[Below that I drew a map of Grenada, with labels showing the Caribbean, Pt Salines, the Capital of St. George's, the town of Gouyave and a dot near the middle labeled, "Me at Banana Station"]Page # 1Sunday 4th December 83Dear Everyone,
Well here I am in Grenada. So what's new at home? Did the turkey day feast go well? How is the weather, any snow yet? Does Pa have my snowmobile running yet? Don't forget to tell Audrey I want to go skiing some time still. Oh yes, Grenada, well it's nice here.
Thanksgiving I spent most of the day over at Curry's trailer. I was surprised to see that [Doug] Williams, my (black) roommate has a nice white girlfriend. [John] Shaw, the newest guy in our section stopped by briefly with his newly-wed wife so we all got to see him and meet her. The next day, Friday, I called about a flight home. From Fayetteville it would cost me $232.00 to come home and go back. I made reservations, but at the time they were not confirmed. Hopefully by now they are confirmed, but I have no way to know until I get back. And when I do get back, my jump pay ought to be in, so I can use that money to buy my plane ticket.
Now about Grenada: Friday morning I washed some clothes and packed my rucksack. I spent the day in the billets and cleaned up my room & wall locker in order that it would be presentable if there were some stupid inspection in my absence.
About 11:30 p.m. Sgt Anderson knocked on the door to see if I was ready, then we went down to draw our weapons. 12:30 the First Sergeant gave us a little briefing and off we went, down to Pope Air Force Base on the back of a 2 1/2 ton truck. There were about 16 of us, some from B Company, some from A. We sat around in the "chute shed" were we normally put on Parachutes. Someone had brought a pizza & there was a soda machine there. There was sort of a festive atmosphere, like a bunch of people going on vacation. About 2:30 a.m. we went outside into the cold (mid 30's) to get on the plane. But they hadn't finished fueling it so we waited 'til 3:00 to get on. Once on board we all sat toward the front, as there were large pallets with big piles of boxes strapped down in the rear. By the way, the plane was a C-141 Star Lifter, a 4-engine jet.
Page 2 The plane got off of the ground at 3:30 a.m. according to schedule. The Air Force dude gave us earplugs because it was so noisy on the plane. Once up in the air we were given the opportunity to climb up to the flight deck. There were 4 people up front; 2 driving and, 2 busy with charts and stuff. There was a female officer in the left-hand (Captain's) pilot seat. All the other guys were guys. After that I, and just about everyone one else in the back (about 22 people in all), stretched out on the floor which was very warm, and slept.
Some time in the morning I woke up and carefully tip-toed my way through the sleeping bodies on the floor to get a look out the window. Judging from what I saw I figured we were somewhere in the sky above some clouds and a lot of water. So I went up to the flight deck to get a better look. The two people driving appeared to be asleep. The other 2 guys didn't seem to mind, or maybe they didn't know, but they were both still busy with charts and stuff. Looking thought the front window, it seemed we were still in the sky, heading toward some clouds above a lot of water.
Oh yeah, one neat thing, when we first go onboard they said, "No smoking in the isle or lavatory", showed us how to use an oxygen mask, and how to use a life vest. (I guess the seat cushions don't float, really there is just one long seat along either of the walls).
Some time after 7:00 a.m. we landed at Point Salines. I wasn't sitting near one of the windows, so I didn't see the island from the air. The first thing I did see when they opened the front (side) door was a bunch of palm trees, blue water, and a tiny island off shore. Yeah, Looks good to me! A little while later we got off and waited for someone to come and pick us up. As we waited we looked around; It was obviously a new runway with fresh dirt all around. A bunch of helicopters were parked down there and empty defensive position over there... Looking to the north we could see the prettiest lush
Page 3 jungle covered tropical island mountains you could ever see. The mountain tops were obscured by low hanging clouds. It was a pretty place indeed. An Air Force forklift came and off-loaded the pallets from the back door of the plane, and a short while later my platoon SSgt [Gilberto Gonzles] arrived in a 2 1/2 ton army truck. We all threw our stuff in the back and climbed in. Already some guys had brought out sun tan lotion and were spreading it on their arms. The lotion's coconut smell seemed appropriate for the setting. We drove a relatively short way along narrow and winding roads to the Grand Anse college campus of the medical school. The campus had been turned into an Army Compound; barbed wire all around, and sandbagged defensive positions etc. We jumped off of the truck and followed SFC Gonzales around one building and into the shade of some tropical type of trees. After another brief briefing we were let loose (" don't leave the compound") 'till 1:30 (Grenada time). I found my way up to the roof of one of the two 2-story buildings. There were a few guys lounging on some beat up old lawn chairs, and another guy lifting some weights of a weight set left behind by the students; soldiers enjoying �Off-Duty Hours�. An MP [Military Policeman] was sitting on the wall next to an M-60 machine gun. Later I went down by the beach. Just recently they had opened a tiny part for the troops to go swimming. A number of guys traded C-rations to some kids outside the fence for coconuts. The guys were cutting them open with their knives. The lifeguard told us to be careful saying, �There have been more people hurt here by knives & cocoanuts than Cuban bullets!� About 3 minuets later one guy almost chopped his thumb off at the base while trying to open a coconut. Blood all over; he had a really sharp knife. Right behind the little beach area was a mess hall, which had, been the medicals students' dining facility. It was nice, open air on all sides, no walls, just the roof, sort of like the Luau at Disney World. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing eating coconut meat. Around 3 o�clock we got our stuff together and walked out of the compound, across the road to a field behind some empty rundown bungalow
Page 4 houses. This was the heliport where we waited for our helicopter. A little while later a UH-60 (Blackhawk) came in and landed. Some guys carried a bunch of boxes and supplies over to it. There was a little confusion. They took the stuff back off, and then put some other stuff on from a different pile of supplies. Then we got on. They told us to turn our weapons upside down, with the muzzles pointing down. I guess this was so that we don't accidentally shoot ourselves out of the sky. And then we took off with a gust of wind.
[Thomas] Rowe and I had been assigned to Alpha Company 2/505 Infantry Regiment. The helicopter would be making multiple stops, and we would be the first ones getting off. I had a great seat right in the door with my feet dangling out in the wind. I was on the side facing the water as we flew north up the West coast. I could look right down into the ocean, a marvelous shade of blue. Looking over my shoulder I could see out the other side of the chopper; more mountains, and the (capitol) city of St. George's. As we flew along the helicopter passed through a rainsquall. Due to our airspeed the rain was hitting my legs pretty hard, like so many tiny little stones that stung even through the material of my BDUs [Army clothes]. We flew a little more than half way up the coast of the island and landed in a wet soccer field, which the Army had dubbed LZ Vickie. Rowe & I got out and away went the helicopter. We walked over to the road by the shore. No one was there to pick us up, so we weren't sure this was the right place. We had been shown on a map were A Company was, and before we left they told us to be sure to get off at the right place. Here we were, all alone, in a foreign country. Hummm� Wow! But they had told us to stay at the landing site until someone came. About 10 minutes later I flagged down a jeep and we got a ride to the little town up the road, Gouyave. To first see the town was an experience. The tiny, narrow road through town, the buildings were all so small & close together. At Alpha Company headquarters, a bank that had been commandeered, we met up with the commander who was just on his way in a jeep to get us. Rowe and I got into the jeep carefully since we had to share the back seat with a roll of concertina wire. Then we road up about 2-3 miles into the hills to our site. To ride these roads one learns a new meaning to the expression "Back Road". On the way up that road Tommy and I looked around and looked at one another and just laughed; we were so amazed at how backward the place was. What a Trip!!!
Page 5 On the way up we passed a number of tiny, one-room shacks, palm trees, patches of bamboo, and lots of Banana trees.
Our site is a "banana station"; a cement building where they wash bananas before they get shipped out on trucks to the docks in St. George's. Down stairs are 4 big open cement tanks for washing the bananas, which we use for bathtubs. Up stairs is our living quarters, food-room, and radio-room. It is a rather odd building, constructed rather poorly, but the tin roof doesn't leak, which is very good, since this is the rainy season, and it rains almost every day. Clouds drift by constantly, and there is always a breeze from the hills. Since it is cloudy and breezy it isn't really hot here. All around there are mostly banana trees and nutmeg trees, the main business of the island, also palm trees and coconut trees and a couple of grape fruit trees. Anyway, once we got to the site, Sgt. Rennaker, from out platoon, showed Rowe and me the TAC SAT radio and the simple things about maintaining it. He and the other guy we were relieving gave us their ammo, but they took their Army cots with them so we have to sleep on the floor, which is somewhat uncomfortable. When I sleep I role out my Army blanket on the floor, and I use my Gas Mask as a pillow. I also sleep with my earplugs in my ears because there is constant noise from the 3 radios in the radio room, since the �squelch� is always on.
The second day here Rowe was on Radio watch while I went down to the town in the jeep to help get some stuff at supply. We ended up going down to coast road all the way back to Point Salines in the back of a truck, a commandeered civilian vehicle. The trip is I think, about 8 miles, but took 1 & 1/2 hours. The road twists and turns, and is full of potholes. The roads simply aren't too great. All the vehicles are driven from the right hand side and they drive on the "wrong" side of the road here. The population down here is all black, and appears to be poverty-stricken. Most of the tiny homes standing on the minimum foundations have windows with no glass and doors that are always open. All along the road Grenadians thrill to wave at American GIs, especially the young
Page 6 children. One feels obliged to wave back; you feel if you don't you're hurting US-Grenadian relations. But after a while you get a little tired of it. Also it's hard to keep your seat, due to all of the bumps in the road. The next few days I just spent on radio watch and around the building. We aren't allowed to leave the immediate area. The other day I went down to Gouyave and got a (free) haircut. We waited 3 hours down there. This civilian guy was so slow, but he did a good job. The Army was paying him. The barber chair was a seat outside. After I was done in the barber seat I walked down by the water. The sun had set and dusk was coming and it was pretty there. But the rocky beach was littered with rusty metal & trash, and pigs were tied up next to the little shacks built there. As kids we had a tree forts comparable to some of these shacks.
Well that's about all for now. Rowe wants to beat me at a checker game. As it stands now I have been here a week and 2 days, and we are planning on flying back to Fort Bragg on December 12, but I like it here and would rather stay
Page 7 Well I guess I'll see you before Christmas. Hugs and Kisses for all (except Scamper). [Scamper was the dog]
Your Son, Brother, etc, whatever,
The War Correspondent in Grenada,
(Signed) Howard