Watched the movie "Heartbreak Ridge" the otherday. It featured a scene in which, during the invasion of Grenada, a soldier uses a phone and a credit card to make an international call to their firebase and requested fire support. A google search provided multiple stories whose only thing in common is that it happened in Grenada so I was wondering is this scene/story legit? Additionally were there any other similar instances of this occuring in combat situations (please note I am asking about fire support / air strikes and not just general communications)
There is certainly nothing unusual about soldiers picking up a local telephone and trying to make a call. Such happened in the Falklands War, for example, when British soliders just called ahead to the next settlement and asked if there happened to be any Argentinians there. Upon hearing 'no', so they went.
The thing about Grenada specifically is a strange one. There are at least three stories. Two involve Navy SEALs, and one Army. In all cases, the story is that the serviceman in question used a personal credit card to call home base, and then work its way through the system to finally get support in, be it from naval gunfire or orbiting AC-130 gunship.
Exactly which of the two services depends on who you ask, or what book you read. Mark Adkin's goes with the SEAL theory. Dick Cheney's book says he was briefed that it was Army. Of the three, I'm inclined to discount the SEAL/NGS combination: I find it unlikely that Navy SF would be unable to communicate with Naval vessels.
I don't seem to be able to find it right now, but I have a copy of Schwartzkopf's book, he was commander for the invasion. In it he relates how there was terrible inter-service co-ordination, to the point that he was given a frantic message from the Pentagon that Army helicopters were not to be given fuel if they landed on Navy ships: The funds transfer agreements had not been worked out yet. (He ignored it, and told the Navy to give them the fuel). Thus, the idea of Army troops being unable to talk to the Navy ships during the Grenada op is entirely believable. It is worth noting that according to the Army's description, at https://history.army.mil/html/books/grenada/urgent_fury.pdf , both Navy -and- Army personnel partook in the seizure of the Governor General's mansion as a joint op, so it's entirely possible that both sides of the story are correct.
Believable, vs happened, however, are two different things. I can't find anything offhand explicitly stating that the event occurred. We do know that the operation in general was something of a Charlie Foxtrot, that there were a number of co-ordination failures, and that the units both Navy and Army taking the Governors' mansion came under extremely heavy fire and required significant fires. Thus, I'm inclined to think it actually did happen. Strange and bizarre things sometimes happen in war...