Restrictive public affairs 67 range from a trade embargo to the endorsement of a possible US intervention. The Washington Post and others carried the report. A Pentagon spokesman had acknowledged that a Navy task force originally bound for Lebanon was on station in the Caribbean on 24 October, one day before Reagan ofially announced the invasion. The White House denied that American citizens on Grenada were in any danger but put out word that the ituation remains unstable�on the island. Shortly before the presidential announcement on 25 October, ABC News reported from the neighboring island of Barbados that Marines were landing at a Grenada airport. Such reports alerted news organizations to deploy their correspondents to the region. On Monday, 24 October �before a large number of media representatives and a small number of public affairs ofers arrived on Barbados, and before the commanders arrived on the Guam �a group of seven adventuresome reporters with tactical foresight had hired a hing boat. After a rather painstaking trip they had managed to reach Grenada and St George, the capital, six hours after H-Hour only to be restricted by Grenada military forces, the People Revolutionary Army (PRA). The most prominent reporters among them were the Washington Post Edward Cody and Bernard Diederich from Time Magazine. While Diederich stayed on Grenada, Cody and three other reporters headed on a helicopter to the Guam, which was anchoring close to the island, hoping they could e their stories from the command vessel.8 The vessel staff was confused that a reporter demanded to e his stories from the ship. The newsmen were held incommunicado on the boat for three days.9 When the presence of news media on the ship was reported up the chain-of-command to the Pentagon the o press policy�was reafmed. Admiral Metcalf noted later that he was dmonished for having allowed the reporter on board.�0 The incident would become known as the d Cody affair,�and it would trigger harsh criticism and condemning of op-eds on the Navy tough handling of the press. Cody boat, however, was the st and only one to get through to Grenada. As soon as the military operation began, Admiral Metcalf aggressively banned all transportation to the island. A couple of days later another group of reporters persuaded a local charter service in Barbados to ship them the 120 miles to Grenada. They departed Wednesday afternoon, one day after D-Day, on the same route that Cody and his fellow reporters had used. The Navy was alert and determined. The commanding admiral remarked later: had also learned that a number of more adventuresome members of the fourth estate, determined to open up their second front on Grenada, were on the way by speedboat. My response was to quarantine the island. I established an exclusion zone around Grenada, enforced by destroyers and aircraft.�1 An A-6 Intruder aircraft spotted them and dropped a canister in the boat path as a warning, which persuaded its captain to turn around. The military rationale for such an aggressive denial of access policy was twofold. Concern for operational security blended into the strategic imperative to maintain the element of surprise. The commander-in-chief of Atlantic Command was Admiral Wesley McDonald. His rgent Fury Report�was
