![]() The two SEAL regime-change missions were coordinated with a third, a prison assault assigned to Delta Force and Army Rangers. In the event, that D-Day message was delayed by events for three days. ![]() The station was to be held until Scoon could broadcast a message to his county and the Caribbean, declaring that the intervention was both legal and desired. The second, simultaneous regime-change mission was to capture and secure Grenada's long-distance radio transmitter station, located seven miles north of the capital city. The principal mission was to fly to the governor general's mansion in the capital city, secure him, his wife and his staff and then move them all out of the combat area. The two SEAL Team Six regime-change missions both involved Governor General Sir Paul Scoon, the Anglophile, Grenadian-born, appointed head-of-state. In the end, the airport reconnaissance was successfully performed three hours before H-Hour on D-Day by an Air Force AC-130. A second attempt was made the next night, but it was also unsuccessful. Their open boats swamped while evading a suspected patrol boat, causing the mission to be aborted. After an unsuccessful search for the missing men, this 20-man group attempted to complete their delayed mission. The surviving SEAL jumpers were taken aboard the Navy frigate where they were joined by other waiting SEALs and an Air Force combat control team. Four SEALs drowned upon landing in the dark while carrying a full assortment of weapons, ammunition and combat equipment. One of two C-130 cargo planes transporting the SEALs to their drop point veered off course. A rain squall accompanied by high winds broke out just before the SEALs conducted the water-drop rendezvous with the USS Clifton Sprague. 23, SEAL Team Six's Assault Group Three began the airport reconnaissance with a static line parachute drop, along with two combat-raiding small craft, well beyond detection by the Grenadian military. There was almost no intelligence for these operations. SEAL Team Six was assigned three pre-invasion missions: two clandestine political missions relating to regime change on the island, and reconnaissance from the sea of the new airfield under construction on the island's southwest coast. The invasion plan involved mixing conventional and special forces in a coordinated, surprise coup de main assault. On 25 October, the United States invaded Grenada, an operation codenamed Operation Urgent Fury. Adding to the U.S.' concern was the presence of nearly 1,000 American medical students in Grenada. The severity of the violence, coupled with Coard's hard-line Marxism, caused deep concern among neighboring Caribbean nations, as well as in Washington, D.C. Within days, Bishop and many of his supporters were dead, and the nation had been placed under martial law. On 12 October 1983 a hard-line faction of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Government of Grenada, controlled by former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, took control of the government from Bishop and placed him under house arrest. President Reagan considered the leftist government to be too closely allied to Cuba and the Soviet Union. This brought it into continuing conflict with the United States, as the administration of U.S. On 14 March 1979 the People's Revolutionary Army, led by Maurice Bishop, overthrew the newly independent government of the small island of Grenada and established a new regime based on socialist principles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |