Panama Pundit 1

Panama Pundit

Note to reader:  The series I have chosen to call Panama Pundit are a series of extracts from a diary I kept while deployed to Panama in late 1990 and early 1991.

December 29

Sgt Fortner and I reported to the Kansas City armory this morning.  We loaded our vehicle and were driven to Fulton, Missouri by Sgt Hess.  There we were to meet up with several guardsman that would accompany us to Panama.  Sgt Hess brought his girl friend along for the ride.  The only reason I mention that is that she too was in the National Guard and she was leaving for Saudi Arabia in a couple of days.

In the armory at Fulton we sat around and watched TV.  The Chiefs beat the Bears and then we watched a war film, appropriate I guess.  We got a call from Jeff City and were told that instead of 0300 the next day we would be picked up at 1830 that night.  Side note – We had a contract meal from KFC.  It was to much chicken for one day, two meals.  We leave in about an hour.  We will probably sit in the St. Louis airport for hours.

December 30

I road to St. Louis on a bus along with Jerry Sonderagger and 30 other guys.  They put us in some sort of army office building and we slept on the floor waiting for our plane.  Rumors abound as to when we will leave.  The best rumor is that we will take off at 0930.  We shall see.

We left at 1230 after eventually being pushed out of the snow (the plane that is – some how it got stuck in a snow bank.)  The plane headed towards Panama and we were entertained  in flight by two movies:  My Blue Heaven with Steve Martin and Dick Tracy staring Warren Beatty.  I watched all of MBH and slept through DT.

We landed at Howard AFB in Panama on the Pacific side and were taken to a place called Camp Russo.  Henceforth referred to as the Bubble.  It was some sort of structure that was kept erect by blowing air into the facility to inflate the structure.  The doors had airlocks so if you left the door from the outside open while you opened the door to the inside it started to deflate.  The Bubble was used for in-processing  Tomorrow we are supposed to lave for Cologne on the Atlantic side