33. Secret Military History

1989-1229, Ranger Hand to Hand Combat.
CPT Al Dochnal, Commander, C Company, 3 Bn, 75th Ranger Regt & his men are to secure the main terminal building @ Omar Torrijos International Airport. His Second Platoon secured the front of the terminal. Third Platoon went inside.
A squad of 12 Panamanian PDF forces were concentrated inside the large terminal Bldg. SGT David Reeves, SPC Michael Eubanks & PFC William Kelly, see two PDF Soldiers run into the second-floor main men's restroom of the terminal. It was a very large latrine similar to those in any large airport terminal. The Rangers did not know there were already 10 more PDF Soldiers inside the 10-toilet & 10 urinal latrine. Reeves throws a hand grenade in the latrine. As he followed the blast in. A PDF standing on a toilet, protected by the thick-walled granite shitter stall shoots him three times in the upper body. The enemy Soldier then jumps on SGT Reeves chest & shoots him in the face. Reeves open his eyes & reaches for his M-16 but both of his arms are paralyzed.
Eubanks & Kelly rush in, the PDF shoot Kelly in the head but the bullet bounces off his Kevlar. Rangers pull Reeves out & lay him next to a Coke machine in the lobby.
Kelly & Eubanks make a plan, “Let’s get everybody's hand grenades & "wax" their ass.” There were now 20 US Rangers outside the latrine. Kelly & Eubanks go back in with pockets full of fragmentation grenades about eight-grenades each. They throw them into the granite stalls, on one side of the dark latrine & then the other, body parts fly with every blast. Shards of glass from the mirrors & windows flying. Some of the PDF are protected by the thick gloryhole proof walls of the latrine stalls. Kelly tells Eubanks,” let’s get personal,” they both have 9-MM pistols.
The PDF are inside the latrine cursing America, the president & the gringo Rangers. This makes the Rangers angry; anger is a good thing in combat. Eubanks goes back outside & gets an M-203 grenade launcher. The PDF & Rangers are exchanging vulgar slang, Eubanks notices every time the PDF would curse he stuck his head out the stall so Eubanks says "**** YOU" in Spanish, when the PDF looks out & says "FU…” Eubanks shoots him in the mouth with the M203, the PDF Soldier runs to & dives out the window & is met by a hail of 50-caliber machine gun fire from 2nd Platoon. The grenade goes off while the PDF is still in the air showering the gun crew below in blood & gore. One more down three live ones left.
Eubanks walks down the dark row of shitter stalls. A PDF Soldier was standing on top of the wall & pounces on Eubanks they both fall into the row of pissers along the wall & begin to wrestle. Kelly comes around the corner & shoots the PDF Soldier three-times in the head.
More Rangers arrive & shoot the remaining two enemy Soldiers. The fight took 5minutes. Eubanks & Kelly had to wear their blood & brain soaked uniforms for three-days in the Panamanian sun. I do not know if SGT Reeves lived.
Smaller battles continue in the passenger terminal. An unknown number of Rangers are wounded.
A C-141 cargo aircraft lands & taxies up to the terminal. The cargo plane unloads pallets of equipment.
CPT Al Dochnal runs over to the C-141 & asks them to fly the wounded Rangers back home Fort Benning, the pilots agree.
SGT Reeves was still alive but was in critical condition. Others had cuts on their legs & face from the flying glass.
Fighting was still going on in & around the entire airport complex.
A network call went out to every unit to bring their wounded to the passenger terminal. 46 wounded soldiers arrived within 15-minutes.
SGT Reeves & 45 other wounded Soldiers I were loaded in the C-141. Most were laid on the floor.
One hour after landing the aircraft took off headed to Fort Benning, Georgia.
Three hours after the aircraft took off from Panama & all was quiet in San Antonio, Texas.
At 0400-hours local, the control tower @ San Antonio airport received a routine, route change request, from the C-141 requesting a destination change from Fort Benning to San Antonio.
10-minutes later, the C-141 declared an emergency. They would make an emergency landing in 30-minutes. The pilot radioed the control tower, “San Antonio control, this is AF C141 222, we have 40 soldiers on board in critical condition. Six soldiers have already died in flight. Requesting an emergency landing runway-90. We need every piece of emergency equipment to help these wounded soldiers from the fighting in Panama.”
“We did not know they were coming, we had 30-minutes to react,” said the air traffic controller on duty. Calls went out to 911, every local hospital & all ambulance services was alerted. Help was on its way.
The C-141 rolled to a fast stop in front of the passenger terminal. There were eight ambulances waiting on the tarmac. “There was so much blood on the ramp of the C-141, ambulance crews had trouble walking,” said Doctor Mary Martin.
A triage area was set up outside the aircraft. Color-coded, handwritten tags were tied to the right wrists of each wounded soldier. The Soldiers were divided into three categories:
20-Red tags for immediate surgery.
16-Blue tags for surgery needed but could wait.
4-Green tags for minor injuries.
According to Doctor William Burner @ Southwest General Hospital, the closest hospital to the airport, the immediate surgeries were operated on in the recovery room adjacent to the surgery suits. There were 15 operations going on simultaneously. The first surgery began 20-minutes after the C-141 landed. In all 34 emergency operations were conducted. All of the Soldiers who made it alive to San Antonio lived.

1989-1223, 1SG (P) Charged With Three Murders in Panama.
1989-1110, 750 paratroopers from 3d Bn, 504 PIR, 82D Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC arrive in Panama for Jungle Warfare Training.
1989-1115, 1LT Brandon Thomas is investigated for an unspecified shooting accident.
This incident somehow caused bad blood between 1LT Thomas & his 1SG, Roberto E Bryan, 43.
1989-1220, The War with Panama begins.
1989-1221, 3d Bn seizes Madden Dam & Cerro Tigre supply depot. 23 paratroopers from the 3d Bn are wounded in this action.
1989-1222, Bryan's unit sets up checkpoints to protect the Dam.
1SG Bryan is manning the Madden Dam checkpoint. A CJ5 Jeep with five Panamanian men wearing civilian clothes drives up to the roadblock. The five-men are ordered out of the vehicle. One of the men throws a hand grenade from the vehicle & wounds 10-US Soldiers. 4 of the 5 civilians are shot & killed by US Soldiers. Bryan runs to the location & orders a cease-fire. The surviving Panamanian reaches under his shirt & 1SG Bryan shoots him. 1LT Thomas places 1SG Bryan under arrest. He is charged with premeditated murder.
1989-1224, MPs take over the dam guard duty. A car approaches the roadblock & stops. The MP does not speak Spanish & uses a translation-card to order the two-men to, "come here" he is reading the wrong line & instead orders, "go away" in Spanish, He repeats the command twice as the confused Panamanian men were getting back in the vehicle the MP shoots & kills them. No charges are filled in this incident.
1990-0615, 1SG Bryan's Bn Commander, LTC Lynn Moore, recommends no charges be filed against 1SG Bryan. LTC John Woloski the Article 32 investigator says there is conflicting testimony & no physical evidence he recommends Bryan stand trial for assault consummated by battery. Woloski wrote, "No court would ever find 1SG Bryan guilty & if I were a court member, knowing the evidence as I do now, I would find him not guilty.”
1990-0617, 1SG Bryan's Bde Commander, COL Jack Nix intends to drop all charges. The commander of the 82D Airborne, MG James Johnson Jr., withdraws COL Nix's authority on the Bryan case & orders all matters related to the case be forwarded to him. MG Johnson recommends court martial for voluntary manslaughter.
1990-0703, LTG Luck, Commander, XVIII Airborne Corps orders Bryan to stand trial on a charge of unpremeditated murder.
1990-0830, COL Raymond McRorie is the judge in this case. On the last day of trial 1SG Bryan's civilian attorney, Mr. Mark Waple from Fayetteville, NC brings in a surprise witness: Next to the roadblock was a house. The lady of the house was watching from her kitchen window. She saw the Panamanian man reaching under his shirt & thought another hand grenade was being readied. She was running over to warn the US Soldiers of the threat when 1SG Bryan shot the man. When COL McRorie hears this surprise testimony, he acts with the power of the bench & acquits 1SG (P) Bryan on all charges.
1990-0901, 1SG (P) Bryan promoted to CSM.
Author’s note: I sat as a juror on a GEN court-martial where Mr. Waple was the defense attorney. It was a drug case in 1986. The jury acquitted the accused SSG. Mr. Waple was the best attorney I have ever seen, @ the time I thought to myself, "This guy would put Perry Mason to shame.” The Military defense attorney was a 2LT who sat & twiddled his thumbs through the case. The Military prosecutor was a CPT who seemed unable to talk unless he was reading from his yellow legal pad. He was not a very good reader. The moral to this story: Hire a civilian lawyer.

1989-1231, Gay, Navy has the highest number of homosexuals
Historical Gay Discharge Statistics:
Navy 0.13 percent males
0.27 percent females
0.02 percent officers
USMC 0.04 percent males
0.33 percent females
0.01 percent officers
Army 0.05 percent males
0.15 percent females
0.02 percent officers
On average the Military chapter’s 1 male warrior out of 2000 annually for being gay
On average the Military chapter’s 1 female warrior out of 625 annually for being gay
Between 1986 and 1989, 4,416 Warriors were chaptered for being gay only 2 were courts martialed.

1990-0120, SF, Drugs, the 160th Flies High.
When the 160th returned to Fort Campbell, KY from war in Panama. They were welcomed by all the wives, children, and bosses at Ft Campbell.
Wives made cookies. One of the returning SSGs had a wild wife. She spiked her cookies with marijuana. Man, those cookies were good. Soldiers got the munchies before the celebration was even over (see picture).
Once it was discovered the cookies were spiked. Soldiers were sent to the emergency room with dry mouths, hunger, and heightened sense of humor.
The generals at Fort Campbell exempted the SOAR from urinalysis for 6-months. The Regt had fun for 5-months then they had to stop doing drugs on the 5th month to be ready for a urinalysis
Let the party begin, it was like the old Army. Parties, sex, drugs and rock and roll. Nobody got in any trouble not even the wife who started the party.

1990-0406, Porn, Secret, First Incident of Obscene Calls from the Oval Office.
The Secret Service discovers a series of obscene phone calls originating from President H. W. Bush's private White House oval office telephone.
The caller turns out to be the president of the American University in Washington, DC, Richard E. Berendzen, who was apparently addicted to a phone sex service. He is later forced to resign his position but is never charged with any crime.
No mention on how he gained access to a secure telephone in the Oval Office.
2000-0324, Secret: Second Incident of White House Sex Calls.
President Clinton and the White House Communications Agency had special access to a line in the Oval Office with unblocked access to 1-900 phone sex services. President Clinton’s private line was charged 9,400 minutes of calls at $5 (11-2022) each. No further Information found.

1990-0602, Military, the AF Wants the 82D Airborne Division.
Air Marines: AF Wants 82D Airborne Div. AF GEN McPeak has no qualms about copying what the Navy and Marines do best, so the AF stays relevant in the New World, where the name of the game is getting from here to there in a hurry with deterrent or striking power.
Already, his formation of the composite interventionist, Wing at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, has champions of naval air and its aircraft carriers at battle stations, they see the interventionist Wing as nothing less than a land-based aircraft carrier that will try to grab mission away from sea-based ones.
GEN McPeak did not contest the charge, saying, "The idea is to make an aircraft Carrier at Mountain Home AFB.” McPeak said. at Mountain Home, Clinton and his successors will have a package: B-1 bombers, Tankers, AWACS, fighters. The AF could make a stand while a carrier was steaming toward the war.
McPeak is trying to duplicate the Marines who are the Navy’s infantry by marrying the AF and the 82D. The AF 23d Wing and the Army 82D Airborne will combine. Air Marines will be the infantry of the AF. Or that was the goal.


1990-0615, Race, MEN are not worried about death in combat.
Men are worried about having their balls damaged.

1990-0627, Hookers, Brothel Visit in Panama Results in Murder.
Army PFC Mark McMonagle along with PFC Marx Gussen and SGT Paul Finsel were found guilty of murdering Leila Diaz De Panay, 50, a Panamanian female to cover up the loss of a pistol during a visit to the Ancon Inn in Panama City, Panama.
The Ancon Inn is a world-famous brothel. The hookers cost $25 (54-2022). A $2 (4.30-2022) cover charge gives you a raffle ticket. at Midnight, the raffle winner gets his choice of any female in the bar. It is a cool place in a very dangerous neighborhood.
PFC McMonagle along with PFC Gussen and SGT Finsel went to the Ancon Inn against orders prohibiting drinking and fraternizing with local women. While SGT Fensel and PFC Gussen were upstairs with hookers, PFC McMonagle was in the bar guarding their equipment, their full battle rattle including weapons. Somebody in the bar yells, “The MPs are coming in.” PFC McMonagle quickly gathers up most of the gear and takes it to a back room, he returns to get the rest of the gear. No MPs enter the inn. When SGT Fensel and PFC Gussen return, they discover SGT Finsel’s 9-MM pistol is gone.
They panic; they can’t go back to camp without the weapon. They devise a cover story: They will stage a firefight and say the weapon was lost in combat.
The three left the brothel and began firing their weapons down a dark alley. Later the body of the female was found. She had been sitting on her porch smoking a cigarette.
All three were sentenced to six-years in the brig. Three-years later, their convictions were overturned on appeal.

1990-0713, SF, I Graduated from Ranger School.
Most schools in the army are, “geared,” for passing. Most schools are easier than anticipated. Ranger school was much harder than I had anticipated.
I was an Air Cavalry E7 1SG in the 82D Airborne, Div, when I went to Ranger school in 1990. The 82D Airborne Division was getting 15 slots in each Ranger class to fill. The 82D was having trouble filling their quota. I attended a training meeting with the 1/17 Cavalry and learned RECONDO school attendance qualified as Pre-Ranger. They were looking for RECONDO or Pre-Ranger graduates to leave right away for Ranger school.
Since I had graduated RECONDO in 1981 I was, “qualified.” the bus was leaving in three-days. I was on orders for Panama and had always wanted to be a Ranger, so I volunteered.
RANGER SCHOOL KICKED MY ASS, bad. By far the hardest thing I ever did. I graduated Ranger School on my 33-Birthday with no recycles. The other students were way cool Infantry guys, I was a helicopter mechanic.
The next month I deployed to Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm with the 82D Airborne Division.


1990-0813, Gender, Dance of the Lemons.
Miss Delores Culmer, the principle of the US Army, Smith Elementary School in Baumholder Germany is appealing her dismissal for misconduct. On 20 Oct 89, somebody smeared a soiled sanitary napkin on the walls of the elementary school restroom. Culmer, alone in her office brought each 5th and 6th grade, female, students in, one at a time and had them disrobe and lay in her desk. She then performed a physical inspection of each female with her finger to see if she was menstruating.
The school system director John L. Stremble said he understands parents’ concerns, but his primary concern is the employees right of due process, he said, "I am very concerned about that.” Culmer is still running the school but from a remote location for her own safety. Smith is one of two elementary schools in Baumholder and has 775 students from kindergarten through sixth grade.

1991-0615, Gender, the Navy Goes on its First COED Combat Tour.
USS Acadia, AKA “The Love Boat.”
Thirty-six crew members of the supply ship Acadia were pregnant and had to be transferred during the ship's deployment to the Persian Gulf, naval officials say. (Approximately 10% of the females onboard!)
More than half became pregnant after the ship was under way, but a Navy spokesman, Lieut. Comdr. Jeff 'Smallwood,' said there were no indications of improper fraternization between men and women on the ship.
"These women have a right to get pregnant," Commander 'Smallwood' said. "The conclusion somebody is jumping to is that the Acadia is a love boat, and that's not the case."
He said nine women became pregnant before the Acadia left San Diego on Sept. 5 but were not tested until the ship was under way. Five others were transferred to the Acadia while she was sailing to the gulf, but their pregnancies were not discovered until after they were on board. Seven Months on Duty
The remaining 22 women became pregnant while the ship was deployed, perhaps on liberty calls in Hawaii, the Philippines, and other ports the Acadia visited on her way to the gulf, Commander Smallwood said.
The ship, whose 1,250 crew members included 360 women, returned to her home port here on Friday. The Acadia is among several Navy support vessels that permit women to serve on board because she is not considered a combat ship.
Naval policy is to transfer women immediately to shore duty if they become pregnant.
The Navy has strict rules against sexual relationships between men and women while on duty or between commissioned officers and enlisted personnel, but Commander 'Smallwood' said there was no evidence any such regulations were broken.
The tender received the Navy Unit Commendation for her exemplary service upon return from the Gulf War.