Operation Power Pack: Dominican Republic, 1965-1966

 MOTHAX

 

In our May edition of The American Legion, Alan Dowd wrote an article titled "America at War" which can be read by clicking here if you didn't see it in the magazine.  It's generated a lot of angry letters from personnel involved in Operation Power Pack, which was the US invasion of the Dominican Republic.  I'll be honest, I really don't know that much about it, and the Wikipedia page is super long, and alas I have a VA appointment this afternoon, but I assure you I will read up on it.  For now, there is this snippet to show what it was about:

The second United States occupation of the Dominican Republic, code named "Operation Power Pack", began when the U.S. Marine Corps entered Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on April 28, 1965, in the Dominican Civil War. Marine Medium Helicopter squadron HMM-264, from the deck of the USS Boxer, airlifted 530 U.S. Marines of the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment into Santo Domingo. It was the first night U.S. Marine all-helicopter assault into an unsecured landing zone during actual combat conditions. By May 1 they were joined by VMM-264, 6th Marine Regiment,^[3] most of the United States Army's 82nd Airborne Division and its parent XVIIIth Airborne Corps.

The Inter-American Peace Force was established by the Organization of American States on 23 May 1965, after the American intervention. It was composed of over 42,600 United States military personnel, 1,130 Brazilian, 250 Honduran, 184 Paraguayan, 160 Nicaraguan, 21 Costa Rican and 3El Salvadorian personnel. The American intervention ended in September 1966 when the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne, the last remaining American unit in the country, was withdrawn. The Brazilian government took over the operation from the United States in 1966 and the IAPF was disbanded in 1967.^[4]

Honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't know about it, as we had 43 personnel killed.  In mitigation, I wouldn't be born for another 5 years, but that's not a very good excuse because I know about Shay's Rebellion and the Crusades, and those well predated me.  In an effort to find good video I went through Youtube and found a whole lot of nothing.  I literally found two videos, one of which is just an Army guy talking, and the other is about the 82nd headed home.

Not a heck of a lot to go on there, and I don't recall seeing anything on the History Channel either, but I may have just missed it.

Either way, although I haven't talked to Mr. Dowd about his piece, I did want to apologize on behalf of The American Legion and promise that I will study up on the subject.

NOTE: There is a sort of weird video of Marines there, but for some reason they interspersed it with footage from Vietnam. I don't really understand why. 

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