laststandonzombieisland

The green light to intervention in Grenada, besides the fact that 50 American diplomats and 600 American medical students were caught in the crossfire of the country’s latest military coup, was that the acting head of the eight-member OECS, Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica, asked the U.S. to intervene in Grenada. Her request was made on behalf of seven members—Dominica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda. This request was endorsed by Commonwealth member Grenada’s figurehead governor-general, Paul Scoon, who represented the queen on the island but was under house arrest at the time and had no voice in the Marxist government.

While a mixed task group of Delta-augmented Rangers, SEAL-augmented Marines, and a brigade of the 82nd Airborne did the ground fighting from 25-29 October, a smaller light battalion-sized follow-on force drawn from the OECS, dubbed the Eastern Caribbean Peace Force, arrived to provide a constabualry force on Grenada for the next 23 months.

Prime Minister Seaga promised a reinforced infantry company from Jamaica and Prime Minister Adams a reinforced infantry platoon from Barbados. At the same time, the other prime ministers–Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis– contributed detachments from their police forces. Antigua and Barbuda later chipped in an infantry squad.

Until that time, the forces had never worked together although they did share a mix of Commonwealth (British) kit including some WWII-vintage helmets, Pattern 58 web gear, and inch-pattern FN FAL L1A1 variants– which at least used 7.62 NATO, the latter about the only thing the Americans could support.

Consisting of 353 troops from allied Caribbean nations, the force was under the command of Colonel Rudyard Lewis, who began his military career in 1951 when he enlisted as a cadet in the old Barbados Regiment and, after graduating from Sandhurst in 1962 and 15 years of service with the Jamaica Defence Force, became Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force in 1980.

The U.S. accepted transport and supply ownership of the ECPF from the get-go, with the USAF flying the contingents to the island via C-130s and the Navy covering their immediate logistics needs (such as food, helmets, flak vests, boots, and some field radios), a task that later fell to the Army.

While it was envisioned that the Carribean peacekeepers would, at the most, guard arrested Cuban nationals/surrendered Grenadian POWs until they were repatriated or paroled– a task they took over from 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers on the afternoon of 24 October just after they landed– they were also used in a limited role in supporting JTF 123’s stalled attack on St. George’s on 25 October.

The CMH’s history of the subject, The Rucksack War, notes, “The American officers who worked with the Caribbean Peacekeeping Force generally gave high marks to the soldiers from Jamaica and Barbados.”

The 2nd Ranger’s S-4 shop, led by Capt. Jose G. Ventura, also found the Jamaican and Barbadan troops to have a particular skill set.

From The Rucksack War:

Captain Ventura’s first thought after relinquishing the detainees was to obtain a share of the captured vehicles for the 2d Battalion. Some of the members of the Caribbean Peacekeeping Force, he noted, were quite adept at jump-starting trucks. One of them helped him start a number of vehicles that he wanted—two water trucks full of potable water and a big Soviet dump truck that could be used for hauling supplies.

By the 27th, the Barbados platoon of the ECPF was detailed to protect the residence of Governor General Sir Paul Scoon, who was the de facto government on the island at the time.

By the late afternoon of the 28th, the peacekeepers handed over the POW compound to the recently flown-in 118th Military Police Company of the XVIII Airborne Corps and switched to general policing and internal security roles. After that, the ECPF would report to Scoon directly.

When the last U.S. combat unit on Grenada– 2d Battalion, 505th Infantry– left the island on 12 December– B. Gen. Jeffrey M. Farris (Citadel ’59) turned over command of the Urgent Fury operation (then renamed Operation Island Breeze) to the ECPF. 

Together with a 250-man group of XVIII Corps technical advisers and some British police trainers, they would rebuild the Royal Grenadian Police Force and stand guard during the 1984 presidential election on the island.

The mission completed, the last 60 soldiers from the XVIII Airborne Corps departed Grenada on 11 June 1985 and the final members of the ECPF left at the end of that September.

The ECPF led to the creation of the Barbados-based Regional Security System, with most of the same member nations. They just observed the group’s 40th anniversary, and conduct a yearly Unity Exercise (UNEX) in addition to frequently activating the system’s Response Mechanism “to assist and support our Member States in the event of any occurrence of damage or threat to life,” usually in mutual humanitarian and constabulary support after hurricanes and tropical storms. They also share research, intelligence, advisory, technical, and administrative support among the member states.