193rd Infantry Brigade (United States) - Panama

Panama

In 1961, after the abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion and rumors of Soviet assistance to Cuba, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara decided to bolster available U.S. Army forces in the Caribbean area. The Army replaced the battle group in the Panama Canal Zone with the 193d Infantry Brigade, which was activated on 8 August 1962.

In October 1983, the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 187th Infantry Regiment (United States) were assigned to the 193rd Infantry Brigade in Panama. The 2nd/187th Abn Inf (L) started with one airborne company (Alpha) within the battalion, and later jump status was expanded to the entire battalion. During a realignment of the United States Army's combat forces in 1987 the 1st and 2d Battalions were inactivated in Panama and reactivated at Ft. Campbell, KY. 2/187th Abn Inf (L) was re designated 1/508th. 1st Bn was re designated 5/87th.

Beginning in early 1988, after the first coup attempt against Noriega failed, life for the soldiers and families of the Brigade became increasingly difficult, as civil unrest in Panama City and harassment by the Panama Defense Force made life difficult. Movements off post were often restricted, armed confrontations occurred frequently and quality of life declined. Panamanian provocations, intended to deny freedom of movement rights that were guaranteed by treaty, steadily escalated. Americans were increasingly detained without charges and held without communication. At one point, several school buses full of dependent children on the way to school were commandeered by the PDF and held for hours. This harassment culminated after the abortive Panamanian elections during the summer of 1989, when all off-post personnel were moved on-post, resulting in families having to double or triple up in on-post quarters.

As part of the fall-out from the aborted Panamanian elections, the Army sent a package of augmentation forces to Panama (Operation NIMROD DANCER)- which included a mechanized battalion from the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Fort Polk, LA; this battalion was attached to the Brigade, forming TF Bayonet. Later in the fall of 1989, the Brigade instituted an intensive training program to prepare for combat operations, which seemed increasingly likely after the failure of the second coup, in October. In December 1989, two years of diplomatic tension between Panama and the United States came to a head. In a speech to a gathering of his supporters, General Manuel Noriega – the head of the PDF and de facto dictator of Panama – declared that a state of war existed between the United States and Panama. This might well have been dismissed as simply more of his defiant, anti-US rhetoric, were it not for two events that followed within a matter of hours. A U.S. Marine officer was shot and killed at a PDF checkpoint, and then a U.S. Navy officer and his wife in the following car were arrested, taken to the Commandancia and beaten and abused for several hours. In light of this series of events, President George Bush ordered the invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, to protect American lives and property, and to permit the inauguration of the winners of the previous summer's elections.