";s:4:"text";s:3565:"The American Legion, a congressionally chartered organization comprised of veterans of wartime service in the defense of liberty has among its great purposes: These services include veteran benefits assistance, services for veterans with disabilities, and information about medical care, insurance, and education benefits. Congressional hearings on those issues ultimately led to passage of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act—the largest shakeup at DOD since its 1947 inception.Sign up for the Early Bird Brief - a daily roundup of military and defense news stories from around the globe.A separate JSOC mission failed to capture the transmitter broadcasting the government-controlled Radio Free Grenada, after PRA counterattacks drove a SEAL team from the position. The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. But American might was finally turning the tide. While this was being sorted out, one forward air controller resorted to using a mirror to designate a target.Many Grenadians welcomed the coup, although the new regime—the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG)— soon proved as corrupt and vicious as Gairy’s. The U.S. and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela.Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the invaders, it resulted in military occupation within a matter of days. Since the invasion was precisely the kind of mission for which special operations forces trained, JSOC played a leading role from the start. To many Grenadians the charismatic Bishop was the island’s first truly authentic leader, representing freedom from both Great Britain and Gairy’s thugs. The Reagan administration doubted Grenada’s claims the field was meant solely to support tourism, as there was no concomitant building of the hotels and resorts one would expect to accompany such an initiative. It became apparent that a dangerous power struggle was happening in America’s backyard, and the US couldn’t afford another Cuba.On the first day of the invasion, the US forces ran into moderate resistance which included DShK machine gun fire, ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns and BTR-60 APC-s, together with small arms fire by Cuban and Grenadian soldiers. The engine failed to restart and the SEALs had to wait for rescue by a surface vessel.