April 24, 1980

[chuckman]

Like four Navy SEALs drowning? SEALs don't usually drown.

Delta was near the airfield before the Rangers jumped in but were essentially pinned down. (from the link I posted below) A U.S. Army Delta Force reconnoitered Point Salines for the next day's invasion. Both the
SEALs and the Delta Force ran into stiff enemy opposition in the St. George's area and at nearby Point Salines.

Good detailed read here about Grenada: https://media.defense.gov/2012/Aug/2...urgentfury.pdf

Guy in my unit in Panama, SGT Pack, was at that time a Ranger in the first pass of aircraft to jump into Point Salines. Had the "mustard stain" on his jump wings. He told us that his group of Rangers got dropped and the aircraft were taking heavy fire from AAA. They temporarily halted dropping anymore guys as they called in an AC-130 Spectre to work over the AAA positions. The guys on the ground didn't know this and all they saw when they hit the ground was the rest of the C-130's pull away. He said the first thing that crossed his mind was "Holy fvck, they left us!"

Essentially it was a clusterfvck that managed to work in the end.

The SEAL AAR of Grenada is entitled "how to not conduct operations." A lot of what ST6 did, they were advised not to, said "we're gonna do them anyway," like a boat drop and SEALs into prohibitive winds and sea state. That's how SEALs drown.

The two units that had the most operational success? Marines and 82nd Airborne.

A Delta guy said it was invaluable because they learned that some of their TTPs were just bad and they were fortunate no one died, went back with a "back to the drawing board" mentality.

[T2C]

In addition to Eagle Claw, I have read that Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada) also involved everyone wanting in on the action. Of course it was only 3+ years after the debacle at Desert One so there were still some hiccups.

Communication issues between Command and Control and amphibious units were a problem.