Operation Urgent Fury · Grenada
Airborne Invasion of Grenada. Rangers at dawn.
At first light on October 25, 1983, Army Rangers parachuted onto the airfield at Point Salines. Three days later, Grenada was under U.S. and Eastern Caribbean control.
25 October 1983 – 28 October 1983
- 5:36 a.m.Rangers begin the parachute assault on Point Salines
- ~1,000Americans on the island, mostly medical students
- 9,800 ftAirstrip built under Grenada’s Communist government
- 3 daysUntil U.S. and OECS forces firmly controlled Grenada
01 / The assault
Rangers over Point Salines.
At 5:36 a.m. on October 25, 1983, Lt. Col. Wesley Taylor’s 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers began a low-level parachute assault on the Point Salines airfield. The 2nd Battalion followed close behind.
The Rangers had three jobs: seize the airfield, clear the runway of obstructions, and secure the American citizens at the nearby medical school campus.
Surprise was lost.
The assault was planned as a surprise. It wasn’t one. Soldiers of the People’s Revolutionary Army and Cuban forces were already alert and waiting to defend the airfield when the Rangers jumped.
02 / The background
A coup, an airstrip, a call for help.
Grenada’s crisis began in 1979, when a Marxist coup brought a Communist government to power. Under that government, construction began on a 9,800-foot airstrip.
In 1983 a second, even more violent coup left more than 100 Grenadians dead. Grenada’s governor general secretly asked the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for help, and the OECS in turn asked the United States to intervene.
A Soviet client state in the Caribbean was, to President Reagan, unacceptable.
Why Washington acted.
President Ronald Reagan ordered the intervention for several reasons:
- A Soviet client state in the Caribbean was unacceptable to the administration.
- The long airstrip threatened Caribbean sea lanes and the Panama Canal, and could support Cuban and Soviet flights to Africa and Nicaragua.
- About 1,000 Americans, most of them medical students, were on the island and potentially in danger.
03 / The timeline
From coup to control.
Marxist coup
A Communist government takes power and begins building a 9,800-foot airstrip.
A violent second coup
More than 100 Grenadians are killed. The governor general secretly appeals to the OECS, which asks the U.S. for help.
Rangers jump
1st Battalion, 75th Rangers parachutes onto Point Salines, followed by the 2nd Battalion.
The 82nd Airborne arrives
The 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade airlands at Point Salines and is reinforced by its 3rd Brigade.
Grenada secured
U.S. and OECS forces have firm control of the island.
04 / The forces
Hastily planned. Overwhelming force.
Operation Urgent Fury came together quickly, but it brought far more power than the island’s defenders could match.
U.S. & OECS forces
- The Independence Carrier Battle Group
- An amphibious group led by the helicopter carrier Guam
- 1,700 Marines
- 2 Ranger battalions
- A brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division
- Token forces from the OECS
Defending the island
- ~600 Grenadian troops
- ~2,500 militiamen
- ~800 Cubans
05 / See it in person
Interested in learning more about Operation Urgent Fury?
Visit the U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to see the Operation Urgent Fury exhibit and the stories of the Soldiers who made the jump.
