Operation Urgent Fury - Image Post

Operation Urgent Fury was the codename for the US led invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983 in response to the military coup that had ousted the revolutionary left wing government.

US ground forces comprised primarily of 82^nd Airborne, 1^st & 2^nd Ranger Battalions and 22^nd MEU (Then MAU), with the special operations community represented by 1^st SFOD-D, SEAL teams 4 & 6 and 160^th SOAR.

A contingent of 82nd Airborne wearing the then new K-Pot.

 

Ranger, wearing dated gear.  Rangers were easy to identify in Grenada due to their Vietnam era fatigues and web equipment.

Unknown US personnel wearing the then out-dated ERDL fatigues.  The soldier to the left sports a claymore mine carrier, while the RTO on the right has a medium Alice pack with frame, concealing what is most probably an AN/PRC-77 VHF man pack radio.

Despite the introduction of the M16A2 a year earlier this 82^nd airborne member carries an M16A1 assault rifle.

More 82^nd Airborne here, this time wearing the PASGT protective vest.  The soldier on the left of the image has a CW-503 Accessory bag attached to the side of his AN/PRC-77 VHF Radio.  This pouch was used to stow the AT-271 Fish Pole Antenna and AT-892 Tape Antenna when not in use.  The AT-892 is affixed to the PRC-77 in this image.

An iconic image of Rangers in Grenada.  This image was used by the US Government as a propaganda image with the tag line “People of Grenada, your Caribbean neighbours with U.S support have come to Grenada to restore democracy and insure your safety”.

Some secret squirrel types.  I’ll leave you to muse over what unit these guys might be affiliated with, but they are most often attributed to SFOD-D.

 One of the most interesting aspects of the Grenada era is the mixture of equipment and weapons on display.  The US military was in a transitional period after the Vietnam War and a lot of the equipment was still in use alongside the newly introduced PASGT system, the M16A2 and of course the M81 BDU.