In October 1983, Boykin took part in Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada. He was wounded by anti-aircraft fire during the Delta helicopter assault on Richmond Hill Prison. In 1989, Boykin participated in the U.S. invasion of Panama as part of the mission to apprehend Manuel Noriega and participated in Operation Acid Gambit. From 1990 to 1991, Boykin attended the Army War College. In 1992 and early 1993, as a colonel, Boykin was in Colombia leading a mission to hunt for drug lord Pablo Escobar. Seymour Hersh later claimed in "The New Yorker" that there were suspicions within the Pentagon that Boykin's team was going to help assassinate Escobar with the support of U.S. Embassy officials in Colombia. Hersh refers to Mark Bowden's book "Killing Pablo," which alleged that the Pentagon believed Boykin intended to break the law and exceed his authority in the operation. Bowden wrote that "within the special ops community...Pablo's death was regarded as a successful mission for Delta, and legend has it that its operators were in on the kill." Hersh quotes an anonymous retired army general as saying, "That's what those guys did. I've seen pictures of Escobar's body that you don't get from a long-range telescope lens. They were taken by guys on the assault team."