OPERATION POWER PACK
Lt. Gen. Bruce Palmer
Jeff LPH-3 reminds us today is the 55th anniversary of Operation Power Pack, the second United States occupation of the Dominican Republic. It began when the U.S. Marine Corps entered Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on April 28, 1965, in the Dominican Civil War.
U.S. Military Intervention in the Dominican Republic
By Colonel Brendan J. O’Shea
Fifty-five years ago, the week of April 25 started out relatively calmly for the U.S. Army. When over, thousands of Soldiers and Marines were engaged in combat and stability operations in the Dominican Republic, and the 82nd Airborne Division had sustained its first combat casualties since World War II.
In 1965, during the height of the Cold War, the Americans were concerned about communist influence in the Western hemisphere. This was particularly true with respect to the Caribbean Basin following CubaAca! communist revolution in 1959.
The Dominican Republic shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the nation of Haiti, and was geographically in the center of this area of interest. The Dominican Republic conducted its first free elections in 1962 after the 1961 assassination ended the 30-year domination of strongman and former President Leonidas Trujillo. In the three years after the elections, a constant struggle for political control erupted between communist-sympathizing leftist groups and conservative business and military leaders Aca,!” many with ties to the sugar industry. On April 24, 1965, leftist forces unexpectedly deposed the Dominican leader, Donald Reid y Cabral. Communist-inspired groups of armed civilians, dubbed “Los Tigres,” took to the streets throughout the capital of Santo Domingo and quickly overwhelmed the Dominican security forces.
The U.S. Ambassador, W. Tapley Bennett, Jr., described the situation as “collective madness.” To authorities in Washington he declared, “I recommend that serious thought be given to armed intervention to restore order beyond a mere protection of lives. If the present loyalist efforts fail, the power will go to groups whose aims are identified with those of the Communist Party. We might have to intervene to prevent another Cuba.” President Lyndon B. Johnson, stating the need to protect American lives and property, directed the U.S. military to deploy to the Dominican Republic to stabilize and prevent the country from falling to the communists.
The mission fell to Lt. Gen. Bruce Palmer, the newly-designated commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps, and Maj. Gen. Robert York, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. They initiated “Operation Power Pack” and ordered a task force comprised of U.S. Marines and the 82nd Airborne to deploy beginning on April 28. The 7th Special Forces Group, Psychological Operations units, and various logistical support elements also participated.
And Jeff LPH-3, too. Read the rest of the article here: Army.mil
Thanks, Jeff.
Category: Army, Cold War, Guest Link
In addition to POWERPACK, there were a number of U.S. contingency ops in the 1950s and 1960s that are pretty much forgotten today, including U.S. air support and naval escort for ROC during the Quemoy-Matsu Crisises of 1954 and 1958, U.S. Marine landings in Lebanon in 1958, U.S. Air and Marine deployments to Thailand during the 1961 Laotian Crisis, and U.S. air deployments in support of the 1964 Katanga Crisis, just to name a few. Whatever the time period, the U.S. Military has always been busy…
There is a Levenworth Paper available covering this Operation:
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/PowerPack.pdf
My Father and his Twin were both Marines involved in this Intervention. His twin told me this was worse than his 3 tours in SEA. Mentioned the house to house City fight, and the Amphip landing was opposed…..
Thanks for the great site…..
The late GEN Bruce Palmer, who was CG XVIII Airborne Corps at the time, wrote a book about POWER PACK in 1989, titled “Intervention in the Caribbean”. GEN Palmer’s book on Vietnam was an excellent primary source during my research, so I’m sure his book on the Dominican intervention will be a great primary historical source as well…
https://books.google.com/books/about/Intervention_in_the_Caribbean.html?id=I5UfBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button
Thank you. Head dude is a former Marine, and we’re sistered with the Military Phonies site. Stick around, when the virus BS settles, we’ll post up Stolen Valor examples, too. Check the TAH FNG tab at the top to see what we’re about and what you can expect.
AW1
” worse than his 3 tours in SEA.”
I wish my tour in SEA had been as pleasant as his three.
Today April 28th marks 55 years (1965) since Marines Debarked from the USS Boxer LPH 4 and went ashore to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) Which was Operation Power Pack. We left aboard the USS Okinawa LPH 3 on April 30th 1965 which was on a Friday from pier 12 Norfolk NOB. The heavy 8 inch gun Cruiser Newport News which was berthed at the same pier left before us. The Marine BLT were flown onboard while we were underway using Sikorsky 34’s and only one Huey which was the one that was used for recons and took rebel fire while flying over a bridge and injured the Co-Pilot. At the last minute, the BLT was ordered to stay aboard and a Surgical team was flown aboard from Portsmouth Naval Hospital. The Power Pack OP cost 13 KIA and 200+ wounded and one of the ship’s reefers were used to keep the 13 KIA’S
Deceased BiL was on this one and had been in Thailand action earlier.. Former Marine and LEO. He also had made mention, briefly, about what a sh^t sandwich operation it had become.
Y’all do know that Ethel Kennedy (Booby’s widow) buddy Che G had a lot to do with all this, from what I remember reading, somewhere. Not sure if Che’s role was ever proven, can’t remember.
Good linky, thanks for the reminder.
I forgot to add this in on my above comment about the Dominican Republic crisis: Being non rated, I was at fleet landing with others from the ship on the cleaning detail and we had a real ball buster chief running the working parties, then our First Class from the mail room shows up in mid morning and tells us to drop everything and get on the truck because we are getting underway today. The hard ass chief had a shit fit when we left. We reached the ship and there were a few tractor trailers lined up by the forward brow and a working party line of sailors unloading the semi from E 1’S to First Class but no Chiefs. Early liberty and a little short handed. I think we got underway around five PM with no tug assistance.
In early 1967, my boss, the brigade CSM handed SSGT Poe the job of setting up a high-level briefing on Operation Powerpack at the JFK Special Warfare Center auditorium, which our boss, the brigade commander, an on-the-ground battalion commander in DomRep, had been assigned to conduct for a joint Pentagon/congressional delegation.
The thing I remember most from that briefing was the colonel’s slides depicting the battles that took place in the sewer systems beneath the streets of Santo Domingo. The way the colonel described it to the visiting poobahs, it had been as bad as anything I’d seen the previous year in Vietnam.
An interesting aside: In 1965 I served on a six-month TDY with a SSGT who previously had been General Palmer’s driver. He absolutely loved Palmer and his pretty, young (23 years younger than her husband) Southern belle wife, Kay. I hadn’t realized until today that Mrs. Palmer would have been only 30 when her husband made lieutenant general. Must have been heady stuff for a 30 year old.
Jim was the only NCO I ever knew who could pick up a phone anywhere in the country (our assignment involved constant coast to coast travel) call a three-star or his wife at their quarters and chat with them like family. And he always addressed Mrs. Palmer by her first name although he, of course, “sirred” the general.
Young buck sergeant Poe was clearly impressed…
Looking at Gen Palmers photo I see the CIB.
Don’t see it listed on Wiki and the photo
covers it up.
How many awards of the CIB does he actually have?
WW2 and Vietnam seem likely but does Operation
Power Pack count (for all 11B types)?
Asking for a Signal dude.
Am fairly certain GEN Palmer rated a single CIB award for infantry service in WWII. GEN Palmer apparently did not serve in Korea during the Korean War (although he was assigned to ROK occupation duty in 1945-46). He would not have been eligible for award of the CIB in DomRep and Viet of the Nam because he was already a general officer by then, and CIBs are awarded to infantry O-6s and below while assigned to infantry billets in combat zones…
Thanks CH. I was unaware of the O-6 and below rule.
The photo is of MG (later LTG) Robert Howard York, commander of the 82nd Abn during operation Power Pack.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125890482/robert-howard-york
For the record, below is a photo of GEN Bruce Palmer, Jr., 1913-2000:
I went in with 82nd. Fascinating experience to be in a Division that deployed like we had trained.
I was a young Medic with A Co. 307 Med Batt, I arrived at Bragg about a week before we went to the Dom Rep, had to requalify for jump status and with the M16, we were still using the M14 at Ft. Sam, still love that rifle, in fact bought a M1A a few years back. We landed at San Isidro and set up a field hospital, I was thin set to work with some 7th Group and Psy Op people doing med cap missions, ended up doing lifeguard duty at Red Beach.