Fifty Years Ago:
American Troops Land in Santo Domingo

On April 28, 1965, just after the big U.S. troop buildup in Vietnam began, American forces went into action in the Western Hemisphere. That’s the day that thousands of U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division troopers and U.S. Marines launched Operation Power Pack in the Dominican Republic. The Americans landed in Santo Domingo after leftist rebels overthrew the regime of President Donald Reid y Cabral. 

By the time Power Pack ended in September of 1966, some 40,000 U.S. troops had been deployed to the Dominican; 27 were killed in action and 172 wounded. “Many Army men and Marines were in both Vietnam” and the Dominican Republic, said Bruce McConoughey, Vice President of VVA West Shore Chapter 249 in Lakewood, Ohio, who served in the Dominican with the 649th Supply & Service Company.

“I was lucky and spent the rest of my service at Fort Benning,” McConoughey said. “Bob Pitts, the president of our chapter, went in during the amphibious landing on Red Beach and was gone before I was sent there as a replacement. He was sent to Vietnam.”