First off–another round of doctors todayso posting may be a bit low….I apologize for that and will be back as soon as possible–love you guys.  chuq

After the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983 killing US Marines the US was reeling from the defeat and the forced withdrawal of troops from Lebanon…..the US was embarrassed and they had to find away to reassert their dominance in the world.

Reagan and the Boyz were presented with perfect solution…..Grenada.

Thirty-four years ago, this week (October 25th) the U.S. invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada, rescued some medical students, and rounded-up a gang of thugs and criminals, along with their Cuban communist backers. Remember that? More than a few people back then had a hard time pronouncing the name of the place or even locating it in the right hemisphere. The conflict was wrapped up in a matter of weeks and America moved on, the Spice Isle all but forgotten. But in U.S. military history the invasion of Grenada turned out to be a very big deal indeed because the post-mortem on the inter-service bickering and lack of communication led directly to reforms and a new kind of cooperative warfare bearing more than tropical fruit today. The road to Abbottabad and the takedown of Osama bin Laden arguably begins three-decades before in Grenada.

When President Reagan gave the order to take the island, the Defense Department was new to the game of small wars and did what it always did: sent everyone to the party but without an experienced organizer. The Marines, freshly bloodied in the Beirut barracks bombing only days before, got a ride from the Navy which would be in charge. At the last minute, the 82nd Airborne was called in to insure enough of the right people were present. Those new small teams of Special Ops forces–the Deltas and SEALS–would be part of the mix too. In fact, they were originally the party and then the invitations expanded. Seven-thousand troops, in all. Looking back now, it was a dysfunctional family, gathered in duress, with each service trying to outdo the other. What we had here, too often, was a failure to communicate. Army helicopters bringing casualties were waved off Navy decks for a lack of Army helo pilot to Navy ship radio. And, the famous incident, the SEAL officer and his men pinned down rescuing Sir Paul Scoon forced to use his ATT calling card to ring up the command in North Carolina to direct an air strike of the AC-130 gunships overhead due a positioning anomaly.

Source: Grenada 1983: How the U.S. Military Got its Mojo Back | Small Wars Journal

And, as they say, the rest is history…….