Noriega may be gone, but his spoils live on

[RobL]

Put together this shadow box of 'bring-backs' from Operation JUST CAUSE back in '89. Noriega's business cards and envelope. Plus insignia torn from his shirt (had I known better, I would have stuffed the whole shirt under my flak vest.)

We also found a bunch of film negatives that we processed and turned over to the intel guys. Happy snaps of El Comandante Jefe. Also happened to find five million 'spoils' neatly wrapped in bank bundles. Kelly's Heroes Panama style. But the 'whole American army' was already in the room.

Was watching a documentary a few years ago and actually saw some video of me with my NCOIC - MSGT Nugent - taking a picture of that "Thank You Bush" sign. That video was shot by another of my crew - the tall guy - Sgt Conroy - standing next to me in front of the M551.

 

JUST CAUSE was interesting in a number of ways. First combat use - baptism of fire - of HMMWV, Blackhawk, Apache, F-117 Stealth, digital still photography, and the internet - or what we called back then, 'ARPAnet'. We sent digital photos and short video clips as attachments via modem and our own portable satellite uplink. They were printed out in the White House.

 

[RobL]

a couple more images.

[RobL]

the image from the documentary: just doing my thing. Hard to believe it was 28 years ago.

[Blacksmith]

Really neat bring-backs and photos, thanks for sharing. In the 'money shot', looks like a US coin mint set at right. Interesting that it looks like Conroy is wearing a PASGT, and you're in an M1. Am I seeing that correctly?

[doyler]

Nice spoils.

 

Know a guy who was one of the first three in the Commandancia.They assaulted the building.

 

Spoke of all the unuforms in a walk in closet.The cash and various things.They got the flags in the office.He said there were three.One went to the Battalion one to the regiment and the third went in a zip lock bag and got taped under a shirt and brought out.

 

He also had business cards.

[falcon_ib]

That's amazing Rob thank you for sharing.

[RobL]

You're right about the US coin mint set - all that bizarre stuff - anything valuable or 'liquid' was found in suit cases in a pile - like big 'bug-out bags' that El Jefe had to leave behind when he bugged out. I opened that sealed plastic Banco de Panama cash bag with my pocket knife while my videographer - TSGT Evans - rolled tape on me just so there wouldn't be any 'hey how come there's some missing' questions later. Loose bundles - and stuff like that coin set - were gathered up in empty MRE boxes.

 

As you can understand, we had very short notice of the operation. So we scurried over to the Norton AFB mobility shop, where we were issued mobility bags and weapons and hooked up with a C-141 and C-5 to pick up Rangers from Fort Ord/Travis AFB. We dug into the bags and found we had the old style M1 helmets but 'new' PASGT woodland helmet covers. So we just stretched the PASGT covers over our M1s. Conroy's looks like a PASGT, but its an M1. My NCOIC as you can see didn't even get a helmet cover, so he wore just a plain steel pot. Classic.

 

Even better: we were issued weapons but no ammunition. Brand new M9 Berettas. (JUST CAUSE marked the first combat use of that weapon if i recall correctly). They couldn't find any 9mm in the armory. Classic. So before we landed in Panama, we swapped a roll of undeveloped film of 'hero shots' that we took of the Rangers on the aircraft enroute (we also had some 'old school' emulsion/still cameras with us) for a crate of their 9mm ammo. (I wanted some grenades and a LAW too, but I didn't want to seem too needy). Schlepped that box all over Panama. Rangers and 82nd Airborne guys who saw us coming in our motley array of gear must've just shaken their heads.

 

Who'd've thought that you'd see vintage steel pots in Panama? That's why I tell re-enactors: 'never say never'.

[militariaone]

Greetings Rob,

 

Great stories, spoils, and memories. I was too lazy to cut off his patch, so I snagged a direct embroidered fatigue shirt and pants He's a little guy, that didn't come across in the pictures/movies of him. They must have shot his munchkin self from low angles.

 

RLTW!

 

V/r Lance

 

[vintageproductions]

and next to that frame on the wall Rob has his grenade and sword handle frame, but that's a story for another day.

[RobL]

Looks like if Noriega had ever been released, he could have rebuilt his full wardrobe with just a few 'WTB' postings here on USMF!

 

Excellent shirt you got there Lance.

 

I also recall a conference room or office in the Comandancia with walls covered in 'collectible' firearms of all manner of make and model. Vintage Colts, .semi autos, muzzle loaders, nickel S&W's., you name it. But there was also an alert MP standing inside the kill radius.

 

"Make him a deal".

"What kinda deal?"

"A deal deal. Maybe the guy's a Republican".

[TomP]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

 

love that old school Visa card in the middle of all that cash.

 

 

 

Tom

[USCapturephotos]

I really enjoyed this post. I remember it happening but am not too familiar with the "whys" and "what fors". Inspired me to do a little reading on it. Thank you.

Paul

[kammo-man]

That is just great Rob.

 

I knew the guy who knew the guy who was in the office of Nor..........Hold on I KNOW the guy WHO WAS THERE !!!!!

 

 

owen

[doyler]

Looks like if Noriega had ever been released, he could have rebuilt his full wardrobe with just a few 'WTB' postings here on USMF!

 

Excellent shirt you got there Lance.

 

I also recall a conference room or office in the Comandancia with walls covered in 'collectible' firearms of all manner of make and model. Vintage Colts, .semi autos, muzzle loaders, nickel S&W's., you name it. But there was also an alert MP standing inside the kill radius.

 

"Make him a deal".

"What kinda deal?"

"A deal deal. Maybe the guy's a Republican".

 

 

Rob

 

Great post

 

I was told the same by the Ranger who went in.There were guns on a wajj evem WW2 german examples.

 

He also saw WW2 type german posters.Did you see these as well?

[Brian Keith]

Great stuff! A previous Platoon Sergeant of mine was a 75th Ranger Panama Vet. I understand there was some issues when the 82nd AB arrived at the airport after the Rangers had secured it, not sure if there were any casualties, but there was some "friendly" fire exchanged! He also mentioned a Panamanian "girlfriend" he somehow picked up and followed him through the jungle for a few days (and nights). With out going into detail, she worked very hard to become a "war bride" those few nights! He would not have been surprised to have been contacted by a Panamanian woman some months later who was in a "family way. He mentioned that he had to detonate a claymore mine on the opposite side of a large tree one night there. He said something to the effect he didn't want to do that again. One other story he told me, They were holding a perimeter in a town/city? and one evening, a car drove up near their perimeter. It stopped and one of the occupants got out. He was wearing a Panamanian uniform. He strutted around a bit, then got back in the car and the car sped up directly at the US road block. As this was happening, he was on the radio to his HQ. They told him to engage the target, apparently no Panamanians were to wear uniforms at that time. He told his sniper to take out the target, and after one or two ineffective shots , the sniper said his scope got "messed up on the jump". Finally, the driver/car was disabled and the car crashed. I think he said the driver was hit with the third shot. The Panamanian soldier, said in English, "friend" but in Spanish was apparently cursing the US troops. A Spanish speaking solder in the squad translated for my friend. In the AM, my friend was eating his MRE and he realized his hands were covered in the Panamanian's blood. My friend was KIA during a deployment to Afghanistan. RIP JM!

BKW

[RobL]

Somewhere there is a picture of those weapons on the wall - I can't seem to put my hands on it right now.

 

I did see one framed poster of Hitler leaning up against a wall. A modern copy. But not sure what it was supposed to imply.

 

We photographed all sorts of weird voodoo stuff. Noriega had voodoo poppets (or whatever the dolls are called) of his enemies, and he had a black magic priestess cast evil spells, place hexes on people, and assemble 'bad luck charms'. We filmed a US Army voodoo specialist (I kid you not. Who has THAT job?) behind a table covered with creepy stuff like a maggot covered, raw beef tongue the size of a shoe pierced with a half dozen steel skewers. He pulled out the skewers, unfolded the rotting meat and pulled out a bloody newspaper photo of General Thurman.

[doyler]

Somewhere there is a picture of those weapons on the wall - I can't seem to put my hands on it right now.

 

I did see one framed poster of Hitler leaning up against a wall. A modern copy. But not sure what it was supposed to imply.

 

We photographed all sorts of weird voodoo stuff. Noriega had voodoo poppets (or whatever the dolls are called) of his enemies, and he had a black magic priestess cast evil spells, place hexes on people, and assemble 'bad luck charms'. We filmed a US Army voodoo specialist (I kid you not. Who has THAT job?) behind a table covered with creepy stuff like a maggot covered, raw beef tongue the size of a shoe pierced with a half dozen steel skewers. He pulled out the skewers, unfolded the rotting meat and pulled out a bloody newspaper photo of General Thurman.

 

 

Doesnt suprise me

 

Friend of mine was a body guard for a General in Panama back in the early 80s.Was well aquainted with Noriega.Said he was very superstious and quite paranoid to the point he wouldnt stay in one place at night and would frequently move or shift locations.When Just Cause broke out all over the news I was over to my buddies place when they reported Noriega couldnt be located and "fled" the country.My buddy called BS.He said hes in one of two places...A safe House in Panama City or his villa in the country.He had a good idea of his patterns due to the time he was there they also monitored( his) movements and radio traffic of the PDF and Police.

[Brian Keith]

As I was thinking about my previous post about my KIA buddy, I think I am confusing Panama with Grenada. Sorry, since I wasn't in either, I did confuse the events.

BKW