{"id":566,"date":"2016-10-14T15:41:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T19:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecaribbeanist.com\/?post_type=glossary&#038;p=566"},"modified":"2019-03-10T15:46:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T19:46:01","slug":"operation-urgent-fury","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Urgent Fury<span class=\"dashicons \" data-icon=\"\" style=\"color:#000;display:inline;vertical-align:baseline;\"><\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the Bloody Wednesday execution of Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop by his fellow NJM members, the USA led an invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983\u00a0code-named <em>Operation Urgent Fury.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The operation authorized by then US President and commander in chief Ronald Reagan, was at the time the largest US military operation since Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NpDe8FShu_Y?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The USA rationalized the invasion (which they refer to as a &#8216;rescue mission&#8217;) by saying that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The St. George&#8217;s Medical School students were in danger &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>Officials of the school denied this. Students denied this.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The US was invited to intervene by the signers of the OECS &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>This would only have been internationally legal had Grenada invaded another island. The decision was made by four of the seven signatories. The invitation was actually drafted by the US State Department.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Grenada threatened US security with the construction of a military airport<\/strong> &#8211; Grenada&#8217;s new Point Salines airport was a civilian airport built to accommodate tourists. Studies and planning for the site had begun more than 25 years beforehand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"sc-separator type-thin\"><\/div>\n<blockquote><p>Our safety was never in danger. \u00a0We were used as an excuse by this government to invade Grenada. They needed a reason to go in, and we were it!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4 style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">&#8212; Gary Solin, Bursar at St George&#8217;s Medical School<\/h4>\n<div class=\"sc-separator type-thin\"><\/div>\n<p>The US feared that if the RMC learned about the invasion the medical students ran the risk of being taken hostage. \u00a0As a result, the operation was kept top secret; not even Congress knew what was planned.<\/p>\n<p>The force of the US military was no match for the Grenadian troops:<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-title\"><h2 class=\"title\"><span>David vs. Goliath<\/span><\/h2><span class=\"sub-title\">7,000 US troops + 300 OAS troops VS. 1,500 Grenadians + 700 Cubans<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Shortly before 5:30AM on October 25, 1983, US Marines, Rangers and Special Ops landed in various locations throughout Grenada:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>US Marines arrived via helicopter at Pearls Airport on the island&#8217;s north-east coast.<\/li>\n<li>US Rangers landed by parachute at the almost-complete Point Salines airport located on the south-west tip of Grenada and later at the nearby True Blue campus of the medical school.<\/li>\n<li>Special Ops units were responsible for securing a variety of locations around the capital of St Georges, specifically:\n<ul>\n<li>The Governor General,\u00a0Sir Paul Scoon&#8217;s home<\/li>\n<li>Fort Rupert, the army headquarters<\/li>\n<li>Richmond Hill Prison<\/li>\n<li>Radio Free Grenada broadcast studios<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The medical students were evacuated to Barbados. \u00a0Prisoners being held by the NJM\u00a0and RMC were released. \u00a0NJM leaders were found and arrested.<\/p>\n<p>Fighting lasted three (3) days.<\/p>\n<p>Urgent Fury resulted in 24 civilian deaths many of whom were patients in Richmond Hill psychiatric hospital inadvertently bombed by US planes.<\/p>\n<p>Many skeptics believe that this invasion had little to do with Bishop&#8217;s death and was instead motivated by the USA&#8217;s desire to remove any trace of left-wing governments in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n<p>The invasion (or rescue mission)\u00a0was denounced by many\u00a0including the United Kingdom and the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p>In light of the murders, the chaos, the 24-hour curfews and subsequent threats lodged by the newly-formed Revolutionary Military Council,\u00a0the arrival of US forces (or anyone for that matter) was welcomed by the majority of Grenada&#8217;s terrified population and seen as a rescue mission.<\/p>\n<p>In remembrance of this day, October 25th is celebrated as Thanksgiving Day, a\u00a0national holiday in Grenada.<\/p>\n<h2>Interestingly&#8230;<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There is some evidence that as early as 1981 an invasion led by US may have already been planned. \u00a0[Beginning in 1981, the US rehearsed the invasion of Grenada openly. It bombed the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. \u00a0During this make-believe scenario &#8211; Ocean Venture &#8211; Americans are held hostage.]<\/li>\n<li>The American press was kept out of Grenada for days following the invasion. \u00a0When they were finally admitted to Grenada, the rest of the world saw photos of smiling Grenadians welcoming the invasion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"glossary-categories":[13,14],"glossary-tags":[22],"glossary-languages":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.7 (Yoast SEO v19.7.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Operation Urgent Fury | Caribbean Glossary by The Grenada Revo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Operation Urgent Fury: The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Operation Urgent Fury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Operation Urgent Fury: The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Grenada Revo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-10T19:46:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/\",\"name\":\"Operation Urgent Fury | Caribbean Glossary by The Grenada Revo\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-14T19:41:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-10T19:46:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"Operation Urgent Fury: The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Operation Urgent Fury\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Story of the Grenada Revolution\",\"description\":\"The story of the Grenada Revolution\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Operation Urgent Fury | Caribbean Glossary by The Grenada Revo","description":"Operation Urgent Fury: The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Operation Urgent Fury","og_description":"Operation Urgent Fury: The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983","og_url":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/","og_site_name":"The Grenada Revo","article_modified_time":"2019-03-10T19:46:01+00:00","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/","url":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/","name":"Operation Urgent Fury | Caribbean Glossary by The Grenada Revo","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-14T19:41:22+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-10T19:46:01+00:00","description":"Operation Urgent Fury: The US-led military invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/glossary\/operation-urgent-fury\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Operation Urgent Fury"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/","name":"The Story of the Grenada Revolution","description":"The story of the Grenada Revolution","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/566\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"glossary-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"glossary-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-tags?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"glossary-languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grenadarevo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-languages?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}