WASHINGTON -- An American medical student in Grenada, communicating via amateur radio, said today students at the St. George's Medical School are in good condition and awaiting evacuation.
'This is KA2ORK, Mark, we have enough food presently to last us as long as we're not here forever,' a report monitored by ham radio operator Ted Seely of Alexandria, Va., said at 11 a.m. EDT.
'We can eat relatively well. ... Presently there are no changes. We're just find and dandy. We're just waiting to leave, OK?'
The student was identified as Mark Barettella of Ridgefield, N.J., said Wayne Yoshida of the American Radio Relay League, a ham radio organization based in Newington, Conn.
Scott Schaefer, a Vienna, Va., ham operator, said today 'the students are calling themselves 'poppa's boys' and awaiting instructions ... as far as evacuation. They are very nonchalant.'
Twelve hours after the invasion Tuesday, the student 'ceased direct operation because the shelling and bombing was very severe,' Schaefer said.
But the student returned to the air before 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday and reported Cubans were retreating from the older Pearls Airport and 'American forces were working their way on to the school,' Schaefer said.
At 11:45 p.m. EDT, Baratella said Grenadian troops were 'amassing one-eighth of a mile from the medical school dormitory,' said Schaefer. 'He said it sounds like there is going to some fireworks.' That broadcast conflicted with earlier reports that the medical school had been secured by Marines.
The student 'is operating his amateur radio set underneath a table,' Yoshida said. 'He has seen three helicopters go down.'
In Colorado, Denver ham radio operator Walt Stinson reported he was in contact with a medical student, believed to be Barettella, who reported helicopter gunships flying near the medical college.
Schaefer said the student and an American retiree named Don, who lives on the northern tip of the island, were on the air for several hours Tuesday morning.
The student 'said he heard shots relatively close, but didn't seem in any danger,' Schaefer said. 'He couldn't make any count (on casualties.) He said a white helicopter made a rescue call.
'None of the aircraft is marked. All the markings have been taken off. I just sat back and listened. (They said) nothing had landed on the airstrip the Cubans had been making.
'The other airport was secure,' he said. One ham saw a 'frigate ... two miles from shore.'
Yoshida said much of Barettella's information was based on observations made by other medical students.
In Huntsville, Ala., a ham radio operator also received transmissions, apparently from the same operator in Grenada, indicating that 120 American students are unaccounted for at the medical school.
Cookie Kelly said Tuesday a ham operator named 'Mark' reported that 205 students from the school were accounted for at off-campus locations, 176 were at 'True Blue,' a code name for an undisclosed location, and 120 were not accounted for.
