I read the Tet Offensive story by one of our alums. Very interesting first hand account. I was never in the military but taught lots of military kids in Panama for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. We lived on an Army base next to the Panama Canal during the crisis between dictator, Manual Noriega and the US. His office and soldiers shared the same base as our quarters and we had to drive by machine gun toting Guardia National soldiers each day. My son and his friends had been fasely arrested for sedition when white notebook paper spilled out of an open window of their car coming back from a Saturday morning SAT prep class. White was the symbol of resistance against the dictatorship by Panamanian civilians. We got our kids out of jail with the help of sympathetic juvenile authorities in Panama after the were arrested by th overzealous dictatorship’s G-2 Gestapo-like enforces. Our niece and her photographer friend were arrested by the Guardia and charged with espionage for taking pictures of wrecked cars that were colorfully painted in the parking lot of the Guardia traffic police station. It was the anniversary of the 64 riots and an overzealous Guardia sargent arrested them. They were taken to a night court and quickly convicted of espionage while two Guardia officers stood facing to night judge, who likely thought it was a stupid mistake. The got sixty days in the awful Carcel Modelo or a fine of sixty dollars. When the Guardia officers left the judge lowered the penalty to thirty days or thirty dollars. I was waiting outside and was not allowed in so my brother-in-law asked me to run home and get some cash to pay the fine and my niece was free, a convicted spy.
Christmas break was the Just Cause invasion of Panama to capture Noriega. A lot of the conflict was in our neighborhood because it was a shared US/Panama base, Ft Amador. I went out to put out the trash late at night and the parking lot behind our duplex was full of hummers with US soldiers. I asked what was going on thinking it might be another training event and was to told in no uncertain terms to go home and stay put. Minutes later all hell broke loose, explosions, Apache helicopters strafed the Panamanian rifle brigade barracks a few yards from our home, a helicopter was shot down near our quarters and crashed into the Canal, the copilot was killed. The Carcel Modelo was attacked and was on fire. The local police station where our kids were taken after being arrested previously was fired in by a Spector gunship and in if my athletes was peppered by shrapnel while he cover his mom with his body laying in the bathtub because their wooden quarters were right next to the local Guardia police station. Two of our teachers were killed by the Guardia. Our community college computer teacher had refused to move from his nice highrise apartment in the city closer to US housing near the US bases after the election crisis when advised to by our boss. He was kidnapped by the Guardia and murdered after being carted around in a trunk. My son’s junior high teachers was randomly shot by a Guardia sniper on the way home from dinner. She died in her husband’s arms. The nephew of the murdered computer teacher was killed by US friendly fire when he ran two road blocks trying to get home to safety
Not knowing if the road blocks were Guardia or US. Those three were the only US civilians killed in the brief war. My son and daughter were at a holiday party that the killed student had left when his mom wanted him to come home after it all broke out. Our son and his friends, the same ones previously arrested for “sedition” daw US soldiers taking out Guardias while they were on a beer run from the party so they hunkered down at an apartment next to our high school during the invasion and couldn’t make it home to their families. Our daughter and her friends were evacuated through a back gate to a US Army base when a mortar shell landed near where the party was taking place. My wife and I and our two youngest boys sat on the floor and watched CNN Atlanta to find out what was going on outside our windows. The “war” was over within a week, Noriega was arrested at the Papal Embassy where he sought refuge, our kids made it home, the corrupt Guardia was destroyed, the real elected president was put in power by the US and most Panamanians celebrated the end of the brutal dictatorship of Noriega, who spent the rest of his days as a prisoner. So that is my little war story. Not Vietnam like doing of my generation but still pretty memorable. I even got “wounded” when I stupidly got to close to a sharp edge if the salvaged wrecked helicopter brought up from the Canal and put in out neighborhood officers club parking lot, when I walked over to say hello and way to go to a US tank crew parked there. I got a scratch on on leg, as I was in shorts. I did some looting, lots if it was going in by both US and Panamanians in the breakdown of order after the invasion. Americans, including our students mostly took abandoned Guardia stuff while Panamanian’s looted stores and unprotected homes in the city. I got two large Christmas candy canes that Noriega’s Guardia had put up to decorate for the holidays on our joint base. A US MP ran over to intercept me but let me keep them. I still have one in our garage and put it up Christmas time as does my brother-in-law who has the other one. I got off base to get food and volunteer at the hospital and to help sort medical supplies at a warehouse otherwise we weren’t allowed out of our quarters until all was safe and secure. Our kids finally got home and things got back to normal. So that is my little “war story.”