thedrifter
03-08-04, 11:06 AM
Issue Date: March 08, 2004
The Lore of the Corps
After Grenada, landing team secured Carriacou
By Keith A. Milks
Special to the times
On Oct. 25, 1983, massive U.S. military force was brought to bear against the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which for years had increasingly fallen under Cuban and Soviet influence. One part of that force was the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, for which the Grenada invasion was a stop along the way to Beirut, Lebanon, where it would become part of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force.
And though the MAU constituted less than a quarter of the entire invasion force, it ended up securing nearly 70 percent of the island over the course of the five-day operation.
With the island officially declared secure Oct. 30, the MAU began the laborious process of returning its personnel and equipment to the amphibious ships Guam, Barnstable County, Fort Snelling, Trenton and Manitowoc to continue on to Lebanon.
As MAU commander Col. James P. Faulkner was overseeing the loading of his forces onto the ships, he received word his Marines had one more mission in the Grenada operation.
As Operation Urgent Fury unfolded, rumors began to circulate about the small island of Carriacou, three miles northeast of Grenada. These included reports that members of Grenada’s Peoples’ Revolutionary Army and even North Korean troops were on the island, ready to make a stand against the American invaders.
From Oct. 30 to Oct. 31, the Marines were reassembled from far-flung locations on Grenada and reboarded their ships as Faulkner and his staff planned the invasion of Carriacou. They set the landing for 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 1.
The plan was relatively simple.
The MAU’s ground combat element — Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines — would conduct a simultaneous helicopter and amphibious landing to secure the small island.
Two hours before the invasion, a small team of Navy SEAL commandos waded ashore at and reconnoitered the proposed beach-landing zone. As scheduled, at 5:30 a.m., Capt. Robert Dobson’s Golf Company splashed ashore at Tyrell Bay in amphibious assault vehicles. Meanwhile, Fox Company, led by Capt. Michael Dick, landed near the village of Hillsborough aboard helicopters from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261.
Neither force met with resistance, as the reported North Korean and PRA troops turned out to be phantoms. Fox Company rolled into Hillsborough to be met, not by grenades and rifle fire, but by waves and shouts of encouragement. Golf Company overran the hilltop PRA fort called Belair Estate without firing a shot and netted a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Lt. Col. Ray Smith, the commander of BLT 2/8, accepted the voluntary surrender of 19 PRA soldiers, who had changed into civilian clothes at the onset of the invasion, and immediately paroled them, confident they would not interfere with the Marines’ mission. Less than three hours after the “invasion” began, Carriacou was declared secure.
The writer is a gunnery sergeant deployed with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C. He can be reached at kambtp@aol.com.
http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2666308.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
The Lore of the Corps
After Grenada, landing team secured Carriacou
By Keith A. Milks
Special to the times
On Oct. 25, 1983, massive U.S. military force was brought to bear against the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which for years had increasingly fallen under Cuban and Soviet influence. One part of that force was the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, for which the Grenada invasion was a stop along the way to Beirut, Lebanon, where it would become part of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force.
And though the MAU constituted less than a quarter of the entire invasion force, it ended up securing nearly 70 percent of the island over the course of the five-day operation.
With the island officially declared secure Oct. 30, the MAU began the laborious process of returning its personnel and equipment to the amphibious ships Guam, Barnstable County, Fort Snelling, Trenton and Manitowoc to continue on to Lebanon.
As MAU commander Col. James P. Faulkner was overseeing the loading of his forces onto the ships, he received word his Marines had one more mission in the Grenada operation.
As Operation Urgent Fury unfolded, rumors began to circulate about the small island of Carriacou, three miles northeast of Grenada. These included reports that members of Grenada’s Peoples’ Revolutionary Army and even North Korean troops were on the island, ready to make a stand against the American invaders.
From Oct. 30 to Oct. 31, the Marines were reassembled from far-flung locations on Grenada and reboarded their ships as Faulkner and his staff planned the invasion of Carriacou. They set the landing for 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 1.
The plan was relatively simple.
The MAU’s ground combat element — Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines — would conduct a simultaneous helicopter and amphibious landing to secure the small island.
Two hours before the invasion, a small team of Navy SEAL commandos waded ashore at and reconnoitered the proposed beach-landing zone. As scheduled, at 5:30 a.m., Capt. Robert Dobson’s Golf Company splashed ashore at Tyrell Bay in amphibious assault vehicles. Meanwhile, Fox Company, led by Capt. Michael Dick, landed near the village of Hillsborough aboard helicopters from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261.
Neither force met with resistance, as the reported North Korean and PRA troops turned out to be phantoms. Fox Company rolled into Hillsborough to be met, not by grenades and rifle fire, but by waves and shouts of encouragement. Golf Company overran the hilltop PRA fort called Belair Estate without firing a shot and netted a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Lt. Col. Ray Smith, the commander of BLT 2/8, accepted the voluntary surrender of 19 PRA soldiers, who had changed into civilian clothes at the onset of the invasion, and immediately paroled them, confident they would not interfere with the Marines’ mission. Less than three hours after the “invasion” began, Carriacou was declared secure.
The writer is a gunnery sergeant deployed with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C. He can be reached at kambtp@aol.com.
http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2666308.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: