At dawn on Oct. 25, 1983, more than 500 Rangers from the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the United States Army 75th Ranger Regiment conducted a risky, low-altitude parachute assault onto the unfinished airport. Despite resistance from Grenadian armed forces (PRA - People's Revolutionary Army) and armed Cuban construction workers, the Rangers secured all of their objectives on the airfield quickly. The seizure of the airfield allowed United States Air Force C-141 transport planes to land, beginning at 2:05 P.M., and unload six battalions of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, the follow-on occupation force.