I don’t know how many readers have an interest in military bureaucracy. Probably not many.
This is a look at how WWII-legacy weapons were cataloged in the Foreign Materiel Catalog, the FOMCAT, a now-forgotten US Army publication of the Cold War era.
Tag: Grenada
1980s drug war: WWII gear used
(The WWII-veteran USCGC Cherokee on a 1980s narcotics patrol.)
(A demilitarized WWII-veteran C-46 Commando which crashed while in use as a smuggling plane during the 1980s.)
The US Coast Guard was formed (as the Revenue Cutter Service) on 4 August 1790. The Posse Comitatus law of 1878 restricts use of the American military in law enforcement. However the US Coast Guard is specifically exempted from any restrictions, and in fact law enforcement is one of it’s core missions.
During the Cold War the US Coast Guard’s funding came from the Department Of Transportation, not the Pentagon, and money just to buy fuel was at a premium, let alone new construction. The fleet during President Carter’s term was in a bottleneck; as all Prohibition-era cutters were gone, but new modern hulls were not being launched fast enough to replace them. Some aged WWII ships were pressed into service as cutters.
Urgent Fury 1983: WWII weapons encountered
In October 1983, the USA invaded the small island nation of Grenada, which at the time was being supported and reinforced by Cuba. Most of the weapons the American troops encountered were of post-WWII, Cold War vintage; namely a staggering quantity of AK-47s, but there were some WWII weapons discovered as well.
(Top: An A-7 Corsair II strike jet off USS Independence (CV-62) over Point Salines Airport, one of the focal points of the 1983 operation. Bottom: A WWII-vintage Enfield No.4 Mk.I rifle as used by the Grenadian military during the brief fighting.)
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