Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

Discussions on other historical eras.
Post Reply
User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#1

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 08:03

Lynch (1923-2008)recently passed away

http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/bpigtestam.html
He carries wounds from World War II's D-Day Normandy invasion, from the Battle of the Bulge, and from Heartbreak Ridge in Korea. He served with the Special Forces in Laos. After the Bay of Pigs disaster until 1967, Lynch directed 2,126 clandestine CIA assaults on Cuba out of Miami, directly participating in 113 of them....Lynch is the surviving half of a two-man, non-Cuban CIA team which the Kennedy administration attached to the Brigade. The other agent, William ''Rip'' Robertson, died in 1973 of malaria in Laos.

Both agents, vaguely assigned to the 2506 Brigade as ''troubleshooters,'' ended up going ashore and fighting. Gray accompanied a night team of frogmen to Playa Giron and actually started the battle by firing on a Cuban jeep that directed its headlights at the frogmen as they rafted in. (They learned later that the militia members in the jeep thought they were lost fishermen.)

After returning to his supply ship, the Blagar, Gray later shot down two Cuban warplanes and, in Wyden's words, ''became the closest thing to an on-the-spot military commander that the Cuban operation ever had.''

User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#2

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 09:31

Overall CIA military commander was Colonel Jack Hawkins(1920-):

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhawkins.htm
Jack Hawkins was born in Roxton, Texas in 1920. His family moved to Fort Worth and was a student at the local high school. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy as a second lieutenant he joined the U.S. Marines in 1939. He spent time at the Marine Corps Basic School for Officers before being sent to China where he served with the Fourth Marines in Shanghai.

During the Second World War he was captured by the Japanese at Corregidor in the Philippines and spent 11 months as a prisoner of war. He escaped with several other Americans and two Filipino convicts who served as guides, and joined a guerrilla unit for seven months before getting to Australia via submarine in November 1943. In 1945 Hawkins was involved in the invasion of Okinawa.

After the war Hawkins served three years in Venezuela as adviser to the Venezuelan Marine Corps before returning to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Hawkins also took part in the Korean War and helped plan the battalion landing plan at Inchon. He then served for three years as an instructor on amphibious landings in Marine Corps schools. This was followed by a post at the Marine Corps school in Quantico.

Promoted to full colonel in 1955, he became commander of the Amphibious Forces at Little Creek, Virginia. In September, 1960, Colonel Hawkins was assigned to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He joined the Cuba Task Force and was given direct responsibility for military training operations. Hawkins was told "that the CIA was planning to land some exile troops in Cuba and they wanted a Marine officer with background in amphibious warfare to help them out with this project....


User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#3

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 10:10

Tank versus Tank April 1961

http://www.geocities.com/urrib2000/Tanques3-e.html
M41 Walker Bulldog ...Five tanks of this type formed the 4° Tank Battalion of the 2506 Brigade of Cuban exiled, that disembarks in Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961. The M41 landed since barges LCU by Giron. They intensely fought, supporting the infantry, achieving to defeat 5 T-34-85, together the recoilless rifles and the bazookes, until they were defeated, losing 2 destroyed and the remainder damaged or abandoned without munitions. Cuba send one M41 to the USSR, that was studied for the soviets, and that today is exhibited in the Kubinka Museum of Moscou. Another are exibited in the Museum of Giron Beach.

User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#4

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 10:18

Life Magazine in May 1963 published the works of the artist Sanford Kossin in depicting the Bay of Pigs invasion.

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2 ... fluid.html


Image



A tank used by the Brigade during the invasion
Attachments
kossin.jpg
kossin.jpg (96.12 KiB) Viewed 6071 times

User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#5

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 10:31

William ''Rip'' Robertson

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrobertsonW.htm

Some suggest he was in Dallas in November 1963.

http://www.manuscriptservice.com/FFiDP-2/

Image

User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#6

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 10:45

Map from Bay of Pigs,Peter Wyden,1978
Attachments
BayOfPigs.jpg
BayOfPigs.jpg (78.18 KiB) Viewed 6038 times

User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#7

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 10:51

Photo from Wyden.

Castro's men mop up--"when Castro's troops reached the sea,the Houston was still on fire".
Attachments
houston.jpg
houston.jpg (116.34 KiB) Viewed 6040 times

User avatar
Peter H
Member
Posts: 28628
Joined: 30 Dec 2002, 14:18
Location: Australia

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#8

Post by Peter H » 17 Nov 2008, 11:12

From Wyden.

Cuban photos of dead "Yanqui Mercenaries".

CIA Alabama Air National Guard pilots Thomas Willard Ray and Leo Francis Baker..survived crash landing "but were killed on the ground".

GRAPHIC

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/vepeter/Ray.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/vepeter/baker.jpg

edinburgh
Member
Posts: 14
Joined: 19 Aug 2006, 01:16
Location: SCOTLAND

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#9

Post by edinburgh » 18 Jan 2009, 18:38

I have been reading a lot about the Bay of Pigs and have become interested in Grayston Lynch's career in the army. Can anyone give me details of his war service? I believe he served with the 2nd divsion in France and Belgium, but does anyone know his regiment? and when he joined it (I know he enlisted in the 5th Cavalry before the war).

Post war did he muster out anfd then re-enlist? He was commissioned about 1949-50 He seems to have achieved a degree at University but one source says this was in 1953, and I am assuming he was still in the army then (perhaps recovering from his wounds), because he transferred to the Special Forces in 1955 (?).

In Korea he was wounded for the third time in 1951 at either Bloody Ridge or Heartbreak Ridge. I assume he was still with the second infantry brigade then, but with which regiment?

One source has him serving in Panama with the 77th Special Forces but I cannot find when the 77th served there.

cheers

Edward L. Hsiao
Member
Posts: 2102
Joined: 01 Aug 2003, 09:43
Location: Flagstaff,Arizona

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#10

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 06 Jul 2015, 10:04

Gentlemen,

I wonder if Colonel Jack Hawkins USMC later served in Vietnam? Seems like Grayton Lynch was a colorful character indeed who craved for combat and was not a person to sit behind a desk!

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Edward L. Hsiao
Member
Posts: 2102
Joined: 01 Aug 2003, 09:43
Location: Flagstaff,Arizona

Re: Grayston Lynch,Bay of Pigs

#11

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 13 May 2019, 21:52

I too like to know more about Grayston L. Lynch's army career. How did Lynch got wounded on Omaha Breach on June 6,1944? The Germans were fighting back with heavy firepower against the American soldiers. During the Battle Of Bulge,Lynch got wounded again by what? I know that the Germans were tough fighters during WWII. How did Lynch got his two Silver Star medals? Is there a website that I can look for more information about Grayston L. Lynch?

Edward L. Hsiao

Post Reply

Return to “Other eras”