Potential PODs concerning Operation Urgent Fury

This is just my relatively uninformed evaluation, but it seems to me like the planning of the invasion of Grenada was pretty haphazard and there was a lot of potential for serious screwups. Poor intelligence seemed to hamper the operation from almost the very start (most notably in the ignorance of the location of half of the American medical students), and poor coordination between the different armed services resulted in quite a lot of miscommunication and a number of friendly fire incidents.

In light of these facts, are there any potential PODs that might result in Operation Urgent Fury turning into something of a total disaster with sizable American casualties on the ground and/or American civilians taken hostage?
 
I guess Black Hawk Down or Eagle Claw style scr*w up is a possibility. However the size of the intervention and sheer amount of forces deployed would mean such an incident could only be insignificant. But if the hostages died too, it could produce rather bad press stateside, I guess. And tarnish the reputation of US Army. But would there be a real significant consequences from this? Who knows.
 

NothingNow

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In light of these facts, are there any potential PODs that might result in Operation Urgent Fury turning into something of a total disaster with sizable American casualties on the ground and/or American civilians taken hostage?

A handful of unidentified 9K33M3/SA-8B systems on the island?
 
The lilkeliest cause of us casualties... Blue on blue

Black hawk down scenario doesn't seem too likely, because in Grenada, unlike Somalia, very few people will be armed or especially angry.
 
Could a mass hostage-type scenario and botched military operation get bad enough to, say, damage Reagan's reelection campaign in '84?
 
My thought is if the Cuban 'construction workers' defending the airfield had better warning & adaquate preperation time they could have done a lot more damage to the Rangers parachuting in.

The lilkeliest cause of us casualties... Blue on blue

According to one US Marine officer there was a naval gunfire bombardment ordered on a embassy. There was a description of this published in the Marine Corps Gazette back in the 1990s. A case of mistaken identification of a national flag over a cluster of houses caused the fire mission to be ordered up. A problem in the fire control delayed the mission until common sense intervened & the fire mission was canceled. That would have been embarassing :eek: and tragic.
 
Could a mass hostage-type scenario and botched military operation get bad enough to, say, damage Reagan's reelection campaign in '84?

On top of the 1983 mass casualty event in Lebanon, with the botched airstrike & captured USN pilot? If the Democrats had come up with a credible 'defense' candidate it would have been curtains for Regan. As it was the Democrats had a tough sell to make even with a hypothetical catastrophe in Grenada.
 
This is just my relatively uninformed evaluation, but it seems to me like the planning of the invasion of Grenada was pretty haphazard and there was a lot of potential for serious screwups.

The afternoon Panama was invaded the folk at NPR had a inspration. They started calling hotels in Panama & asking the desk clerks what was going on. They hit pay dirt. I'll never forget the conversation between some hapless assistant manager at a hotel & the NPR reporter (Kokie Roberts?). It went more or less like this:

NPR: Where are you?

Panama: Hiding behind the desk in the hotel lobby

NPR: What is going on there?

Panama: There is much shooting

NPR: Who is shooting?

Panama: The Americans

NPR: Who else is shooting? The Panamanian Army?

Panama: No one, the Panamanian Army ran away. Long ago.

Priceless stuff :D
 
The afternoon Panama was invaded the folk at NPR had a inspration. They started calling hotels in Panama & asking the desk clerks what was going on. They hit pay dirt. I'll never forget the conversation between some hapless assistant manager at a hotel & the NPR reporter (Kokie Roberts?). It went more or less like this:

NPR: Where are you?

Panama: Hiding behind the desk in the hotel lobby

NPR: What is going on there?

Panama: There is much shooting

NPR: Who is shooting?

Panama: The Americans

NPR: Who else is shooting? The Panamanian Army?

Panama: No one, the Panamanian Army ran away. Long ago.

Priceless stuff :D

Lol - great story.
 
This is just my relatively uninformed evaluation, but it seems to me like the planning of the invasion of Grenada was pretty haphazard and there was a lot of potential for serious screwups.

it's not just you. Lots of people said the same thing at the time, and the one book I have on the subject applauded the invasion and derided the execution of it.
 
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