Operation Urgent Fury

In the fall of 1983, arguably the coldest year of the decades-long Cold War, the world's greatest superpower invaded Grenada, a Marxist-led Caribbean nation the size of Atlanta. Why and how this unlikely one-week war was waged was shrouded in secrecy at the time--and has remained so ever since. This book is an overdue reconsideration of Operation Urgent Fury, based on historical evidence that only recently has been revealed in declassified documents, oral history interviews and memoir accounts. This chronological narrative emphasizes the human dimension of a sudden crisis now regarded as the greatest foreign policy challenge of President Ronald Reagan's first term. Because the American intervention was hastily drafted, many snafus and accidents marked the chaotic initial days of the operation. Inevitably it fell to individual soldiers, aviators and sailors to perform heroic acts to make up for faulty intelligence, inadequate communication or poor coordination. This work recounts their inspiring, underreported stories in filling out a more complete portrait of Operation Urgent Fury. The final chapter recounts the invasion's aftereffects, especially the unexpected role it played in Congressional reform of the military for future combat in the Middle East.

Why did the United States invade the sovereign state of Grenada in October 1983, risking world condemnation and the possible escalation of violence outside the borders of the tiny Caribbean island? According to the contributors to this book, the invasion-code-named "Urgent Fury"--was a product of the increasing concern with political instability in

Operation URGENT FURY: The Invasion of Grenada, October 1983, prepared by Richard W. Stewart, is an edited extract of Center historian Edgar Raines' larger account of U.S. Army operations on Grenada entitled The Rucksack War: U.S. Army Operational Logistics in Grenada, October-November 1983. The brochure tells the story of the U.S. Army's "no-notice" joint force contingency operation on the island of Grenada. Because of a deteriorating political situation on Grenada after the deposing and execution of the leader of the government by its own military, the perceived need to deal firmly with Soviet and Cuban influence in the Caribbean, and the potential for several hundred U.S. citizens becoming hostages, the Ronald W. Reagan administration launched an invasion of the island with only a few days for the military to plan operations. While the U.S. military's capabilities were never in doubt, the unexpectedly strong Cuban and Grenadian resistance in the first two days of the operation and the host of American military errors in planning, intelligence, communications, and logistics highlighted the dangers of even small contingency operations. As the first joint operation attempted since the end of the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada also underscored the problems the U.S. Army faced in trying to work in a joint environment with its Air Force, Navy, and Marine counterparts.

Describes role of the U.S. Army operations on Grenada in October 1983.

An airborne Ranger's memoir of the Grenada invasion, Operation Urgent Fury. On October 25, 1983, Rangers from the 1st and 2d Ranger Battalions parachuted into the teeth of the Cuban defenses on revolutionary Grenada. This account of the combat jump, the battles to seize the airfield at Point Salines, the evacuation of American students at Grand Anse, and a raid against the Cuban barracks at Point Calivigny is told for the first time by a participant. Richly illustrated. Corrected edition.