October 21, 2016

October 27, 1983

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Thirty-three years ago, on October 27, 1983, U.S. forces – including U.S. Marines, U.S. Army Rangers, Paratroopers, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army Delta Force and U.S. Navy SEALs – airlifted nearly 500 medical students from the Caribbean island of Grenada, following the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop on October 19.

Among those rescued from St. George’s Medical School was Ukrainian American Ruta Cholhan, a 23-year-old native of Brooklyn, who spoke with The Ukrainian Weekly about her 84-hour ordeal of isolation and uncertainty.

Ms. Cholhan said that the U.S. invasion and liberation was “totally unexpected,” following the closing of the island’s airport. She noted that on the night before the landing, Grenadian troops had evacuated the beach in an apparent anticipation of an attack. Ms. Chohlan first learned of the invasion at 5:30 a.m. on October 25, when she, her two roommates and a friend – who had been staying with them after being evacuated from her home on the beach – were awakened by an older student who said the island was being invaded. Two hours prior, Ms. Cholhan had called her parents to let them know she was safe.

“We were all so scared, because we didn’t know who was invading,” she said, noting that she heard the roar of helicopter gunships and the sound of explosions in the distance. Nearly 200 students at the Grand Anse campus, four miles south of St. George’s, the Grenadian capital, had remained in their rooms, with many crouching on the floor for safety, while others barricaded windows and doors with mattresses and furniture. The students, Ms. Chohlan explained, feared that they might be taken hostage by Cuban regulars, many of whom were garrisoned not far from the campus.

“At 7 a.m. we turned on the radio and Radio Grenada announced the invasion by Americans,” Ms. Cholhan said.  Later that morning, some students began to venture out of their rooms. “Before the troops arrived [at the school], we were told by an older student to go get our papers and passports and to assemble in seven rooms so that the Marines would know exactly where we were,” she said.

When the Marines did arrive, they instructed the students to tie white armbands in order to identify them as students. The Marines formed a human wall along the beach as they quickly escorted the students to awaiting helicopters, with the Marines returning fire on Cuban troops.

“People were falling, there was gunfire and the Marines kept yelling, ‘keep running, keep running,’” Ms. Cholhan said.

The students were flown from Grenada to Barbados, and then to Charleston, S.C., where after 84 hours after the invasion began, Ms. Cholhan was able to telephone her parents to let them know she was safe.

Some experts, including those in the Soviet Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, as well as Trinidad and Tobago, among others, had criticized the U.S. invasion of Grenada as a violation of international law. The United Nations Security Council proposed a measure to label it as such, and the U.S. exercised its veto power. The U.N. General Assembly voted 108-9 to condemn the invasion.

Source: “Ukrainian med student describes Grenada rescue,” by George B. Zarycky, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 6, 1983.

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