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REMEMBER RIO HATO Panama 1989


BIGGREG
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Where did you get the Macho de Monte tiger beret? I have two of their woodland berets with unit patches captured by the Rangers during Just Cause, but have never seen any pics of the 7th Inf. Company (Macho de Monte) ever using a tiger beret during the 1989 invasion. Not bashing your display, just very interested in PDF items.

 

Here is the typical type of beret that the Macho de Monte would have used during Just Cause. This is from my own personal collection of Panamanian Defense Force items. If the mods feel this post violates the forum rules, feel free to delete this image and accept my apologies.

apanam10.jpg

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Interesting.

 

I was teaching EMT classes at N. Ft. Lewis and most of my students were from the Ranger Bn. I showed up to school one morning and I had no students, they were all gone. Later the news broke and I figured out where they had all gone. When classes resumed a few weeks later we had lost one student. Very sad.

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Having been Army for 28 years and having been IN Panama during the initial Deployment, Operation Nimrod Dancer with Delta Company, 1st Bn, 61st Infantry, 5th Infantry Division (reflagged 5/6 Inf after the operation), I have to have a little fun here and say "Look at all the Marines!!!" Former and current Army who have worn the BDUs will get that joke...

 

The actual protrayals of the combat actions look pretty good.

 

During my time there, I was stationed at Albrook Air Station at the IAAFA hangars and every Friday we would flip with Charlie 1/61 Inf and move to Empire Range to the Chicken Coops. We would cross the canal at the Miraflores locks swing bridge. Without fail, each time we had to traverse that bridge, we would get caught up and have to wait for a Russian ship traversing the canal at the locks. Right at the end of our deployment, our last move was from Empire Range to the Signal compound at Corozal and instead of going across the swing bridge, we actually took a column of M113's across the Bridge of the Americas. I remember at Corozal there was an ant mound on that compound that was

maybe 6 feet high and about 25 feet in diameter. We tried to follow the trail into the jungle and gave up; it went on and on... all the ants moving away from the mound had nothing in their pincers... everything moving back towards the mound had a stick, a twig, a leaf or some type of food in their pincers... it was amazing. You could usually set your watch by the rains... seemingly 2 pm every day the skies would open up and just pour...

 

Wayne

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frederik.geudens
Having been Army for 28 years and having been IN Panama during the initial Deployment, Operation Nimrod Dancer with Delta Company, 1st Bn, 61st Infantry, 5th Infantry Division (reflagged 5/6 Inf after the operation), I have to have a little fun here and say "Look at all the Marines!!!" Former and current Army who have worn the BDUs will get that joke...

 

I take it you are refering to the rolled up sleeves with the inside showing, right?

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I take it you are refering to the rolled up sleeves with the inside showing, right?

 

Yep! Exactly! The army was so anal about that... If you are exposing the lighter skin of your arm, what difference does the lighter color of the material make? It was wither sleeves up and folded right, or sleeves completely down... nothing in between (as in folded once or twice to get them off the wrists as in the one photo shown here).

 

Wayne

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frederik.geudens
Yep! Exactly! The army was so anal about that... If you are exposing the lighter skin of your arm, what difference does the lighter color of the material make? It was wither sleeves up and folded right, or sleeves completely down... nothing in between (as in folded once or twice to get them off the wrists as in the one photo shown here).

 

Wayne

As far as I've heard, it recently turned into a big no-no with the Marines as well. Maybe because the days when everyone wore BDU's and you needed to ID a Marine from a distance by the way he rolled his sleeves are over. Who knows?

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As i asked to Ted he told me that sleeves were always down... but there were few exceptions..especially the days after and in quiet/relax times..

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5thwingmarty

I had to go to Panama right after Just Cause (as a civilian contractor). Everything on the news said all the US forces had left Panama by then. We were looking at the buildings on the bases that were being readied to turn over to Panama along with the canal. At one base, we checked in with the HQ and they told us to start our inspection at the officers club building, which was on a hill in the middle of the base. So we drive across the base, but when we get to the drive at the base of the hill, it is barricaded off.

 

We stopped the car and were wondering whether to just park and walk up the hill when we were completely surrounded by US troops, guns out wanting to know who the heck we were and why we were there. We never even saw them approaching, they were just there. After they confirmed who we were and why we were there, they let us drive up the hill and inspect the building. It turned out a bunch of the troops were camped out in the officers club, waiting to ship back out. I think the O-club had AC but the vacant barracks buildings didn't.

 

Seams funny now but scarred the heck out of me at the time.

 

Marty

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So did you guys shed those reserves jusr before the drop?

 

I think that you are reffering to Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada...the drop of the reserves happened there. :lol:

 

I don't know if the 82nd in Panama before the drop did that :rolleyes:

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Buffalo Grunt

Great impressions .. as already pointed out only problem was rolled up sleeves (If they even allowed it in a combat zone, which was highly unlikely, they would have been camo side out) other than that .. everyone looked the part .. nice job!

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flashesandovals
Great impressions .. as already pointed out only problem was rolled up sleeves (If they even allowed it in a combat zone, which was highly unlikely, they would have been camo side out) other than that .. everyone looked the part .. nice job!

I think that whoever has ever been sitting (in the sun) waiting to board a bird while rigged for an operational jump, will have to admit that it is nearly impossible to roll up the sleeves in propper the Army way...or any other way.

As a matter of fact, it is nearly impossible to move to reach out for anything in your pockets, web gear etc...

So, I would agree that if because of the heat you would decide on rolling up the sleeves to cool down, it would be tolerated in this way. (at least I would have tolerated it)

In operations quite a few things may deviate from standard regulations adn standards.

Just a thought.

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I think that you are reffering to Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada...the drop of the reserves happened there. :lol:

 

I don't know if the 82nd in Panama before the drop did that :rolleyes:

They were dropped enroute. The call came in from the DZ control that the DZ was hot so the drop went at 500'.

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Buffalo Grunt

Being in the 7th ID (L) during this era, I'll have to disagree with you ... SOP is SOP and when you're in a unit like the 75th Infantry, etc. they don't look the other way when it comes to this .. especially dress and equipment codes .. you'd simply unbutton your sleeves .. there would be no rolling up of sleeves .. believe me when I tell you this. that's not to say it didnt happen from time to time on an individual basis, but that individual would be "squared away" by his squad leader or PSG ...

 

I think that whoever has ever been sitting (in the sun) waiting to board a bird while rigged for an operational jump, will have to admit that it is nearly impossible to roll up the sleeves in propper the Army way...or any other way.

As a matter of fact, it is nearly impossible to move to reach out for anything in your pockets, web gear etc...

So, I would agree that if because of the heat you would decide on rolling up the sleeves to cool down, it would be tolerated in this way. (at least I would have tolerated it)

In operations quite a few things may deviate from standard regulations adn standards.

Just a thought.

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I'll have to disagree with you ... SOP is SOP and when you're in a unit like the 75th Infantry, etc. they don't look the other way when it comes to this .. especially dress and equipment codes .. you'd simply unbutton your sleeves .. there would be no rolling up of sleeves .. believe me when I tell you this. that's not to say it didnt happen from time to time on an individual basis, but that individual would be "squared away" by his squad leader or PSG ...
I agree. Having served myself, there's always a 1SG or CSM that's going to roll in and tell you to get those sleeves down, your cap on (and get that Ranger roll out of it, soldier!) or any other of the things that seem "nitpicky" to civilians. And trust me, rank doesn't make a difference, except if you're at the top of the food chain. I've seen NCOs 'school' officers about such things many times.

That said, I've seen LTCs and CSMs that would yell at people about their web gear or helmets in the field, when they themselves looked like they just stepped out their front door in garrison (no tactical anything on them), but that's another subject...

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flashesandovals
Being in the 7th ID (L) during this era, I'll have to disagree with you ... SOP is SOP and when you're in a unit like the 75th Infantry, etc. they don't look the other way when it comes to this .. especially dress and equipment codes .. you'd simply unbutton your sleeves .. there would be no rolling up of sleeves .. believe me when I tell you this. that's not to say it didnt happen from time to time on an individual basis, but that individual would be "squared away" by his squad leader or PSG ...

Have you served with the 75th in operations?

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flashesandovals
I agree. Having served myself, there's always a 1SG or CSM that's going to roll in and tell you to get those sleeves down, your cap on (and get that Ranger roll out of it, soldier!) or any other of the things that seem "nitpicky" to civilians. And trust me, rank doesn't make a difference, except if you're at the top of the food chain. I've seen NCOs 'school' officers about such things many times.

That said, I've seen LTCs and CSMs that would yell at people about their web gear or helmets in the field, when they themselves looked like they just stepped out their front door in garrison (no tactical anything on them), but that's another subject...

"In the field" does not equal "In operations" I'm afraid.

A band that rehearses in a garage does not behave as a band on stage does.

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I think that whoever has ever been sitting (in the sun) waiting to board a bird while rigged for an operational jump, will have to admit that it is nearly impossible to roll up the sleeves in propper the Army way...or any other way.

As a matter of fact, it is nearly impossible to move to reach out for anything in your pockets, web gear etc...

So, I would agree that if because of the heat you would decide on rolling up the sleeves to cool down, it would be tolerated in this way. (at least I would have tolerated it)

In operations quite a few things may deviate from standard regulations adn standards.

Just a thought.

I agree completely. If the unit is so intolerably structured that field deviations from garrison wear are not tolerated it can often be a formula for higher casualties because no one is used to ANY deviations from anything. I often partially rolled up my sleeves to be a little more comfortable but I ALWAYS rolled them back down prior to exit. There were many other units we worked with which had their own procedures that were a little strange to us but that was them just as was obviously the situation noted above. However, the additional discipline required of airborne operations means that for certain things everyone must function as an integral unit or you get to go work sommewhere else {too bad for that "somewhere else"}. That is why jumpers often spend more time dozing in full gear on "Green Ramp" than they actually do getting to one of the DZs. But it even takes discipline to do that.

BTW: I apologize for not offereing my compliments earlier for a great representation. Keep up the good work.

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Buffalo Grunt

Are you a US Army Veteran? If so, when did you serve and with what unit/units.

 

No, I never served with the 75th Infantry Regiment ..

 

 

 

Have you served with the 75th in operations?
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guys.... a comment from Ted Kennedy

 

In a field uniform we VERY VERY rarely rolled up our sleeves. Just the way it was and it was a standing order so we followed it. When we did manage to get them up for a few minutes we kept them below the elbows. This did 2 x things; protected the elbows in the time before pads, and since we weren't supposed to do it as Many said, it allows use to do a fast roll down!

 

have a nice day

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