On Dec. 20, 1989, the US military executed an attack that overwhelmed the Panamanian Defense Forces of dictator Manuel Noriega. The goal was to restore the democratically elected government of Guillermo Endara and arrest Noriega on drug trafficking charges.
“Hoo-fucking-ah…” My first invasion/deployment done the right way with much enduring success, also where I earned my initial CIB.
RLTW
Kevlar helmets with Vietnam-style web gear and no body armor. Transitional period… Surprising how different the soldiers look compared to today.
^^^Truth. Our armor to mobility ratio has become so unsustainable. Doing the duffle bag drag in Iraq with Ruck, A-Bag, Assault Pack, was over 160lbs+ due to body armor, JSLIST top/bottom, Overboots, Promask etc. Madness. No wonder they had to boost the size of the MOLLE ruck compared to the ALICE ruck.
I introduce to you the REAL Army.
Yeah, the REAL Army where guys did one 30 day deployment in their entire career. Not like this fake Army where doing 3-5 year long deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is common.
And we didn’t have dudes with lipstick in uniform or Obummer either.
1989 was 6 years into my 27 year infantry career, the “wars” that the “real” army had to fight back then were a whole lot easier than my 2 tours in AFG and 1 in IRQ.
Back then we called it Operation Just Because.
We called it Blue Spoon.