"Cuban Troops in 1984?" Topic

Hey all, my father's birthday is coming up in two months and I wanted to build him a special diorama. He served in the 82nd and 101st respectively (Airborne Rangers) from 1980-95.
When asked what he wanted, he told me about his time in Grenada, and the 82nds attack on the airfield at Port Salines. He was telling me about how the Cubans there blocked off the runway with a bunch of airfield equipment and the rangers had to dig them out of it to clear the airfield. I have the airfield equip, and the rangers for the diorama, but I cant find any 1/35 models of Cubans, or even similar soldiers to proxy for the Cubans. I know they had Russian equipment and had plain old fatigues with pot helmets but I can't find anything to match in 1/35. If anyone can help with a link to something usable, i would deeply appreciate it! Thanks!

Mongrel Miniatures made Syrians with the Ridgeway cap that can be used as Cubans. They're in 28mm. Could you modify or Russians for the same periods with head swaps? I would assume most of the equipment would be the same.

Urgent Fury took place in 1983 not '84. The Cubans were civilian construction workers not soldiers. What you are essentially looking for are lightly armed guys in pants, shirts, maybe a broad brimmed straw hat, possibly a helmet and an AKM. Maybe look at the various Dragon/DML Vietnam war sets to get basic figures and weapons then convert with head swaps or green stuff.

It's a diorama so I suppose it's just a caricature of events but IIRC the Cubans were nowhere near the stuff parked on the airfield when the Rangers landed, let alone when the 82nd finally arrived to carryboit the mopping up. They were mostly deployed around their camp, somewhere above the airfield.

There were one or two BTR60PB that had to be taken out and yes hes right there was a bit of small arms fire from the hills , but I do remember a few Cuban folks that looked like soldiers around. and there was a few BRDMs loose that some folks had to corall. Im pretty sure the marines got one or two and had a dust up with some so called "Construction workers". BTW see if you can find a verlinden catalog I seem to remember him putting out a set or two….

A relative of mine who was involved in operation urgent fury. He has pictures of cuban soldiers who were captured there.

Did I miss someones post? who said it was in 84??

There is also an Osprey that covers the fighting pretty well as well as the uniforms.

Not the fault of the troops but Urgent Fury was probably one of the more farcical military adventures the US has ever been involved. Incredibly poorly planned, not especially well executed either and on the whole a pointless waste of effort and lives. Whilst the outcome was never in doubt, due to the overwhelming odds, the operation courted disaster at several points not least the landing at the airport. Shall we jump shall or shall we land, shall we jump or shall we land? Probably less than amusing to be off loading your chute only to put it back on whilst inbound to a hot DZ.

Had the Cubans been soldiers (there were a tiny number of advisors, Fidel having really had his nose put out of joint by the murder of Maurice Bishop, the nominal catalyst for the invasion) and had they had instructions to actively resist then the Rangers would have got a very bloody nose.

The Marines met almost zero resistance, landing on the far side of the island, well away from the main concentration of Grenadian regulars who were concentrated in the West and Central portion of the island. Their landing was pretty poorly conceived and the objectives smacked of, let's find something for them to do. The militia that might have opposed them, failed to mobilise (sensibly) in large part due to popular anger over the murder of Bishop.

Undeniably brave, the SOF operations were where farce turned to tragedy. Poor intel, poor planning, poor results. Hardly a vindication of the intervening years since the disaster of Eagle Claw.

The most farcical aspect though, was the lack of a plan to 'rescue' the students at the True Blue Campus. It took the invaders over 48 hours to reach them. Remember this was the justification Reagan gave for the invasion, protecting US lives.

Still, Urgent Fury does serve as a good compare and contrast with Operation Corporate. It's not a comparison that does the US any favours though.

Sorry i mistyped the title, yes it was in 83, not 84. And upon talking to him again he mentioned that the rangers used the construction equip as cover from the fire they took. I mixed that up with them fighting in the cover. I'll have to swap a few things around. And yes there were cuban soldiers, I've seen the pictures he has. Not saying they were all soldiers, but there were cuban soldiers there. Thanks for the reference on the figs, I might be able to modify the scale of the rangers.

Gunny Highway -- take point!

Normally I don't comment on "real World" post 1980 operations but I was working for DMA (Defense Mapping Agency) when that went down. I remember that DMA was kept out of the loop until 48 (?) hours prior to show-time. The IC and DOD had not requested any (repeat any) National Technical Means imagery at any time ever so (surprise, surprise,) DM had not produced ay large scale (small area) source. If I remember Correctly we had nothing smaller than ONCs (1:1,000,000) available.

Yes we put a grid on a tourist map. You use what you have, not what some Combat Officer (even a Flag Officer) wants you to magically create. Even a week could have provided imagery and annotated imagery products which would have been far more accurate. Security was the excuse… sorry, "reason" DMA was not included in planning. OPSEC resulted in a force entering into combat essentially blind to the terrain.

We told everyone involved what grid it was but the Army and Marines (If I rememebr correctly) each used a different grid system at that time and each assumed we provided their grids on the maps they received. This assumption led to at least one fatal Blue-on-Blue incident. The known absolute and relative accuracy issues in the chart provided (I hesitate to call it a map) should have prevented it being used for indirect fire (hell maybe even direct fire for some weapons) but there was nothing else available…

As much as I despise Wikipedia (and there are several errors (IMO) on the relevant Wikipedia page link such as "military grid reference lines were drawn by hand" which is blatantly not true,) the chronic problem with "INTEL" (military or civilian) which existed is correctly alluded to in the article. DOS/IC/DOD sources all were crucially wrong at some point.

Since DMA became NGA (via NIMA) and was folded into the IC – I would not be surprised that the fixes that resulted afterwards have been degraded by the change in mission.

I will refrain from specifically commenting on Cuba's role in actions in Latin America that today would constitute terrorism except to say that the ill will between the governments of both Cuba and the USA led to myopic views on all sides that allowed improperly vetted information to drive the crisis.

Recovered 1AO – mad respect

Still, America kicked ass, in spite of appalling planning. I lived in America then and it was a real morale boost after Nam. Reagan is the greatest modern president. He didn't take shi t from Commies and I'll always respect that.

Also them Rangers on Salines took casualties from AAA while floating in. But they improvised and kicked ass, used a bulldozer as cover to regroup and took the fight to the enemy. True American enginuity, individual improvisation and taking the initiative. I think we can respect the Rangers that went into a "cake walk" but actually had a hard fight. Advancing on Grenadians and Cubans across an airfield with dead Americans on it wearing the same jump boots as you are wasn't no cake walk I'm sure..

Marine Corps: "Plan? We don't need no stick'n plan"

That was my old unit that went in.

The SEAL's had a very rough time too.

Rangers:
link

This is bad, this is bad, I thought, watching the fire rip across the far end of the runway. This is when a unit is the most vulnerable. Just as they land and their leaders are scattered and they haven't had the time to reorganize.

But then I saw an amazing sight. The Rangers rose from the ground as one organism, screaming their war cries, and assaulted straight across the runway toward the enemy guns. Within ten minutes, the guns fell silent. The third and last pass of Rangers jumped almost unmolested.

Later that day I learned that a corporal had led the spontaneous assault across the airfield. Somebody said the guy jumped up from the ground and shouted, "I've had enough of this shi t!" and took off across the airfield toward the enemy positions. Every man near him jumped up to follow, and the attack spread like wildfire up and down the length of the airfield. Goddamn! What Soldiers!"

Wolfhag

He served in the 82nd and 101st respectively (Airborne Rangers) from 1980-95.

I'd tell him to give his father my best. I served with the 101, '80-'83. But was out of the 101 and at Inf Ofr Adv Course when that op went down. After that I was going to the 2ID in the ROK.

But this original post was like 6 years ago !

Wolf +1