(2 of 10)
The invasion was conducted with the declared purpose of protecting the lives of 1,000 Americans who were trapped on the island after a bloody, left-wing military coup. Although six of Grenada's worried Caribbean neighbors had requested the U.S. action and supplied a token force of 400 men to the operation, many nations accused the U.S. of violating international law. Still, as the surprisingly difficult military operation continued, the Administration was able to produce evidence that Grenada was becoming a Soviet-Cuban base that threatened U.S. strategic interests in the Caribbean.
At first, the Marines met little resistance. They had chosen to assault the island's east coast by helicopter, rather than with landing craft, because advance intelligence probes found too many shoals and other obstacles on the island's northeastern shore. Within two hours, the Marines declared Pearls airport secure.
The Rangers, however, ran into unexpectedly heavy antiaircraft fire as their choppers approached Point Salines. Much of the flak came from the barracks area where Cuban workers building the airstrip were housed. The Pentagon had expected to find about 500 Cubans on the island, including 350 workers and a small military advisory group. Instead, they were facing more than 600 wellarmed, professionally trained soldiers.
As the Rangers drifted toward the airstrip in their chutes, the Cubans met them with AK-47 automatic-rifle fire. Armored personnel carriers, filled with either Cuban troops or ammunition, suddenly appeared within 400 yds. of the Ranger landing sites. They aimed mortars at the invaders' positions. The Rangers took cover and returned small-arms fire. U.S. gunships protectively sprayed the resisting forces. "They were waiting for us," recalled First Lieut. Michael Menu, who was wounded in the initial attack. "We could hear the shooting and the bombs, but we could not see anything," said Sergeant Terry Guinn, who lay wounded while hearing Cubans all around him.
Awakened by the explosions, the American students at the True Blue campus of St. George's University School of Medicine did not know who was shooting at whom. "There was antiaircraft fire coming from the Cubans around the airport," said Harold Harvey, 22, of Beckley, W. Va. "Then I saw the paratroopers jumping. It was really thrilling to see, kind of like an old John Wayne movie, but I knew people were going to get killed." Student Stephen Renae of Point Pleasant, N.J., saw "planes diving and strafing at ground targets we couldn't see. The worst thing was not knowing where the planes were from."
Some students rolled under their beds. Some jumped into bathtubs. Bullets crashed into their rooms, one piercing a pillow. John Kopycinski, an assistant to the school chancellor, banged on the doors of students' rooms and told them to block their windows with mattresses against the possibility of shattering glass. He ordered them to draw their shades and not leave their rooms. Student Mark Barettella of Ridgefield, N.J., flipped on a ham radio transceiver in his room and aired the first personal account of what was happening. "Right now we can't move," he said. "I'm on the floor. The microphone is on the floor."