Creek Sentry
Polish Solodarity Crisis

When the Polish government enacted new food price increases in the summer of 1980, a wave of labor unrest swept the country. Partly moved by local grievances, the workers of the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk went on strike in mid-August. Led by electrician and veteran strike leader Lech Walesa, the strikers occupied the shipyard and issued far-reaching demands for labor reform and greater civil rights. Solidarity, the free national trade union that arose from the nucleus of the Lenin Shipyard strike, attracted a diverse membership that quickly swelled to 10 million people, or more than one of every four Poles. Because of its size and massive support, the organization assumed the stature of a national reform lobby.

The persistence of Solidarity prompted furious objections from Moscow and other Warsaw Pact members, putting Poland under constant threat of invasion by its Warsaw Pact allies. This was the first time a ruling communist regime had accepted organizations completely beyond the regime's control.

Although the Soviet?s preference was to resolve the crisis without direct Soviet military intervention, plans for a large-scale military intervention were drafted that included initial contingent of fifteen Soviet tank and motorized-infantry divisions moving in from the GDR, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic, Carpathian, and Belorussian Military Districts. These troops were to be accompanied by three Czechoslovak and East German divisions, with at least another dozen Soviet divisions as reinforcements.

In August 1980 the Soviet Army placed all regular units in military districts and Groups of Forces adjoining Poland on full combat alert, with a communications network put into place during the ?Comrade-in-Arms-80? exercise. The maneuvers were intended to exert pressure on the Polish leadership, and to divert attention from the buildup of the Polish domestic security forces.

Because of instability along the Polish/Soviet border, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee ordered that STANAVFORLANT would not be released for the Christmas holiday. At the same time, the US decided to supply NATO with four AWACS aircraft to monitor the border situation. In December 1980, 963rd Airborne Air Control Squadron crews on temporary duty at Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland, redeployed to Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, in response to heightening tensions in Poland. Linking up with NATO groundbased radar sites, the operation, called Exercise Creek Sentry, monitored East European air activity during the crisis.

Some Soviet units were taken off alert in February 1981, but preparations continued with the the ?Soyuz-81? maneuvers in April 1981, and most Soviet military units remained fully mobilized until the crisis was over.

In late 1981, the tide began to turn against the union movement. In the midst of the virtual economic collapse of the country, many Poles lost the enthusiasm that had given Solidarity its initial impetus. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, commander in chief of the Polish armed forces, replaced Stanislaw Kania as party leader in October. The expansion of Poland?s internal security forces remained largely unnoticed, due to the distractions of the Warsaw Pact military exercises and the buildup of Soviet forces along Poland?s borders. In December 1981, Jaruzelski suddenly declared martial law, ordering the army and special police units to seize control of the country, apprehend Solidarity's leaders, and prevent all further union activity. In effect, Jaruzelski executed a carefully planned and efficient military coup.