Panama 5

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Panama Pundits - 5

Jan. 13, 1991

I re-read my book about Alaska.  I would like to go there some day.  I attended a briefing on what to do if trouble starts tomorrow when the President of Panama visits our location.  I am supposed to be in one of the vehicles that will evacuate a General and an Ambassador to the prearranged helicopter landing site.  I really don't anticipate any trouble.

Jan. 15, 1991

Yesterday was great.  We setup the security for the President's visit.  We had listening and observation posts surrounding the camp, a security detail, evacuation helicopters, evacuation cars, crowd control, the whole nine yards. 

Like I mentioned earlier my job was to command one of the evacuation cars.  If something went wrong my driver and I were to get the President, a 4 star U.S. General and an Ambassador, in that order and take them to the escape helicopter.

Nothing happened.  There were a lot of Panamanians walking around in the woods and up and down the dirt road leading to camp, but they usually did that anyway.

I could see the President very plainly.  At first five helicopters landed.  A bunch of people got off in civilian clothes accompanied with some in military uniforms.  This one guy stood out from the rest.  He wore a white shirt and a big hat, so I took a picture of what I thought was the President.  A few minutes later a white helicopter landed and a short fat man got off in a business suit. I knew immediately by the deference he was given that he was the President, I had taken a picture of the wrong guy.  I tried taking another picture but was out of film.  A bus came out to greet the helicopter and everyone got on and was driven to the reviewing stand.

We, the US MP's, all had loaded weapons.  Apparently the Panamanian Government was not 100% sure about the loyalty of the local Panamanian National Police and wanted our back up.  They also had their own bodyguards.  We were told a little earlier that if the PNP started anything stupid we were to stop them.  They never really told us how to stop them but was told any encounter we might have should fall under the rules of engagement.  I guess we were supposed to shoot somebody in the head of something.

A few minutes after the President and his party had moved to the reviewing stand another helicopter landed.  No one was there to greet it and I noticed that two men in white got off the helicopter, looked around with darting black eyes and then a very tall distinguished man got off.  All three of the men starting walking our my way.  I was the closest person to the new arrivals so I walked towards them and when the tall man got with in hand shaking range he stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, how are you."  Fine I replied.  He then said, "I am Jerry Ford,"  in prefect English. Well it wasn't the Jerry Ford I knew.  I responded, "Hi, I am Conley McAnally from Independence, Missouri, home of Harry Truman, but who are you?"  He laughed real hard and said, "I'm the Vice President of Panama."  I saluted, said excuse me, and escorted him to the reviewing stand. 

In this haphazard way I met and was an additional bodyguard for three minutes to one of the leading figures of Panama who will probably be the President one day.  He was a very impressive looking man

Panama 4

Jan 6, 1991

I am tired; the wreck took it out of me emotionally.  Poor young man.  He had come to Panama for his first real great adventure of his life probably and died here.

The rest of the day was uneventful.  We returned to Sheraton and will be here for a few days coordinating convoy departures to what is now called Camp Thomas.  Presently I am sitting by the ocean, sea, or bay, or what ever you want to call it.  Anyway it is the entrance to the canal.

Jan 8

Went to see Bob Vaughn at his barracks.  We just talked and watched a tape he had.

Jan 9

Last night we returned to base camp to stay over night at least, or so they say.  Went to the river to wash our vehicles, we call it the Panamanian Car Wash.  Talked to Jerry for awhile.  He seems to be staying busy, busier than I.

Today so far has been interesting.  Johnson, another guy and I walked through the jungle area.  We went to the top of a hill and looked out over the ocean.  We later walked into Nombre and gave it a complete walk through.  Strictly third world I suspect, if I knew what a third world looks like.  We ran into Rodriguez, our interpreter, and he took us to a back ally place near the lagoon.  We found a house that had a picnic table outside under a wooden canopy where the owner served us lunch.  It was some kind of fish which we were not familiar with, a fried banana thing, might have been a polenta,  some sort of squash we think, and a rice dish consisting of coconuts and lintels.

Jan 10

Today is Darren’s birthday.  Went back into Nombre and ate lunch again at the same place we did yesterday.  We discovered that if we spoke Spanish the meal was $3, if we did not it was $4.  The lunch was octopus, shrimp, that rice dish again along with the fried banana thing.  I am really not impressed with Panamanian food.  Looks like we will head back to Ft Sheraton for awhile. 

Jan 11

The trip back and forth between Sheraton and Thomas is getting routine.  The people still wave at us as we go by and we of course wave back and when we stop for some reason always pass out candy to the kids that seem to flock around the vehicle.  Jerry was there doing an inventory or something.  That night in the military club I ate pizza and won $12 on a nickel slot machine.

Panama 3

Panama Pundit 3

Jan. 3, 1991

We convoyed over to Camp Russo to deliver a 5 Ton truck and pick up two smaller vehicles for the return trip to Base Camp.  We almost had to transport a large sum of money back to the Base Camp, which I was not looking forward to, but it got cancelled at the last minute.

While at Russo we heard that an American helicopter got shot down in San Salvador.  The American soldiers that survived the crash were executed by the rebels.  It was a couple of hundred miles away but it did make us stop and think.  We realized that we “weren’t in Kansas anymore” and there were people in the general area that didn’t really like us. 

Captain Johnson said he had heard that Air Force One had landed at Howard AFB near Russo, but I didn’t believe him, so we decided to check it out before we returned to Base Camp.

Jan 4, 1991

The trip back to Base Camp was uneventful.  I did miss a turn in a town called Solo Palto.  There were five Panamanian bar fly’s hanging around the outside of a bar.  I guess they had been there all day according to their appearance, watching all the trucks go by.  They all pointed in the direction we were supposed to go.  As I was turning the convoy around I drove by them, leaned out of the jeep and yelled, “American Stupido.”  Which is Stupid American in Italian.  They understood what I meant and laughed very heartedly.

The set up of the Base Camp had made a lot of progress in the two days we had been absent.  We put our gear away and walked into town, if you can call Numbre a town.  They have a dirt road, shacks, two grocery stores (or a least a place where you could buy food), a café operated out of a house and an Asian Restaurant that also doubled as a grocery store.  One of the grocery stores had a bar.  We went to the one that had the bar.

There were a bunch of Panamanian playing something that looked like dominos and a pool table that was infested with beetles.  We didn’t play pool, just drank their $0.25 bottled beer, called Panama oddly enough.

Jan 5, 1991

We got up and took a ride to Ft. Davis and requisitioned material to paint directional signs for when the main body arrived.  Captain Johnson and I took the material down to a rocky beach and painted them.  We needed to clean our brushes so after soaking them in kerosene we cleaned them in the ocean.  I had been watching the waves and had figured out that every 5^th wave was larger than the other 4.  So when the 5^th wave was coming in we would dash back up the rocks.  I did not count on any abnormality in the wave cycle.  One wave took us by surprised and drug us both off the beach into the Atlantic Ocean.  Lucky for us there was a large boulder that we latched on to or we would have been picked up by some sort of current and our bodies found floating in the Gulf of Mexico or off the tip of Florida.  We took longer to dry than the paint on the signs.  We returned to Base Camp after driving by the supposed Air Force One, which it was not, and finished our brush cleaning on a sand bar in the Numbre River next to Base Camp.

Jan 6, 1991

We got up early and drove into Ft. Sheridan to pick up a truck convoy to lead to the Base Camp.  Just as we were about a mile away from camp we heard over the radio that there had been an accident on the road just ahead and a medivac helicopter had been requested immediately.  From a hill we watched as a group of men tried to save another man’s life.  We halted all traffic going down the road and took in the event.  Apparently the driver of a fork lift had lost control of his machine, the fork lift started to bounce, he un hooked his seat belt and stood up trying to get a better view of the road and guide the lift around the pot hole and large rocks.  The lift turned over and trapped the young man under the lift just below his waist.  It crushed him but he was still conscious.  Controlled panic developed.  His band of brothers immediately called for assistance, but the only medical helicopter available was in Panama City.  It was dispatched immediately but distance was against him.  They did what they could for the young man but by the time the helicopter arrived the 19 year old National Guardsman from Sikeston, Missouri was dead.  The Base Camp was named after him, Camp Thomas.  Some day I might write a story about that.

Panama 2

 

New Years Eve was spent going between Ft. Sheraton and down the coastal road to Nombre de Dios.  Three trips were made in all because one we had to find it, 2 we had to deliver 2 MP guards and two caterpillars, and 3 we had to bring the MP’s their overnight gear and feed them. 

It was a lot of riding but I saw a lot of the country side.  The country is pretty except for the trash.  It seems to be everywhere.  The houses are literally shacks  There are some exceptions but not many. If my pictures come out I’ll write what they are in some detail. 

The people are nice looking with their mix of Spanish, Indian, and black blood.  There are a lot of blacks here.  They seem to populate the cities while the more Indian looking people are in the forests.

Some of what I write will not make since because it will be in cryptic form.  It will be that little lost tantalizing part of social history lost forever that only the viewer can remember.

-waited at port for convoy commander.

-stopped traffic on lonely road, tried to tell a Panamanian to wait 5 minutes.

-a lot of pumps in the road.

-A young couple and naked little girl watched the convoy go by.  They were living inside a whole dug into a mountain side.

-a church is next to a whorehouse.

-saw the Caribbean Sea at midnight.

-saw European tourists in strange places.

-found a drunk in the road.

-the roads are rough and would not pass for anything resembling a road in the U.S.

-met Bob V’s.company commander, Capt Peterson.  We both agreed that Bob hadn’t changed a whole lot.  I’ll try to look him up before I leave (Bob was an employee of mine at UMB.  I talked him into joining the army.  I apologized to Capt Peterson.)

-Went to see Bob V. at his company area.  Small world.  He was a gate guard at the compound we were staying at on Sheridan.  He is homesick and has an attitude about the army.  I tried to pass on all my wisdom about moving forward and not looking back.  Someday he will understand our conservation.

Panama 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

I am back, I think.

After numerous attempts and stupid computer access failures, I have once again been able to get to my old blog.  We shall see how this all works out by trying to post things in a little bit, or perhaps tomorrow.

I have been off this blog for a long time and lost all passwords etc.  I just recently got back in by trial and error.  From time to time I will be posting again, what exactly I am not sure.