20th Anniversary of the Panama Invasion

[sloanrodgers]

This Christmas has been more somber for me than previous seasons because Dec. 20 marked the 20th
anniversary of the 1989 Invasion of Panama by U.S. military forces. Some of you may know that I was
a member of the 18th Airborne Corp's Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) and was sent down to Panama on
a C-5 Galaxy with a unit of the 82nd Airborne. Normally it was our initial job to sieze airfields, but after
taking fire to the under carriage of our plane and landing, we found that Howard A.F.B. was already or
still in U.S. hands. Afterward I was attached to a M.A.S.H. (ironic since I loved the T.V. series) off the
north runway and saw many of the U.S. wounded and all of the K.I.A.s of this almost forgotton war.

Over the years I've read a few books and many articles on the Panama Invasion, watching the conflict
become very controversial in some sectors, when the justification for the battles seemed so just in the
beginning. I've also seen many lies in the far-left media and I wonder what's their agenda for spreading
the misinformation on such a small war? All I know is that more than 2 dozen U.S. servicemembers were
killed promoting democracy and defending U.S. civilians twenty years ago, when they could have been
spending time with their families at Christmas time. And so it goes today. My apologies for the serious
note, but I did wait until after Christmas.


R.I.P.

Panama Tribute Video to Killed in Action
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe-k_NDpAfE

[sloanrodgers]

Here's a link to one of only two invasion articles I found in U.S. newspapers on the 20th Anniversary.


Houston Chronicle, Dec. 20, 2009
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6779030.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fmetro+%28chron.com+-+Houston+%26+Texas%29

[TRK]

Thanks for those, RR, and for your service in Panama. The Panama invasion is all but forgotten now, but that in no way diminishes the sacrifices of those who fought and died there.

[bmoses]

Yes, thanks RR for your service in Panama! Panama was one military action that ended well for almost everyone.

My wife, Miosotis, was only 17 at that time and lived in a small apartment in the Bethania neighborhood of Panama City with her mom, two sisters, and baby brother. She told me that the night the American invasion began, she was asleep in her bedroom with her sisters. They heard “booms” off in the distance, and her sister that had a bed near the window saw explosions and said “…it looks like they are having a big celebration over there.”

Fortunately for my wife and her family, there was not much action in her sector of the city. She was not far from Fort Clayton which served as one of the staging area for the Americans in their actions against the Noriega’s regime. She said the only time it sounded like the fight was nearby was when Americans stormed and took control of the local police station at Bethania.

All in all, Miosotis says that the Panamanian people look back favorably at the American action. Panamanians were certainly glad to see Noriega go, and the country has now enjoyed 20 strong years of democratic government.

The one sad incident that Panamanians still remember happened in a poor area of town known as Chorrillo. Chorrillo was strategically located near the ocean just northeast of the Panama Canal Bridge and was also home to the Comandancia, Noriega’s heavily fortified military headquarters. During the siege, American shelled the Comandancia and this effort eventually resulted in a massive fire which spread across the Chorrillo district, killing many civilians and rendering tens of thousands of people homeless.

[sloanrodgers]

Thanks fellas. I was really gung ho back then and would have charged hell with a bucket of water. Luckily my Airborne class
was postponed by Operation Hawkeye a couple months before or I would have jumped with my pal Corp. Cox and the 504th
of the 82nd Airborne at Torrijos. It was a long time ago, but I still have vivid memories of some incidents and some I'd rather
not recall. I was only 25 years old, but saw a lot of wounded and dead U.S. soldiers, Panamanian soldiers and civilians, who
were damaged too young by a conflict that Gen. Noriega instigated. The most shocking thing I witnessed was a battle in the
mountains one night. I saw troops in the jungle trade tracer rounds (red & green) with a passing chopper. Next, I saw a dark
object move through the clouds and a red beam shoot down at the mountain. The top of the mount just exploded in fire and
the scene just filled my vision. I didn't know what the hell the object was, but a spaceship is what came into my mind. Later
I was informed that the red beam was actually the howitzer on a AC-130 Spectre Gunship. These awesome weapons also hit
Noriega's headquarters in the heart of the El Chorillo slum, but I don't believe any rounds actually landed in the neighborhood.

After the Spectre attack, I believe the U.S. rangers made their way through El Chorillo to heavy resistance. I've heard all kinds
of tales on how the Chorillo fires began. The most contemporary was from a wounded ranger. He told me that as they advanced
toward the Comadancia, he saw red-shirted Dingbats (Dignity Battalions) starting fires to slow the rangers down. Tracer rounds
from both sides could have also started small fires and easily gotten out of control in the wood shantytown. The wild and totally unsubstantiated claims that 4000, 10000 or 20000 Panamanian civilians were killed in El Chorillo and elsewhere are ridiculous and
just plain insulting. It's my opinion that Noriega is primarily responsible for the travesty that struck El Chorillo that night. He built
his headquarters in the poorest and most crime-ridden slum in Panama and used the gullible inhabitants of El Chorillo as cannon
fodder in the event of an attack. They should have seen the coming storm. I'm sure this dispicable act on Noriega's part killed hundreds, but I havn't heard anyone lay any blame on his pineapple head.

[sloanrodgers]

Doesn't "Chorillo" mean diarrhea in Spanish? Heckuva name for a town or neighborhood, but I guess
some old Panamanian politician thought it was appropriate for the for that ghetto.

[TRK]

Good one, RR... but El Chorrillo also means little stream, and in this case it's a reference to the creek emanating from Cerro Ancon that runs through the burg.

[sloanrodgers]

Ugh! I was serious. I thought chorrillo had some derogatory connotation other than a stream. I've heard Hispanic janitors on
a few occasions use it or something similar while cleaning the john. Maybe I'm just pissed or chorrilloed (ouch, bad pun) that
some people in the far-left press are still using this fight and the unfortunate civilian victims as pawns for their U.S. or dated
Bush bashing. There's even a Panamanian priest, who stated that he saw Dingbats deliberately setting fires in El Chorrillo.

*correction