SSgt Thomas Handwork

Sgt Gregory Weber

Sgt Patrick Kwiatkowski

SSgt Bobby Joe Dickson

On June 19, 1985, Communist guerrillas dressed in military camouflage opened fire on an outdoor cafe in the Zona Rosa district of San Salvador, killing 13 people, including four off-duty U.S. Marines and two American businessmen. In July 1985, as part of the Combat Terrorism Act, the United States offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to the conviction of the attackers. By September 1985, the Salvadoran government had arrested four men; one of them was Américo Mauro Araujo, a high-ranking Salvadoran Communist Party official. Seven others who were involved in the attack however, were never apprehended, but were killed in an earlier retaliatory raid.

The US Marines who were murdered by the Communists terrorists were Staff Sgt. Bobby J. Dickson, Staff Sgt. Thomas T. Handwork, Sgt. Patrick R. Kwiatkowski and Sgt. Gregory O. Weber

The Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commando, an armed wing of the Marxist guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (PRTC), claimed responsibility for the killings. The PRTC was part of the broader FMLN coalition fighting the Salvadoran government.

Instead of merely making phone calls to the families of the slain Marines, President Reagan met with those families in person and delivered a public eulogy during an emotional ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base on June 22, 1985. During this ceremony, he pinned Purple Hearts on each Marine’s coffin and personally embraced and spoke with the mourning families.

In his remarks, President Reagan pledged, “They say the men who murdered these sons of America escaped and disappeared into the city streets. But I pledge to you today, they will not evade justice on Earth any more than they can escape the judgment of God. We…will move any mountain and ford any river to find these jackals and bring them and their colleagues in terror to justice.” Reagan words were an unmistakably clear promise.

Vengeance is Mine Saith Ronald Reagan

After comforting the grieving family members of the murdered Marines, an enraged President Reagan made it his priority if not solemn duty, to locate the Communist perpetrators of the terrorist attack and to see that they along with every one of their cohorts, pay for the attack with their lives. Reagan immediately went to work and instructed the Pentagon and the CIA to urgently verify the group responsible and to locate its training base.

Within a week, the CIA had not only identified the Communist Terrorist group by name but had also located the remote jungle training camp of the Communist Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commandos. The CIA began to actively conduct both satellite and ariel reconnaissance of the camp in addition to close surveyance scouting by US Special Operations troops. Eventually a raid was conducted sometime between mid to late July of 1985.

The details of this raid are still classified but, some of the US Army Rangers who participated in the retaliatory assault on the camp have spoken up both on radio programs and in print interviews. This story has been covered by the Washington Post and the Spokane Spokesman-Review as well as other newspapers. The best accounts are from the two or three participants- former US Army Rangers- who have come forward anonymously to not only describe what happened but to make the point that after forty-years, it’s time the American public know the official story of what happened and why it had to be.

On the evening of the raid, a squad of eleven Army Rangers commanded by a Ranger Captain, were inserted several kilometers away from the terrorist base. President Ronald Reagan had repeatedly ordered that not a single Communist terrorist was to escape with his life. Reagan’s orders to the Rangers were succinctly clear, “No enemy prisoners! No enemy survivors! Kill them all!”

The Rangers arrived at the outer perimeter of the Communist Terrorist training base in the wee hours. Undoubtedly the names of their murdered brothers-in-arms were on their minds- Staff Sgt. Bobby J. Dickson, Staff Sgt. Thomas T. Handwork, Sgt. Patrick R. Kwiatkowski and Sgt. Gregory O. Weber. That early morning, all 83 Communist Guerrillas were about to pay the price for the cowardly murder of four unarmed off-duty US Marine Embassy Guards, who were enjoying a meal together as they sat in civilian clothes around a table outside the Zona Rosa café.

The progressive Western media who never met a Communist they didn’t like, had for years puffed the Salvadorian Marxist Insurgents as “rough…tough…dauntless and adept fighters to be feared. The indomitable warriors, bravely combatting inequality in the name of justice.” Yet that morning, all 83 of these Communist murderers- the alleged “rough, tough, fighters for justice,” would be wiped out by 11 American boys who had duty, honor and vengeance for their fallen comrades on their minds.     

The whirring helicopter blades of two US Army gunships. which fired several rocket and canon bursts on the camp was the signal the Rangers had been waiting for. The Rangers burst through the camp’s perimeter with lightning speed as though the very banshees of Hell were on their heels.

Bursts from the Rangers’ M249 Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW) cut down the first wave of the camp’s defenders. Chaos ensued as the Communist terrorist, many awoken from their beds, futilely attempted to repel the Ranger’s assault on their camp. Soon realizing that they were outmatched, many of the “rough, tough, indomitable warriors,” discarded their weapons and began to run for their lives- fleeing a mere eleven US Soldiers. Yet, none of them seemed able to outrun the Ranger’s sheets of hot lead and steel projectiles spewing from their rifles. One of the cowardly fleers was apparently the Communists groups’ “Comandante,” or leader, who apparently attempted to high step away after dropping his rifle while still in his underwear. He too was cut down.

The Rangers moved into close quarter combat with their rifles registering shot after shot while twisted Communist bodies twirled downward to their ragged ruin in the jungle dirt below, in a final pathetic dance of death. Many screamed out in terror, others pleaded through broken English and begged for mercy only to receive their final comeuppance.  Several dropped their rifles and thrust up their hands in a gesture of complete yet futile surrender. For the remaining Communist terrorists, the Rangers conserved their waning ammunition by fixing bayonets to their rifles.  The Rangers repeatedly thrust their bayonets into their Communist enemies as their victims the “rough, tough, indomitable Communist warriors,” screamed and begged in horror.   

Some as they lay wounded, raised their pitiful arms upward the air like defeated gladiators in the Roman Coliseum, begging their Emperor for his upward pointing thumb that might spare their lives. Yet, their Emperor that early morning was some 2000 miles away. His name was President Ronald Reagan, and his thumb remained pointed unambiguously downward. Thrust after thrust from the Rangers bayonets stained the camp’s rocky dirt terrain with Communist blood.

After the last screams and the final cries for mercy, the Rangers’ work was far from over.  Three of the Rangers suffered minor wounds in the skirmish. The entire camp was littered with the mangled, bloody corpses of the Communist “fighters for justice.” Now the Rangers had to perform the tedious task of accounting for all 83 Communist terrorists and ensuring that they were all dead. None other than their Commander in Chief had ordered that not one of the Communist terrorists was to survive. After confirming that all 83 of the Communist Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commandos were dead, the Rangers then searched each dead body for documents and identification. The camp itself was also searched for documents. As they worked, they took photographs of the faces of each corpse- per their orders. After that, the Rangers were extracted.

On July 31, 1981, Caspar Weinberger, then Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, announced that the United States had identified and taken action against those responsible for the killing of four U.S. Marines in El Salvador.

Over forty-years has passed since this daring and just retaliatory raid was conducted. It’s time the eleven American heroes who conducted this raid receive the credit which they deserve. If they did not receive medals for their actions at the time of the harrowing assault due to the classified nature of the operation, it’s time they receive them now. Contact President Trump and alert him to this lack of public recognition at the following link: Contact Us – The White House