Navy lieutenant and his wife in
He
to kneel on one knee and aim it
at us.
The pilot turned to see my re-
action, laughed, and then sped
away. I guess that was part of my
indoctrination.
My job(s) became routine and I
performed them each day without
much stress or fanfare, until that
fateful night the events occurred
that precipitated the invasion.
All of the Army officers were
slated to attend a gala Christmas
party on Fort Amador so I volun-
teered to stand COC Watch Com-
mander that evening.
It is worthy to note that I was
the only officer who was not part
of the regular JTF-PM staff who
was allowed to perform in that po-
sition.
The commanding general really
trusted me. I believe Noriega took
advantage of the fact that all key
Army officers were at the party
and chose to preempt the invasion
that he knew was coming.
Starting at around 9 p.m., the
PDF shot and killed a Marine sec-
ond lieutenant and kidnapped a
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Dr. Peter Gubany
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The Missourian Page 25 November 8, 2017
and the XVIIIth Airborne Corps
front of the Comandancia.
They tortured the officer and
his wife all night. They also re-
tained 22 soldiers and held them
in a men’s room at Torrijas Air-
port, threatening to kill them one
at a time.
When the Marine was taken to
Gorgas Hospital, they called the
COC to report the incident. Being
a qualified Tactical Action Officer
(TAO) in the Navy, I did not hesi-
tate to take appropriate action to
stop the enemy.
The phone call was taken by
a Green Beret captain who was
manning the desk who blurted out
“Marine officer shot and killed by
the PDF in front of Comandancia!”
I immediately ordered the mili-
tary police (MPs) to secure the
gates of all the military bases,
ordered Blackhawk, Apache, and
AC-130 aircraft to the skies, and
ordered the mechanized vehicles
from Howard Air Force Base
to deploy and secure the swing
bridges over the canal.
I called the commanding gen-
eral who commended me for the
actions I took and told me to send
Blackhawks to pick him up. It
was a long night of negotiation
that secured the release of the
prisoners and an end to Noriega’s
attempt to take advantage of the
situation.
The next day, after being up for
over 24 hours, I composed the 15-
page Top Secret message to the
NSA, JCS and White House de-
scribing the events that had oc-
curred and the operations and in-
telligence leading up to that day.
I was told that President Bush
used my message to make the de-
cision to invade. Lt. Gen. Stiner
Washington, Mo.
Eye exams by:
a round scored a direct hit.
arrived the next day to run the
invasion.
Because of my vast knowledge
his Chief of staff asked me to serve
as an Action Officer on a corps lev-
el staff. As an Action Officer I was
responsible for the combat actions
and all associated logistics for the
3rd Infantry Division, the Marine
Forces and the 193rd Infantry
Brigade comprised of over 8,000
troops, covering 80 percent of the
operations area.
Immediately after the invasion
commenced, the headquarters
came under attack from PDF
manning an 82mm mortar. They
had it in the back of a pickup
truck and would back between
two civilian houses and lob one in
every few hours.
We couldn’t retaliate because
of the risk of collateral damage.
They didn’t have a forward spot-
ter so they couldn’t “walk” the
rounds into a direct hit.
The rounds would impact 50
feet short, 50 feet long, to the
side, etc. I asked my Green Be-
ret friend what would happen if
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said, “The building would become
a pile of rubble and we would all
probably be killed.” I thought
to myself, “Dying in the line of
duty is an admirable thing,” so I
just performed my job and didn’t
worry about the incoming mortar
rounds.
After four days, the AC-130 fi-
nally located and destroyed the
mortar and its support team us-
ing its gatling gun.
At around 9:30 a.m. each morn-
ing Gen.Powell’s chairman, JCS,
executive assistant would call me
to be briefed on everything that
occurred during the previous 24
hours.
At 10 a.m. I would go into the
radio shack where CNN was play-
ing on the television and Gen.
Powell would come out and brief
the press, saying exactly what I
had told his assistant 30 minutes
before.
I transferred one week later. I
had many exciting and adventur-
ous experiences on board ship,
but my time in Panama was truly
the highlight of my career.
nice to know.