Many Americans of a certain age consider Panama only as the bisected nation on either side of the now-defunct Panama Canal Zone, while a younger generation only recalls it as one of the USA’s “regime change” operations.
Panama, the independent nation, once had its own small army which used WWII arms long after WWII.
(Panamanian soldier with WWII M1 pot helmet and M1 Garand rifle, in tear gas mask during a 1968 coup.) (photo via Bettmann images)
(Within this mountain of Panamanian weapons captured during 1989, is a WWII M1 carbine and M1928 Thompson submachine gun.)
(WWII American M1 pot helmet of the Panama Defense Force’s (PDF) military police captured in 1989. During the 1980s the PDF had reconditioned some of these old helmets with new suspensions, even as kevlar helmets entered the army.)
Panama in summary
Panama became independent in 1903. From 1903 – 1979 the USA controlled the Panama Canal Zone, an irregular 553 miles² area (much of it water, and much of the land military) more or less 5 miles on either side of the canal.
During both world wars, especially WWII, the Panama Canal was viewed as a keystone national defense asset and there was a huge amount of American military power based within the Canal Zone.
(Ft. Amador was the main US Army installation on the Pacific side, opposite Ft Kobbe, the US Air Force’s Howard AFB, and the US Navy’s Rodman Station across the canal. Ft. Grant was offshore islands used for coastal artillery and attached to Ft. Amador by the artificial causeway shown above.)
(The US Army’s one and only M1895, a 16″ battleship-type gun made in 1902, was at Ft. Grant. It fired a huge 2,400 lbs AP round. It never saw combat and was deactivated in 1943 when it was clear that the Japanese could no longer invade Panama. There were also newer M1919 16″ guns around the Canal Zone, along with 14″ railway guns. The last coastal artillery around the Canal was discarded before the Korean War.)
(“Grandpappy”, the lone XC-105 ever made, was based at Albrook Army Airfield in the Canal Zone, which was also the home of the XXVI Fighter Command during WWII. The XC-105, which was useful but challenging to fly, was laid up in 1944 and scrapped after WWII. The airfield is today Gelabert International Airport.)
(WWII testing of a sextuple 2.36″ rocket launcher aboard PT-354 at Coco Solo Submarine Base on the Caribbean side.) (photo via navsource website)
(The Iowa class battleships were the largest WWII combatants able to use the Panama Canal, with only twelve inches to spare on either side. Here USS Missouri (BB-63) uses the Miraflores Locks. The never-built Montana class battleships would have been too wide, as were the Midway class flattops and all later aircraft carriers.)
Panama during WWII
Panama had a very small WWII military and an even smaller need for one. With so much American military hardware in the Canal Zone, the small nation could never hope to stop anything that made it past that force.
WWII was also a starting point for many later American-Panamanian tensions. The Canal Zone had never been liked by Panamanians, but during WWII the United States requested to lease additional bases, roads, and training sites outside the Canal Zone for 999 years. The lease’s requested duration itself was considered an absurd insult and even after being trimmed to 10 years, it left a bitter taste. There would be later riots, in the mid-1960s and late 1980s.
how the Canal Zone ended
Officially an “Unorganized Territory Of The United States” the Canal Zone was always an unusual thing.
During 1979 the USA agreed to turn over control of the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000. When the treaty took effect, the Canal Zone ceased to exist, with anything not spelled out in the treaty instantly becoming Panamanian. As for the military installations, there were 5,237 buildings on 95,293 acres. From this 44 “entities” were listed to be turned over gradually. This was done in a patchwork way, for example a barracks complex and hospital on a base might be turned over later than that base’s helipad but sooner than a power plant. The Panamanian military made use of some, which created odd situations of American structures as exclaves inside Panamanian bases or vice-versa.
(A former US Navy building at the WWII Coco Solo Submarine Base on the Caribbean side, which was turned over incrementally from 1979 onwards. During the 1989 operation “Just Cause”, it was the GHQ of the Panamanian marine corps and was heavily attacked.) (photo by David Sierra)
The first turnovers were done in 1979 – 1980, with the very first being the long-disused Ft. Grant coastal defense artillery islets and the old PAD (Panama Air Depot) WWII hangars at Albrook. The last turnovers came in 2000.
(Inscribed into the concrete above the Spanish writing is BATTERY NEWTON. This bunker was on tiny Perico Island, part of the former Ft. Grant, which was relinquished to Panama in 1979. During WWII this battery had the M1895 16″ weapon shown earlier above. By the 1970s, the only weapons still at Ft. Grant were MIM-23 Hawk missiles, which were relocated elsewhere. The former Ft. Grant was used by UESAT, the PDF’s commando force, which had set up a Christmas tree just prior to the December 1989 American invasion.)
Panama’s military
(Guardia Nacional unit at the end of the 1960s with M1919, M1/M2 carbines, M1 Garand, and M1 pot helmets; all of this WWII American gear.)
During and after WWII the paramilitary national police began to organize itself in a military character. During 1952, the Guardia Nacional was created. This was a hybrid force combining aspects of an army, a gendarmerie, and a police department.
Surprisingly Panama was never made eligible for American Lend-Lease during WWII, although some small aid was given. During 1962 a military aid agreement was made with the USA and a five-man MAG team organized deliveries, which began in earnest during the mid-1960s. Much of the WWII-era weapons – the M1 Garands, the M1/M2 carbines, and some of the M1919s; came through this route.
After the 1981 death of President Torrijos, Col. Manuel Noriega removed his successor Col. Florencio Flores Aguilar via an uncontested palace coup in 1982. Noriega renamed the Guardia Nacional to Panama Defense Forces (PDF).
WWII weapons in Panama
MACHINE GUNS
the Colt MG38 & M1917
(Colt MG38)
Almost identical to the US Army’s M1917, the Colt MG38 was the company’s designation for commercially-exported variants of the M1917. This water-cooled machine gun fired the .30-06 Springfield cartridge (2,800fps muzzle velocity) from 250rds fabric belts. Colt sold MG38s in batches between the world wars, with Panama buying six. These were still in use in 1958, alongside three US Army M1917s donated after WWII. Neither type was encountered during the 1989 American invasion and both were presumably retired during the 1970s or 1980s.
the Neuhausen KE 7
The Neuhausen am Rheinfall KE 7 was a Swiss light machine gun designed specifically for export sales and marketed by SIG. It was 3’11” long and weighed 17 lbs without the 25rds box magazine. It could be ordered in 7x57mm, .303 British, 7.65 Argentine, 7.92 Mauser (the preferred option), or .30-06 Springfield.
The main user during WWII was China but at least half a dozen nations in Latin America bought KE 7s before WWII, usually in small lots and in varying calibers.
Panama was one of them, buying an unknown number during the 1930s. Nine were still in service at the start of the 1960s. There is debate as to what cartridge the Panamanians used, with the only documentation saying “Cal 7,62” which is certainly not 7.62 NATO and probably the Swiss expression for .30-06.
the M1919
A successful American machine gun of WWII, the air-cooled M1919 fired the .30-06 Springfield cartridge at 500rpm. It was normally mounted on a tripod.
(Panamanian jeep-mounted M1919 with flash hider muzzle attachment.) (photo via Bettmann images)
Panama received 15 M1919A4 machine guns as American aid after WWII. More were later acquired through private arms dealers. These were well-liked in service. They were supposed to be replaced by FN MAGs purchased from Belgium but remained in service alongside them, and saw combat during the 1989 American invasion.
(Two M1919A4s captured at Los Santos, Panama in 1989 along with a larger number of modern assault rifles.)
(Looking out of place in this pile of captured assault rifles and RPG-7s during 1989, is a WWII M1919A4.)
SUBMACHINE GUNS
(Panamanian soldier with M1928 Thompson during 1968.)
The M1928 Thompson version could accept either a 100rds drum, 20rds box, or 30rds box magazine. They had a wood pistol foregrip and cutts compensator, plus an internal device to lower the rate of fire to a more manageable level. It weighed 10 lbs and fired the .45ACP cartridge (935fps muzzle velocity).
The M1A1 Thompson version, which accounted for much of WWII production, had a simplified forestock instead of the forward pistol grip, no compensator, and protective wings on the rear sight. It could only use the 30rds box. Simplified production made it 75% cheaper than the M1928 and earlier versions.
(Panamanian tommygunner during the late 1960s or early 1970s. This appears to be a M1921 version, a predecessor of the M1928 and M1A1.)
The exact timeline which these guns entered Panamanian service is not precisely certain, but by 1957 there were already 112 of the M1928 or M1921 versions in service, with the M1A1s coming sometime between 1958 and 1979.
Tommyguns were still in PDF inventory, if not active issue, at the time of the 1989 American invasion and some were captured intact.
(Captured M1928 in 1989.)
Panama’s other WWII submachine gun was the Reising M50 / M55, the latter having a side-folding stock.
(National Rifle Association photo)
During WWII this .45ACP submachine gun, which was originally intended as a simpler alternative to the Thompson, was used by US Marine Corps units in the Pacific theatre. Generally speaking, they were not as well liked by USMC units as the M3 grease gun or Tommys. Production ceased in 1945.
Panama had 101 Reisings in service during 1958. Little else is known about the type’s use there, and none are known to have seen combat in 1989.
RIFLES
Panama’s first standard-issue rifles were M1902 Rolling Blocks, acquired around 1906 and remarkably not retired until 1954. Prior to WWII these were joined by a small number of M1898 Krags donated by the US Army in 1918, which were discarded with the Remingtons in 1954.
the M1917 – “fusil Eddystone”
(Eddystone-made M1917 rifle with bayonet.)
The M1917 was an American rifle of the first world war, which saw limited use during the second and was a prime candidate for WWII transfers. This bolt-action rifle was 3’10” long and fired the .30-06 Springfield cartridge from a six-round stripper-loaded internal magazine. This rifle was derived from the British P-14 and is often nicknamed “the American Enfield”. Overshadowed by the M1903 Springfield before it and M1 Garand after it, the M1917 was none the less a well-built, reliable rifle.
The M1917 would become the most preferred Panamanian rifle from the end of WWII through the middle of the Cold War period.
Panama acquired 1,350 M1917s after WWII. Of these 1,350 rifles; 1,020 had been made by Eddystone and the rifle overall was simply known as “fusil Eddystone” or “US17 Eddystone” in Panamanian service.
M1917s were certainly still in use in the late 1960s alongside M1 Garands and were only phased out with the appearance of modern assault rifles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
(“Eddystone rifle”, M1917, preserved at Panama’s national police museum today.)
the M1903 Springfield
This bolt-action .30-06 Springfield rifle was the US Army’s standard issue longarm during the first world war and substitute-standard to the M1 Garand during WWII.
(Panamanian honor guard with M1903 Springfields during December 1953.)
Panama’s use of the M1903 predates WWII with the first coming as American surplus buys during the 1920s. Eventually a total of 434 were acquired. These were still in service at the start of the 1970s.
(Panamanian troops with M1903 Springfields during December 1969. The officer in the tropical camo is Maj. Manuel Noriega, who at that time was a regional commander.)
For certain these were no longer in use in 1989, however a US Army “guns for cash” turn-in program netted one.
the M1 Garand
The most famous WWII American firearm, the semi-automatic M1 Garand weighed 9½ lbs and fired the .30-06 Springfield cartridge from an 8rds en bloc.
(Panamanian soldier with M1 Garand during the 1968 – 1969 upheavals.)
Panama received its first M1 Garands after WWII’s end, a small introductory batch of 13 rifles.
(Panamanian soldier with M1 Garand in 1965.) (photo by Alexis Rudas)
With the beginning of a formal military assistance program by the USA during the 1960s, Panama became eligible for more substantial numbers. During 1963, Panama received 183 M1 Garands via Security Assistance Program (SAP) transfer. This transfer was done similar to the way M1 Garands were supplied to South Vietnam. The whole 183-rifle lot (which was not segregated by manufacturer or production year) was drawn out of US Army Southern Command holdings. They did not have to travel far, as this command was in the Canal Zone. The whole lot was given an identification number, and listed as “Rifle, .30 Cal, 1 ea” with a weight of “999 lbs ea”. The rifles were not marked and would be indistinguishable from any other M1 Garand.
During 1968, a further 30 M1 Garands were transferred the same way.
(Panamanian soldier with M1 Garand during 1968.)
The Garand was over-represented in news reports about the nation as the units issued this rifle were assigned to the sectors around Panama City and Colon, the two largest urban areas.
Panama’s 200+ M1 Garands were replaced by modern assault rifles during the early 1980s. Jane’s Regional Defence Profile 1988, presumably written in 1987, still listed the Garand as in Panamanian service then. None are known to have seen combat in 1989, however the 107th Military Intelligence Battalion of the US Army’s 7th Division recovered “several” M1 Garands in December 1989, which were said to have been “in poor condition”.
Panama’s mystery Mausers
Within the firearms history community, Latin American Mauser rifles are one of the most researched and best documented fields. It is therefore rare to find a general “knowledge hole” but that is indeed what Panama’s bolt-action Mauser rifles are.
Panama’s first Mausers were ex-Colombian Modelo 1891s. These were still on hand in 1914 but most likely gone already by WWII.
Robert Ball’s excellent guide Mauser Military Rifles Of The World does not have a section for Panama let alone any Panamanian model. None the less, the rifles clearly existed. A long-since declassified American intelligence guide of September 1958 lists them just as “Rifle, Obendorf (sic) Cal. 7mm”.
(Panamanian soldier with Mauser rifle in 1968. The other firearm is a WWII American M1/M2 carbine.)
Much like the M1917s were called “Eddystones”, Panamanian soldiers called these rifles “Oberndorfs”, referencing the Mauser Werke at Oberndorf am Neckar in Germany. Presumably then, many or all were marked and made at that city.
The caliber indicated in the American intelligence guide is assumedly 7x57mm, as the same guide differentiates 7.62mm. The 7x57mm cartridge was once popular in Latin American armies.
(Muzzle velocity was 2,625fps.)
The US Army overran Oberndorf late during WWII and secured a trove of Mauser records, dating back to the 19th century. There was no mention of any sale to Panama. The Panamanian guns therefore came third-party, either via a state-to-state transfer with another Latin American army (which was common) or through an arms dealer (also common in the region).
There are several possibilities which have been proposed over the years, as to what specific Mauser model Panama once used.
A quite likely candidate is the Mauser Modell 1907, which was formally adopted by the Brazilian army and sold commercially by third-party German exporters in small lots around the world.
These long rifles (about 6″ longer than a WWII German 98k) had a straight horizontal bolt handle, were chambered 7x57mm, and marked “Waffenfabrik Mauser AG Oberndorf” which would all seem to fit the criteria, and also seem to match the few photos of Panamanian troops with the rifle.
Another commonly suggested possibility is the Peruvian M-1909, which was used by both Paraguay and Peru in the region. It is also marked Oberndorf and visually matches the photos. Peru obsoleted the M-1909 at WWII’s end in 1945 and later offered them for sale.
(photo via Landsborough Auctions)
The problem with this candidate is that it was chambered for 7.65x53mm. This alone is perhaps not disqualifying, as the American intelligence report misspelled Oberndorf maybe the caliber listed in the report was wrong too.
Other suggested possibilities are the Brazilian Model 1908, which was a 7mm product of Oberndorf but doesn’t really visually match the Panamanian photos; or a “Liège Rebuild”, a commercial 1920s Belgian reissue of surrendered World War One German Gew88s and Gew98s which in either case would be the wrong caliber.
In any case, the Oberndorf long rifles were well represented in the Panamanian military with 1,500 in use at the end of the 1950s. Despite being more numerous than the American M1917s, they were less well-liked. With the start of formal American military aid in the early-to-mid 1960s, they were slowly withdrawn from service, however they were still in active use at the end of the 1960s. None were encountered in battle during 1989.
the M1/M2 carbine
Unrelated to the M1 Garand, the American M1 carbine of WWII was a compact firearm intended for settings were a full-sized battle rifle was not required but something more than a pistol was. This carbine was very successful and used well beyond its original envisioned niche during WWII. About 6 million M1/M2s were made. Its WWII cost was half that of a rifle and only a fifth of a submachine gun.
The basic semi-auto M1 was 3′ long and weighed 6 lbs with a full magazine and sling. It fired the .30 Carbine cartridge (1,990fps muzzle velocity) from a 15rds or 30rds magazine.
(Panamanian soldier with M2 carbine during the late 1960s or early 1970s.)
The M2, which entered production late during WWII, was the select-fire (full auto at 750rpm) variant. The M2A2 variant was M1s converted into M2s after WWII.
(This M2A2 started off as a M1 made by National Postal Meter during WWII. Both versions could use either the 15rds or 30rds magazine. M2s usually used the latter to maximize the benefit of fully automatic fire.)
After WWII a small introductory lot of 7 M1s was acquired by Panama. During the late 1950s, another 138 M1s came and in 1963, 700 select-fire M2s. These were MAP (Military Assistance Program) transfers drawn from the US Army at Ft. Clayton in the Canal Zone. Another 79 M1s followed via MAP during the late 1960s, and piecemeal small lots of either type during were bought third-party during the 1970s. By the early 1970s then, Panama had just shy of a thousand of these WWII carbines.
(Panama also received via MAP the WWII pouches for the 15rds M1/M2 magazines and M1936 web belts. The “US” stencil was overpainted with “GN” for Guardia Nacional.) (photo via US Militaria Forum website)
(Panamanian officer candidates march with M1/M2 carbines during 1982.)
The 1988 edition of Small Arms Today, published about a year and a half before the American invasion, still listed the M1/M2 carbine as a frontline service weapon.
(Dignity Battalion member with M1/M2 carbine during the late 1980s.)
One user at that time was Manuel Noriega’s “Dignity Battalions”. Noriega created this force in April 1988. The membership was civilians dedicated to him. Dignity Battalions had no standard weaponry and might have anything from M16s to AK-47s to WWII weapons, most predominately of the latter being M1/M2 carbines. Ostensibly to ensure the USA handed over the canal in 2000, Dignity Battalions (who were called “Dingbats” by the US Army) were created to rough up opposition political rallies and give an illusion of popular support for Noriega. They received the most basic of basic military training and any type of uniform; ranging from standard-issue BDUs to retired 1960s fatigues to cheap t-shirts.
During the December 1989 “Just Cause” operation, the M1/M2 carbine was by far and away the only WWII-era firearm commonly seen in battle and along with the M1919A4 machine gun, one of two to see any notable use at all.
AIR FORCE & NAVY
Panama had a very tiny air force during WWII with no fighters, no bombers, and no naval strike planes. A plan to transfer some P-26 Peashooter fighters fell through and the air force was disbanded in 1945. During the 1960s, the effort was restarted with WWII-surplus C-47 Skytrain transports.
(Panamanian C-47 Skytrain during 1973.) (photo via Air Team Images)
After WWII a number of US Navy smallcraft in the Canal Zone were donated to Panama’s small navy. The largest of these small vessels were a pair of 63′ AVTs, also called “J-Boats” or “Miami Crash Boats”.
These wooden-hull craft were designed by a boatyard in Miami, FL during WWII and used by both the US Army and US Navy. As one of their nicknames implies, a main task was to operate around coastal airfields and rescue airmen who had to bail out of their planes. These boats were extremely fast, 40+ kts in their original guise, and were like an unarmed PT boat. They carried a dinghy and other rescue equipment.The deckhouse had two circular positions that could in theory be fitted with a .50cal M2 Browning and in fact, at one point during WWII the manufacturer proposed them as an actual PT design to compete with the Higgins and Elco types.
After WWII these boats were usually in very bad shape. They had more or less been semi-disposable from the start, not expected to serve long after victory was achieved. The wood used in the hull was found vulnerable to boreworms and the engines were usually worn from constant use. They were rapidly disposed of. Panama received two, one on the Caribbean side and one on the Pacific side.
During the 1950s the worn-out WWII V12 Defender engines were replaced by 230hp Superior diesels which lowered the speed to just 9 kts, which was fine for the customs enforcement mission the Panamanians used them for. These served into the 1960s.
(This old US Army building at Ft. Amador was the GHQ of the Panamanian navy during Manuel Noriega’s time in power.)
The tiny Panamanian navy had another intersection with WWII US Navy hardware. The 993t displacement inshore fire support ship USS Smoky Hill River (LFR-531) was part of the LSM(R) project / Elk River class, an adaptation of the WWII Medium Landing Ship (LSM) carrying instead of troops, four M2 107mm “goon gun” mortars, a Mk30 5″ gun turret, and a battery of ten twin spin-stabilized rocket launchers. The Elk River class started to commission during the summer of 1945 and was intended for the final invasion of the Japanese home islands, expected at year’s end or in 1946. LSM(R)s would follow LSMs landing troops and bombard enemy defenses. With the end of WWII in September 1945, few of the class saw combat.
(photo via navsource website)
USS Smoky Hill River commissioned 23 days after WWII ended and now with no mission, decommissioned after just 8 months active duty. Long in mothballs, the ship was stripped of weapons and sold as scrap in 1974.
However the purchaser in Michigan received a generous offer from a Panamanian company in 1975 to buy the ship. As the scrap contract had no “resale prohibited” clause, he accepted. The Panamanian company was a front for the Panamanian military and the ex-USS Smoky Hill River recommissioned as Tiburon, a logistics transport.
(Tiburon during 1980.) (line drawing via navypedia website)
By 1988 Panama was having difficulty supporting the 1940s-vintage General Motors engines and Tiburon was withdrawn from service.
withdrawal and replacement of WWII weapons in Panama
Via the company Sherwood International, Panama began manufacturer-direct buying Colt 613s (basically M16A1s) during 1978 and continued during the 1980s when American arms embargoes allowed. The WWII Thompson submachine guns were replaced by Smith & Wesson Model 76s and Israeli Uzis. The WWII-vintage C-47 Skytrains were replaced by UH-1 Iroquois helicopters.
(PDF Hueys in 1983.)
During 1986, Panama made a huge buy of Taiwanese T-65 assault rifles. It was intended that these be the PDF’s standard-issue rifle going forward, replacing the M1 Garands and any older legacy WWII types still in service.
(T-65 captured by the US Army in Panama.)
One surprising item in the PDF’s arsenal during 1989 was the MPi-KM, East Germany’s bakelite-furniture clone of the Soviet AKM.
(MPi-KMS side-folder captured by the US Army in Panama.)
The East German connection came to light in 1986 when the Peruvian navy stopped and searched a Panama Canal-bound Danish freighter, the M/V Pia Vesta, in the Pacific Ocean and found it carrying 1,500 East German weapons not on the manifest. Peru initially suspected the East Germans were trying to arm Shining Path guerillas in Peru, with no response coming to their inquiries. After Peru threatened to break diplomatic relations with East Germany, that nation told them that they were not intended for the Shining Path but would not reveal the end user.
As relations with the USA deteriorated during the 1980s, Manuel Noriega turned to the East Bloc to arm his expanding PDF. Weapons were bought from at least three Warsaw Pact members plus Cuba. The USSR was ambivalent on this; on one hand they knew Noriega had no fealty to marxism. On the other hand, money is money.
(Panamanian irregular during the October 1989 unrest preceding the December American invasion. He carries a Romanian PM md.63 rifle, East German backpack and webbing, American M67 grenade, and has a Soviet RPG-7 leaned on the wall. Noriega was buying weapons all over the place.)
During Noriega’s final years in power there was no rhyme or reason to what the Panamanian leadership was buying; most any firearm from anywhere with even the most basic battlefield value would do. During December 1989 the US Army captured anything from Ruger Mini-14s to Remington 12-gauges to IMI Microuzis.
(This 1990 fax was introduced as evidence in a Wisconsin tax avoidance trial for an executive of the company AmeriChina Global Management. During 1988 and 1989, this company was suspected, but not proven, to be part of a web spanning from Lichtenstein to the USA to the Philippines to Panama, trying to source weapons for Noriega. This intercepted fax – which apparently passed through Ft. Knox at some point – is an odd request to an Austrian bank for 100,000,000,000 Soviet rubles (about $14.9 million) in clean, good, bundled, and counted banknotes.)
(Ingram MAC-10 submachine guns captured by the US Army in Panama during December 1989.)
(The TEC-9 is more associated with street gangs in the USA than any military use. This chromed one was the sidearm of LtCol. Luis del Cid, the PDF regional commander in the north and like Noriega, also under an American civilian narcotics indictment. Today the pistol resides at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA.)
end of the road
(Noriega as a colonel in 1973 and general in 1989. He passed away in 2017.)
The legitimacy of the USA’s 1989 operation “Just Cause” is still debated and outside the scope of this writing. Officially the casus belli was FBI criminal indictments against Noriega for narcotics and financial crimes, and to force the honoring of a 1989 presidential election which Noriega voided after his puppet candidate lost.
(Battalion 2000 was the best PDF unit. It was long past any WWII-vintage gear. It had PASGT kevlar helmets, AN/PRC-77 radios, custom-pattern camo BDUs, and MPi-KM assault rifles in 1989.)
Operation “Just Cause” began on 20 December 1989 and involved 13,000 American troops, some already at bases in the former Canal Zone and others airlifted from a half-dozen bases in the USA. The brief conflict saw an unusual situation where the American military was attacking some of its former historic WWII bases.
(A UH-60 Black Hawk lands at the former Ft. Amador during the invasion.)
(6th Mechanized Infantry sign at the former Rio Hato Army Airfield.)
One of the short war’s biggest battles was a 5-hour pitched gunfight at the WWII Rio Hato Army Airfield, which in 1989 housed the 6th Mechanized Infantry and 7th Infantry companies of the PDF. The 7th Infantry, “Macho de Monte”, was full of Noriega loyalists and fought hard. The base was taken by the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment which flew all the way from Ft. Benning, GA. The old WWII base was also the first target in the world ever struck by stealth aircraft. Two F-117 Nighthawks flying all the way from Tonopah Test Range, NV each dropped one bomb. Thirteen months later the F-117 would become famous over Iraq.
As the fighting wrapped up the American military secured thousands of weapons, including a small number of WWII vintage.
(A pair of M1/M2 carbines and the barrel of a M1919 visible in a pileup of captured PDF weapons.)
(On 23 December 1989 Noriega’s private residence was secured. In a “gun room” were found the two WWII German MP-40 submachine guns seen here; how or why they ended up here is anybody’s guess. Also in the room, along with enough M16s for an infantry platoon, was a P.08 Luger, two 9mm Uzis, an antique Derringer, civilian hunting rifles, and a laser rangefinder.)
During the final week of December 1989 and into January 1990, captured PDF weapons were consolidated at the former Ft. Amador, which was under control of the 82nd Airborne and surrounded by water on two sides. The total was astonishing, 77,553 weapons of all sorts which was triple the total number of men Panama had in uniform in 1989.
(Crates of PDF weapons at Ft. Amador in early 1990.)
Some was destroyed locally in Panama. A small amount of guns, mainly newer pistols but at least one WWII-vintage M1917 rifle, were retained in Panama for reissue to local law enforcement when it was reestablished. A tiny amount was siphoned off for the Foreign Material Intelligence Battalion at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD. Obviously none of that was WWII American gear.
During late January 1990, a total of 51,300 ex-PDF weapons were shipped to Letterkenny Army Depot, PA; the largest being two APCs and ranging down from there through mortars, machine guns, rifles, carbines, and pistols. Nearly half were Kalishnikovs or variants thereof. The depot, which was manned by civilian Defense Department personnel, noted that some of the weapons looked “old or rare” including what looked to be custom-altered pistols with inlaid grips, etc.
(Part of the shipment sent to Letterkenny.)
Along with the modern assault rifles presumably went the WWII-vintage arms captured in 1990. These included M1/M2 carbines, M1 Garands, M1919s, and at least one M1903. The building which the Panamanian weapons were stored in was razed during the 1990s when the base’s focus changed from storage to support for MIM-104 Patriot SAMs. At the time, it was said that the stored PDF guns were all to be destroyed when the building vacated. A 2017 article by the Chambersburg Public Opinion newspaper could not verify where or when this was done, as the destruction order was only required to be kept filed for three years and apparently the US Army never thought to record it anywhere else.
postscript
The PDF was disbanded by the American military. Panama’s post-invasion constitution forbids a standing army. However, there exists SENAN, the Spanish acronym for National Aeronaval Service. This is an armed, uniformed force originally created to operate governmental airplanes and ships but since expanded in role.
(USCGC Sweetgum)
Commissioned on 20 November 1943, USCGC Sweetgum (WLB-309) was one of six Mesquite class buoy tenders built for the US Coast Guard during WWII. Considering their role these 935t ships were well-armed with a Mk10 3″ gun, two Mk4 20mm AA guns, and two depth charge racks. During WWII USCGC Sweetgum served off Florida and on the Caribbean side of the Canal Zone. After WWII the ship took a variety of missions: navigational aids service, drug interdiction, a 1967 study of oil leaking from tankers sunk by u-boats during WWII, and the 1986 recovery of the space shuttle Challenger debris. USCGC Sweetgum decommissioned on 15 February 2002.
(SMN Independencia, the former USCGC Sweetgum.)
After decommissioning the ship was transferred from the USCG to SENAN. The ship was handed over unarmed but with the modern radars and navigation systems which replaced the WWII gear still aboard. The Panamanians installed two machine gun pintles. SMN Independencia is homeported on the Pacific side of the canal. During 2007 the ship received an overhaul and it is the last remaining WWII item in Panamanian service.