Grayston Lynch
{{short description|Central Intelligence Agency officer}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Grayston LeRoy Lynch
| image = File:Grayston Lynch.png
| caption = Lynch in 1950
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|06|14}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2008|08|10|1923|06|14}}
| birth_place = Gilmer, Texas, U.S.
| religion =
| death =
| death_place = Tampa, Florida, U.S.
| placeofburial =
| placeofburial_label = Place of burial
| alma_mater = University of Maryland, College Park {{small|(BA)}}
| nickname = "Gray"
| allegiance = {{Flag|United States of America}}
| branch = {{Army|United States|size=23px}}
{{Flagicon image|Flag of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.svg|size=23px}} Central Intelligence Agency
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
{{Flagicon image|Flag of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.svg|size=23px}} Drug Enforcement Administration
| serviceyears = 1938–1960 (Army)
1960–1971 (CIA)
1971–1978 (BNDD/DEA)
| unit = Army Special Forces
MACV-SOG
Special Activities Division
| battles = {{tree list}}
- World War II
- Korean War
- Cold War
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Operation Mongoose
- Vietnam War
- Project Hotfoot
{{Tree list/end}}
| awards = Intelligence Star
Silver Star (2)
Bronze Star Medal (1)
Purple Heart (3)
}}
Grayston LeRoy Lynch (June 14, 1923 – August 10, 2008) was an American soldier and CIA officer. He was one of only two CIA officers who commanded Brigade 2506 troops at the Bay of Pigs Invasion.{{Cite web |title=The CIA's Secret Army |url=https://billmoyers.com/content/cias-secret-army/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=BillMoyers.com |language=en-US}} The other CIA officer was William "Rip" Robertson.
Lynch was raised in Victoria, Texas, and was the son of an oil driller. He was wounded at Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and Heartbreak Ridge in Korea; served with the Special Forces in Laos; and received three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and one Bronze Star with a "V" for valor, among other awards. He was selected from the elite to become a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the CIA's famed Special Activities Division in 1960.
For his actions at the Bay of Pigs, Lynch was awarded the Intelligence Star, the CIA's most coveted award.{{Cite web |title=Grayston Lynch |url=https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/author/grayston-lynch/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=University of Nebraska Press |language=en-US}} In the six years after the Bay of Pigs invasion, he ran commando raids into Cuba. Lynch retired from the CIA in 1971.Decision for Disaster Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs, Grayston L. Lynch, Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc., Pub. Date: January 2000ISBN 9781574882377
Military service
Born June 14, 1923, in Gilmer, Texas, Lynch lied about his age by claiming to be born in 1920{{cite news |title=Grayston LeRoy Lynch |magazine=World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 |publisher=Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives |location=St. Louis, Missouri}} and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1938 and was assigned to 5th Cavalry at Fort Clark, Texas. During World War II he was assigned to the Second Division as platoon sergeant. During D-day he landed at Omaha Beach and then fought in the Battle of the Bulge where he was seriously wounded. He served in the Korean War with the Second Division as Second Lt., promoted to First Lt., wounded at Battle of Bloody Ridge. Later served in Laos with 77th Special Forces Group as Captain, retiring from them in 1960.
Education
Lynch received a BA degree in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1953.
CIA career, 1960–1971
In 1960 he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) working under Theodore Shackley. Lynch spent the majority of his time between Key West and Miami.{{Cite web |title=[COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN - PREMIER ISSUE] {{!}} CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov) |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp88-01314r000100380006-8 |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=www.cia.gov}}
File:Intelligence Star of the CIA.jpg of the CIA. ]]
= Bay of Pigs =
Lynch was transported to Cuba aboard the SS Blagar.{{Cite web |title=Bay of Pigs Chronology |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/bayofpigs/chron.html |access-date=2024-12-11 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu}}
No Americans were authorized to land on the beaches of Cuba during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Lynch defied this order, leading command of Brigade 2506 onto the beach at Playa Girón. Lynch did this because from his perspective the mission was going wrong from the beginning: the second round of aerial bombardments that had been promised from Operation Puma had not hit their intended targets in support of Operation Pluto, naval assets were lost, and he was informed by Washington that Cuban air forces still had air superiority.
In an interview with Bill Moyers and George Crile, Lynch said:
"We were hit just after daylight by [Castro's] planes. They continued to hit us all morning. We lost two ships — sunk. We could not unload the ammunition for the brigade. The brigade went ashore carrying one day's supply of ammunition. That's all."Over the radio from Washington, Lynch was promised aid that never arrived.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a complete failure, with Operation Pluto resulting in over a thousand men captured by the Castro government, Operation Mars being called off, and Operation Puma dropping less than half of its promised payloads. Lynch became one of the many people on the ground that day who believed that the invasion was betrayed by the Kennedy Administration, either through a series of bad command decisions, or deliberate sabotage attempts by members of the Administration.
= Commando raids and Operation Mongoose =
After the Bay of Pigs, Lynch began conducting paramilitary training of Cuban exiles at JMWAVE and conducted commando raids inside Cuba for six years. He personally led over 100 raids into Cuba. When asked the specific number of raids he embarked upon, his response was:
"This was spread over many years that we had — other captains have had, I don't know, maybe 100. 150. We had people who went inside of Cuba on operations — 50, 60, 70, 80 times. It’s just a long war."
At the beginning of Operation Mongoose, the United States Coast Guard were not made aware of the clandestine nature of the missions, causing several instances of interference – Lynch was often forced to tell the commander of a Coast Guard vessel to contact their superiors. However, an arrangement was eventually made where a countersign passphrase was issued in a sealed envelope to Mongoose operators. If these operators were questioned by the Coast Guard, they would call the passphrase, and the Coast Guard would let them pass.
DEA career, 1971–1978
=BNDD Career (DEA), 1971 to 1973=
Lynch joined the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) which would later be dissolved and merged into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
=BUNCIN Career (DEACON), 1973 to 1978=
Lynch was recruited by Lucien Conien into Bureau of Narcotics Counter-Intelligence Network (BUNCIN), later renamed DEA Clandestine Operations Network (DEACON) after the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) was renamed Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Bob Medell requisitioned Grayston Lynch to work directly with him in BUNCIN. Lynch's primary task was to identify offshore suppliers of illegal drugs. Lynch had been running secret CIA operations in Cuba, Central and South America for many years and developed numerous clandestine resources.
The History of BUNCIN: The US Bureau of Narcotics Covert Intelligence Network
Published works
Lynch wrote a book, Decision for Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs, based on his experience leading the rebel Brigade 2506.
References
External links
- [http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/bpigtestam.html Miami Herald article (1998)]
- [https://www.opendemocracy.net/douglas-valentine/history-of-buncin-us-bureau-of-narcotics-covert-intelligence-network The History of BUNCIN (2010)]
- [http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKlynchG.htm Spartacus Educational – Grayston Lynch]
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070624004221/http://www.warofwits.net/author.html War of Wits Publishing Ltd]}} Biographical Data on Lynch's own website
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Texas|United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Grayston}}
Category:Law enforcement officials from Florida
Category:People from Gilmer, Texas
Category:People from Victoria, Texas
Category:United States Army soldiers
Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:United States Army officers
Category:United States Army personnel of the Korean War
Category:Recipients of the Silver Star
Category:University of Maryland, College Park alumni
Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency
Category:Recipients of the Intelligence Star