yearrevolutionary government, the invasion resulted in a restoration ofconstitutional government. Media outside the U.S. covered the invasion ina negative outlook despite the OAS request for intervention (on therequest of the U.S. government), Soviet and Cuban presence on the islandand the presence of American medical students at the True Blue MedicalFacility. Grenada gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1974. Theleftist New Jewel Movement seized power in a coup in 1979, suspending theconstitution. After a 1983 internal power struggle ended with thedeposition and murder of revolutionary Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, theinvasion began early on 25 October 1983, just two days and several hoursafter the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut (early 23 OctoberBeirut time). The U.S. Army\'s Rapid Deployment Force (1st, 2nd RangerBattalions and 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers), U.S. Marines, U.S.Army Delta Force and U.S. Navy SEALs and other combined forces comprisedthe 7,600 troops from the United States, Jamaica, and members of theRegional Security System (RSS) defeated Grenadian resistance after alow-altitude airborne assault by the 75th Rangers on Point Salines Airporton the southern end of the island while a Marine helicopter and amphibiouslanding occurred on the northern end at Pearl\'s Airfield shortlyafterward. The military government of Hudson Austin was deposed andreplaced by a government appointed by Governor-General Paul Scoon untilelections were held in 1984. While the invasion enjoyed broad publicsupport in the United States, and received support from some sectors inGrenada from local groups who viewed the post-coup regime as illegitimate,it was criticized by the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United NationsGeneral Assembly, which condemned it as \"a flagrant violation ofinternational law\". The U.S. awarded more than 5,000 medals for merit andvalor.The date of the invasion isnow a national holiday in Grenada, called Thanksgiving Day, and the PointSalines International Airport was renamed in honor of Prime MinisterMaurice Bishop. The invasion highlighted issues with communication andcoordination between the branches of the United States military,contributing to investigations and sweeping changes, in the form of theGoldwater–Nichols Act and other reorganizations.

\"A lovely little war\"was what one correspondent called the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada. Mostsaw Operation Urgent Fury, its official name, as a guaranteed victory. TheCaribbean island, the smallest independent country in the WesternHemisphere, was no match for American military might. Reagan championedthe invasion as another step toward ridding the world of Communism, butthe big victory over the little island also served as a major publicrelations coup for the recently battered administration.

On October 13, 1983,Reagan was made aware of possible trouble in Grenada. Deputy PrimeMinister Bernard Coard, a Communist hard-liner backed by the GrenadianArmy, had deposed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and established militaryrule. Six days later, Bishop was murdered. A socialist with ties to Cuba,Bishop had been taking his time making Grenada wholly socialist; he hadencouraged private-sector development in an attempt to make the island apopular tourist destination. With the Communist Coard in power, Reagangrew more concerned.

Reagan was mostconcerned by the presence of Cuban construction workers and militarypersonnel building a 10,000-foot airstrip on Grenada. Though Bishop hadclaimed the purpose of the airstrip was to allow commercial jets to land,Reagan believed its purpose was to allow military transport planes loadedwith arms from Cuba to be transferred to Central American insurgents.

Also weighing on Reaganwas the security of the 800 American medical students enrolled at St.George\'s School of Medicine in the former British commonwealth. After thecoup, there was violence and anarchy, and with martial law and ashoot-on-sight curfew in effect in Grenada, Reagan was joined by many ofhis advisers, as well as much of the American public, in believing thatthe rescue of the American students was justification for an invasion.

Grenada had beensomething of a pet project for Reagan since his visit to Barbados in 1982,where Caribbean leaders echoed Reagan\'s own fear: that Grenada, with itssocialist government and proximity to Cuba, could become a Communistbeachhead in the Caribbean. While Reagan had been focused on Grenada forsome time, he was unfairly accused of using the invasion to distractattention from other world events.

On October 23, a suicidebomber drove his truck into a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. According tothe official report, \"The force of the explosion ripped the building fromits foundation.… Almost all the occupants were crushed or trapped insidethe wreckage.\" Numbers told an even more devastating story. The bomb,which had produced the largest non-nuclear blast on record, exploded withthe force of 12,000 pounds of TNT and killed 241 Marines. Reagan\'splacement of the Marines as peacekeepers of a tenuous cease-fire betweenChristians and Muslims in Lebanon had been divisive from the start.Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger had repeatedly called for thewithdrawal of forces, insisting that Lebanon was too unstable and oflittle strategic importance to the United States; Secretary of StateGeorge Shultz reflected Reagan\'s view that a U.S. presence was essentialto maintaining peace.

Although the finaldecision to invade Grenada was made shortly after the Beirut bombings, bythe time of the massacre in October 1983, Reagan had all but officiallyapproved the invasion of Grenada. The accusation that the bombing inLebanon motivated the invasion was, therefore, unfounded. If anything, onereporter argued, the destruction of the Marine barracks may have causedReagan to hesitate.



Reagan\'s credibility wasbolstered by what the 5,000-strong American invading force found on theisland: a cache of weapons that could arm 10,000 men -- automatic rifles,machine guns, rocket launchers, antiaircraft guns, howitzers, cannon,armored vehicles and coastal patrol boats. In all, out of 800 Cubans, 59were killed, 25 were wounded, and the rest were returned to Havana uponsurrender. Forty-five Grenadians died, and 337 were wounded. America alsosuffered casualties: 19 dead and 119 wounded. The medical students camehome unharmed.

For Reagan, Grenada was an unmitigated success:a defeat of Communism and Castro, and a warning to the Marxist Sandinistasin Nicaragua. Fortunately for Reagan, by the time of the 1984 election,the Grenada success replaced the bitter memory of the massacre at Lebanon.


Background
Initial troop invasion areas
Sir Eric Gairy had led Grenada to independencefrom the United Kingdom in 1974. His term in office coincided with civilstrife in Grenada. The political environment was highly charged andalthough Gairy – head of the Grenada United Labour Party – claimed victoryin the general election of 1976, the opposition did not accept the resultas legitimate. The civil strife took the form of street violence betweenGairy\'s private army, the Mongoose Gang, and gangs organized by the NewJewel Movement (NJM). In the late 1970s, the NJM began planning tooverthrow the government. Party members began to receive military trainingoutside of Grenada. On 13 March 1979 while Gairy was out of the country,the NJM – led by Maurice Bishop – launched an armed revolution andoverthrew the government, establishing the People\'s RevolutionaryGovernment.

On 16 October 1983, a party faction led byDeputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard seized power. Bishop was placed underhouse arrest. Mass protests against the action led to Bishop escapingdetention and reasserting his authority as the head of the government.Bishop was eventually captured and murdered along with several governmentofficials loyal to him. The army under Hudson Austin then stepped in andformed a military council to rule the country. The Governor-General, PaulScoon, was placed under house arrest. The army announced a four-day totalcurfew where anyone seen on the streets would be subject to summaryexecution.

The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States(OECS), as well as the nations of Barbados and Jamaica, appealed to theUnited States for assistance. According to a reporter for The New YorkTimes, this formal appeal was at the request of the U.S. government, whichhad already decided to take military action. U.S. officials cited themurder of Bishop and general political instability in a country near U.S.borders, as well as the presence of U.S. medical students at St. George\'sUniversity, as reasons for military action. The reporter also claimed thatthe latter reason was cited in order to gain public support. It was laterrevealed that Grenada\'s Governor-General, Paul Scoon, had requested theinvasion through secret diplomatic channels. Scoon was well within hisrights to take this action under the reserve powers vested in the Crown.On 25 October, Grenada was invaded by the combined forces of the UnitedStates and the Regional Security System (RSS) based in Barbados, in anoperation codenamed Operation Urgent Fury. The U.S. stated this was doneat the request of the prime ministers of Barbados and Dominica, Tom Adamsand Dame Eugenia Charles, respectively. Nonetheless, the invasion washighly criticised by the governments in Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, andthe United Kingdom. The United Nations General Assembly condemned it as \"aflagrant violation of international law\" by a vote of 108 in favour to 9,with 27 abstentions. The United Nations Security Council considered asimilar resolution, which failed to pass when vetoed by the United States.


The Airport
The Bishop government began constructing thePoint Salines International Airport with the help of Britain, Cuba, Libya,Algeria, and other nations. The airport had been first proposed by theBritish government in 1954, when Grenada was still a British colony. Ithad been designed by Canadians, underwritten by the British government,and partly built by a London firm. The U.S. government accused Grenada ofconstructing facilities to aid a Soviet-Cuban military build-up in theCaribbean based upon the 9,000 ft length, which could accommodate thelargest Soviet aircraft like the An-12, An-22 and the An-124, which wouldenhance the Soviet and Cuban transportation of weapons to Central Americaninsurgents and expand Soviet regional influence. Bishop’s governmentclaimed that the airport was built to accommodate commercial aircraftcarrying tourists, pointing out that such jets could not land at Pearl\'sAirstrip on the island’s north end (5,200 ft) and couldn\'t be expandedbecause its runway abutted a mountain and the ocean at the other end.

In 1983, then-Member ofthe United States House of Representatives Ron Dellums (D, California),traveled to Grenada on a fact-finding mission, having been invited by thecountry\'s prime minister. Dellums described his findings before Congress:\"based on my personal observations, discussion and analysis of the newinternational airport under construction in Grenada, it is my conclusionthat this project is specifically now and has always been for the purposeof economic development and is not for military use\" It is my thought thatit is absurd, patronizing and totally unwarranted for the United StatesGovernment to charge that this airport poses a military threat to theUnited States’ national security. In March 1983, U.S President RonaldReagan began issuing warnings about the threat posed to the United Statesand the Caribbean by the \"Soviet-Cuban militarization\" of the Caribbean asevidenced by the excessively long airplane runway being built, as well asintelligence sources indicating increased Soviet interest in the island.He said that the 9,000-foot (2,700 m) runway and the numerous fuel storagetanks were unnecessary for commercial flights, and that evidence pointedthat the airport was to become a Cuban-Soviet forward military airbase.


The Invasion
The invasion, which commenced at 05:00 on 25October 1983, began when forces refuelled and departed from the GrantleyAdams International Airport on the nearby Caribbean island of Barbadosbefore daybreak en route to Grenada. It was the first major operationconducted by the U.S. military since the Vietnam War. Vice Admiral JosephMetcalf, III, Commander Second Fleet, was the overall commander of U.S.forces, designated Joint Task Force 120, which included elements of eachmilitary service and multiple special operations units. Fighting continuedfor several days and the total number of U.S. troops reached some 7,000along with 300 troops from the OAS. The invading forces encountered about1,500 Grenadian soldiers and about 700 Cubans.

According to journalistBob Woodward in his book Veil, the supposed captured \"military advisers\"from the aforementioned countries were actually accredited diplomats andincluded their dependents. None took any actual part in the fighting.However, some of the \"construction workers\" were actually a detachment ofCuban Military Special Forces and combat engineers. Official U.S. sourcesstate that some of the defenders were well-prepared, well-positioned andput up stubborn resistance, to the extent that the U.S. called in twobattalions of reinforcements on the evening of 26 October. The total navaland air superiority of the coalition forces – including helicoptergunships and naval gunfire support – overwhelmed the local forces. Nearlyeight thousand soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines had participated inOperation Urgent Fury along with 353 Caribbean allies of the CaribbeanPeace Forces (CPF). U.S. Forces sustained 19 killed and 116 wounded; Cubanforces sustained 25 killed, 59 wounded and 638 combatants captured.Grenadian forces casualties were 45 killed and 358 wounded; at least 24civilians were killed, 18 of whom were killed in the accidental bombing ofa Grenadian mental hospital.



Reaction in the United States
A month after the invasion, Time magazinedescribed it as having \"broad popular support\". A congressional studygroup concluded that the invasion had been justified, as most members feltthat U.S. students at the university near a contested runway could havebeen taken hostage as U.S. diplomats in Iran had been four yearspreviously. The group\'s report caused House Speaker Tip O\'Neill to changehis position on the issue from opposition to support.

However, some members ofthe study group dissented from its findings. Congressman Louis Stokes,D-Ohio, stated: \"Not a single American child nor single American nationalwas in any way placed in danger or placed in a hostage situation prior tothe invasion.\" The Congressional Black Caucus denounced the invasion andseven Democratic congressmen, led by Ted Weiss, introduced an unsuccessfulresolution to impeach Ronald Reagan. In the evening of 25 October 1983 bytelephone, on the newscast Nightline, anchor Ted Koppel spoke to medicalstudents on Grenada who stated that they were safe and did not feel theirlives were in danger. The next evening, again by telephone, medicalstudents told Koppel how grateful they were for the invasion and the ArmyRangers, which probably saved their lives. State Department officials hadassured the medical students that they would be able to complete theirmedical school education in the United States.



International reaction
By a vote of 108 in favour to 9 (Antigua andBarbuda, Barbados, Dominica, El Salvador, Israel, Jamaica, Saint Lucia,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States) voting against,with 27 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly adopted GeneralAssembly Resolution 38/7 which \"deeply deplores the armed intervention inGrenada, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law andof the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State\".The USSR government observed that Grenada had for a long time been theobject of United States threats, that the invasion violated internationallaw, and that no small nation not to the liking of the United States wouldfind itself safe if the aggression against Grenada was not rebuffed. Thegovernments of some countries stated that the United States interventionwas a return to the era of barbarism. The governments of other countriessaid the United States by its invasion had violated several treaties andconventions to which it was a party. A similar resolution was discussed inthe United Nations Security Council and although receiving widespreadsupport it was ultimately vetoed by the United States. President of theUnited States Ronald Reagan, when asked if he was concerned by thelopsided 108–9 vote in the UN General Assembly said \"it didn\'t upset mybreakfast at all.\"
Grenada is part of the Commonwealth of Nationsand, following the invasion, it requested help from other Commonwealthmembers. The invasion was opposed by the United Kingdom, Trinidad andTobago, and Canada, among others. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherpersonally opposed the U.S. invasion, and the British Foreign Secretary,Geoffrey Howe, announced to the British House of Commons on the day beforethe invasion that he had no knowledge of any possible U.S. intervention.At 12:30 am Tuesday 25 October, on the morning of the invasion, Thatchersent a message to Reagan: This action will be seen as intervention by aWestern country in the internal affairs of a small independent nation,however unattractive its regime. I ask you to consider this in the contextof our wider East/West relations and of the fact that we will be having inthe next few days to present to our Parliament and people the siting ofCruise missiles in this country. I must ask you to think most carefullyabout these points. I cannot conceal that I am deeply disturbed by yourlatest communication. You asked for my advice. I have set it out and hopethat even at this late stage you will take it into account before eventsare irrevocable. (The full text remains classified.) When she telephonedReagan twenty minutes later, he assured Thatcher that an invasion was notcontemplated. Reagan later said, \"She was very adamant and continued toinsist that we cancel our landings on Grenada. I couldn\'t tell her that ithad already begun.\"


Aftermath
Following the U.S. victory, Scoon assumed poweras interim head of government. He formed an advisory council which namedNicholas Brathwaite as interim prime minister pending new elections.Democratic elections held in December 1984 were won by the GrenadaNational Party and a government was formed led by Prime Minister HerbertBlaize.

U.S. forces remained in Grenada after combatoperations finished in December as part of Operation Island Breeze.Elements remaining, including military police, special forces, and aspecialized intelligence detachment, performed security missions andassisted members of the Caribbean Peacekeeping Force and the RoyalGrenadian Police Force.


United States
The invasion showed problems with the U.S.government\'s \"information apparatus,\" which Time described as still beingin \"some disarray\" three weeks after the invasion. For example, the U.S.State Department falsely claimed that a mass grave had been discoveredthat held 100 bodies of islanders who had been killed by Communist forces.Major General Norman Schwarzkopf, deputy commander of the invasion force,said that 160 Grenadian soldiers and 71 Cubans had been killed during theinvasion; the Pentagon had given a much lower count of 59 Cuban andGrenadian deaths. Ronald H. Cole\'s report for the Joint Chiefs of Staffshowed an even lower count. Also of concern were the problems that theinvasion showed with the military. There was a lack of intelligence aboutGrenada, which exacerbated the difficulties faced by the quickly assembledinvasion force. For example, it was not known that the students wereactually at two different campuses and there was a thirty-hour delay inreaching students at the second campus. Maps provided to soldiers on theground were tourist maps on which military grid reference lines were drawnby hand to report locations of units and request artillery and aircraftfire support. They also did not show topography and were not marked withcrucial positions. U.S. Navy ships providing naval gunfire and U.S.Marine, U.S. Air Force and navy fighter/bomber support aircraft providingclose air support mistakenly fired upon and killed U.S. ground forces dueto differences in maps and location coordinates, data, and methods ofcalling for fire support. Communications between services were also notedas not being compatible and hindered the coordination of operations. Thelanding strip was drawn-in by hand on the map given to some members of theinvasion force. A heavily fictionalized account of the invasion from aU.S. military perspective is shown in the 1986 Clint Eastwood motionpicture Heartbreak Ridge, in which marines replaced the actual roles ofarmy units due to the movie\'s portrayal of several incompetent officersand NCOs for which the army opted out its military support of the movie.


Goldwater-Nichols Act
Analysis by the U.S. Department of Defenseshowed a need for improved communications and coordination between thebranches of the U.S. forces. U.S. Congressional investigations of many ofthe reported problems resulted in the most important legislative changeaffecting the U.S. military organization, doctrine, career progression,and operating procedures since the end of World War II – theGoldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (Pub.L.99–433). The Goldwater-Nichols Act reworked the command structure of theUnited States military, thereby making the most sweeping changes to theUnited States Department of Defense since the department was establishedin the National Security Act of 1947. It increased the powers of theChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and created the concept of a trulyunified joint U.S. forces (i.e., Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy forcesorganized under one command). One of the first reorganizations resultingfrom both the Department of Defense analysis and the legislation was theformation of the U.S. Special Operations Command in 1987.


Other
October 25 is a national holiday in Grenada,called Thanksgiving Day, to commemorate the invasion. St. George\'sUniversity built a monument on its True Blue Campus to memorialize theU.S. servicemen killed during the invasion, and marks the day with anannual memorial ceremony. In 2008, the Government of Grenada announced amove to build a monument to honour the Cubans killed during the invasion.At the time of the announcement the Cuban and Grenadian government arestill seeking to locate a suitable site for the monument. On 29 May 2009the Point Salines International Airport was officially renamed in honourof the slain pre-coup leader Maurice Bishop by the Government of Grenada.



Order of Battle
Operation Urgent Fury
Leading joint forces, Vice Admiral JosephMetcalf, III, COMSECONDFLT, became Commander, Joint Task Force 120 (CJTF120), and commanded units from the Air Force, Army, Navy, and the MarineCorps. Vice Admiral Metcalf assigned to the amphibious force, designatedTask Force 124, the mission of seizing the Pearls Airport and the port ofGrenville, and of neutralizing any opposing forces in the area.Simultaneously, Army Rangers (Task Force 121) – together with elements ofthe 82d Airborne Division (Task Force 123) – would secure points at thesouthern end of the island, including the nearly completed jet airfieldunder construction near Point Salines. Task Group 20.5, a carrier battlegroup built around USS Independence (CV-62), and Air Force elements wouldsupport the ground forces.

U.S. ground forces
U.S. Army 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions 75thInfantry Regiment conducted a low-level parachute assault to secure PointSalinas Airport. Hunter Army Airfield, GA and Ft. Lewis, WA
U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division – 2nd BrigadeTask Force (325th Airborne Infantry Regiment plus supporting units) and3rd Brigade Task Force (1st and 2nd Battalions of the 505th ParachuteInfantry Regiment, 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 508th Parachute InfantryRegiment, plus supporting units). Fort Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 9th Psychological Operations Battalion(Airborne) of the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) – providedloudspeaker support and dissemination of informational pamphlets. FortBragg, NC
U.S.Army 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta (AKA Delta Force)Fort Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 27th Engineer Battalion of the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne),Fort Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 548th Engineer Battalion Ft Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 44th Medical Brigade – Personnel fromthe 44th Medical Brigade and operational units including the 5th MASH weredeployed. Fort Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 160th Special Operations AviationRegiment (Airborne) Ft Campbell, KY
U.S. Army 18th Aviation Company, 269th AviationBattalion Ft. Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 35th Signal Brigade, Ft. Bragg, NC
U.S. Army 50th Signal Battalion, 35th SignalBrigade, Ft. Bragg, NC
US Navy SEAL Team 4 Little Creek, VA and US NavySEAL Team 6 Virginia Beach, VA
U.S. Marine Corps 22nd Marine Amphibious UnitCamp Lejeune, NC
U.S. Army 1st Corps Support Command COSCOM, 7th Trans Battalion, 546th LMTFort Bragg, NC
U.S. Air Force 5th Weather Squadron, 5th Weather Wing (MAC) Fort Bragg, NC– jump qualified Combat Weathermen who are attached and deployed with the82nd, now in AFSOC
U.S. Air Force Detachment 1, 507th Tactical AirControl Wing (Fort Bragg, NC) - jump qualified TACPs who were attached toand deployed with the 82d Airborne, Fort Bragg, NC (now the 14th ASOS,part of the 18th Air Support Operations Group)
U.S. Air Force 21st Tactical Air SupportSquadron (Shaw AFB, SC) – jump qualified FACs who were attached to anddeployed with Detachment 1, 507th Tac Air Control Wg and the 82d Airborne,Fort Bragg, NC
U.S. Army Co E (Scout) 60th Infantry Regiment (United States) (laterdesignated:Co E (Long Range Surveillance) 109th MI Battalion, of the 9thInfantry Division (Motorized), Fort Lewis, WA (1984)
U.S. Army 411th MP Company of the 89th MilitaryPolice Brigade, III Corps, Ft. Hood, Texas
U.S. Army 65th MP Company (Airborne), 118th MPCompany (Airborne), and HHD, 503rd MP Battalion (Airborne) of the 16thMilitary Police Brigade (Airborne), XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, NC
82nd Finance Company MPT


U.S. Air Force
U.S. Air National Guard – provided A-7D Corsair II ground-attack aircraftfor close air support
23rd Tactical Fighter Wing – provided close airsupport for allied forces with A-10 Warthogs
33rd Tactical Fighter Wing – provided airsuperiority cover for allied forces with F-15 Eagles
437th Military Airlift Wing – provided airliftsupport with C-141 Starlifters
16th Special Operations Wing – flew AC-130HSpectre gunships
317th Military Airlift Wing – provided airlift support with Lockheed C-130Hercules (Pope AFB NC) Fort Bragg, NC
63d Military Airlift Wing – 63rd Security PoliceSquadron provided airfield security support – (Norton AFB CA)
443rd Airlift Wing,443rd Security PoliceSquadron (Altus AFB, Oklahoma) – provided a 44 man Airbase Ground Defenceflight (Oct–Nov 1983)
19th Air Refueling Wing – provided aerialrefueling support for all other aircraft
507th Tactical Air Control Wing (elements of the21st TASS at Shaw AFB, SC and Detachment 1, Fort Bragg, NC) – providedTactical Air Control Parties (TACPs) in support of the 82nd AirborneDivision
552nd ACWBoeing E-3A AWACS
62nd Security Police Group (Provisional) Multi Squadron Law Enforcement &Security Forces – Prisoner detaining and transport attached to 82ndAirborne
60thMilitary Airlift Wing- 60th Security Police Squadron Travis AFB CAprovided airfield security in Grenada as well as Barbados.


U.S. Navy
Twoformations of U.S. warship took part in the invasion. Amphibious SquadronFour comprised USS Guam (LPH-9), USS Barnstable County (LST-1197), USSManitowoc (LST-1180), USS Fort Snelling (LSD-30), and USS Trenton(LPD-14). The Independence carrier battle group, Carrier Group Four, wasallocated the designation Task Group 20.5 for the operation. IndependenceCarrier Battle Group