25 OCT--This Day in US Military History

1983 – 1,800 U.S. Marines and Rangers, assisted by 300 soldiers from six Caribbean nations, invaded Grenada at the order of President Reagan, who said the action was needed to protect U.S. citizens there.

Helicopters touched down at Pearls Airport at 5 a.m. on 25 Oct., the PRA–People’s Revolutionary Army–greeted the Marines with bursts from small arms and machine guns. In pairs, the Marines scrambled out of the helos and immediately dug in, waiting for the choppers to leave. Three Soviet-made 12.7mm guns on a nearby hill fired at helicopters bringing in the second assault–Marines of Fox Company–to the town of Grenville, just south of Pearls, at 6 a.m. Sea- Cobra attack helicopters were called in to silence the guns and Fox Company landed amid light mortar fire. Echo and Fox companies moved slowly and cautiously after their landings; after a couple of hours, most of the resistance at Pearls and Grenville was beaten down. Army Rangers, arriving at the airfield at Point Salines at dawn the same day in C-130 [Hercules] aircraft, met much stiffer resistance than the Marines were encountering at Pearls. To avoid the anti-aircraft fire, the Rangers jumped from a very low altitude–500 feet. Machine-gun fire blasted at aircraft and Rangers on the ground. But US Air Force AC-130 [Spectre] gunships silenced the hostile fire with devastatingly accurate blasts. The airfield at Point Salines was blocked, a clear sign an assault was expected.
There had been reports in the press on Saturday (Oct. 22) that the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States had met. It was probable that someone passed the word to Grenada that the United States and a Caribbean peacekeeping force would invade. Word had been put out on Grenada radio that the invasion would occur on Sunday. On Sunday, however, the United States was still discussing the risks of the operation and trying to ascertain how much resistance the Caribbean peace keeping force would meet. There were three or four dozen Cuban Army regulars in Grenada not organized into a regular military unit, but were primarily advisers and instructors to the Grenadian military as well as a handful of paramilitary Cubans–such as police and secret service types. There were also about 600 Cuban construction workers, all militarily trained, armed and trained. Even before securing Point Salines airfield on the first day, Rangers had moved to evacuate American students at the True Blue campus of St. George’s Medical Center.
The campus, located at one end of the 10,000-foot runway the Cubans had been building, was reached easily and the students were rescued. A second campus at Grand Anse was farther away, and retreating Cubans and PRA units blocked the Rangers from the students. By afternoon the Point Salines air field was secured from all but sporadic mortar and small arms fire, and Rangers were moving against PRA positions near St. George’s, the capital. Other Rangers removed obstacles on the Point Salines runway, and elements of the 82nd Airborne Division flew in to add more people and heavier weapons to the assault.
Meanwhile, Fox and Echo companies merged north of St. George’s and secured a flat, stadium-like area called the Queen’s Racecourse, which the Marines dubbed “LZ Racetrack.” The battalion landing team commander set up headquarters there. During the evening, Marines of Golf Company, from the tank landing ships Manitowoc and Barnstable County, landed at Grand Mal beach, just north of St. George’s, with 13 amphibious vehicles and five tanks. Throughout the first night, a constant stream of logistics aircraft landed and took off from the partially completed runway at Point Salines. Gunfire roared from ships and aircraft.

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