Ranger Jump Into Panama

Entering the area of operations: Static Line and HALO Airborne Operations
User avatar
RANGER513
Ranger
Posts: 3079
Joined: September 2nd, 2006, 4:38 am

Re: Story

Post by RANGER513 »

SkyShark wrote:Another "story" about Panama that I heard was, I can't remember if this was the Rangers or the 82nd but, when they were on the perimiter of Noriega's "palace" and the call was finally given to breach the area to search the house the front gate area was very fortified, and there were not any combat engineers around so a 1sg told a Dragon Gunner to use his Dragon to breach the solid wood gate? Any of you ever heard any truth to this? I was also told the 1sg kind a got an ass chewing for it.


No " front gate " on Noriega's million dollar beach house, just a very, very thick front door. We did not jump Dragons into Rio Hato, but there is a Ranger on here ( SOUND OFF STEVE ! ) who put a L.A.W. into the front door of Noriega's house and opened the door !

No one got chewed out at all. Just Rangers making due with what we had to complete the mission.

I'll let the Hooah that fired the shot tell the story.
C Co 2/75
1986 - 1992
RS Class 9-87

RLTW



" The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena............ "
Stras
Inprocessing
Posts: 2
Joined: November 23rd, 2010, 11:13 pm

Re: Ranger Jump Into Panama

Post by Stras »

When your jumpmaster comes back in from his outside air safety check and announces "DZ is hot", whilst the Red and Green tracers crisscross in the open door, rest assured that everything is met for Combat Assault credit and Mustard Stains.

There was at least one Ranger that was hit in the A/C. And PFC John Mark Price (A Co 2/75) was hit and KIA while in the air during the jump on Rio Hato.

From what I was told by my C Co buddies, the LAW that opened the front door, also opened the back door.
v/r
Stras

B Co 2/75 89-90
10th SFG(A) 93-07
USASOC 07-10
10th SFG(A) 10-present
User avatar
Furious George
Ranger
Posts: 29
Joined: November 13th, 2010, 7:37 pm

Re:

Post by Furious George »

cryhavoc wrote:I watched the 82nd fly over Torrijos-Tocumen, with lights on none the less. They were told the airfield was secure and they could land. The reply came " we are the 82nd airborne, not the 82nd airland, we're jumping" and they did...right smack dab in the middle of our objective. We ceased fire until they could get out of the way. I remember one of the jumpers approaching my platoons position, when a SSG halted him...he said " I didnt know you guys were here ". So much for an OP order. All the kid could ask was " have you seen my stiener aid " That went over well as he was told to move the fuck out.
They did get jump stars for that one.
I was on the 3rd bird coming in on the first pass with 2/504th at 0210 hrs. As ATL of my Recon Tm., I was initially the 5th jumper on the right door, but as we approached, the load master came up to my TL and said we were too heavy on that door and we needed 3 jumpers to move over the left door...which, as a result, gave me door position.

When we got the green light, we were east of the airfield and landed in the swamps. We had to make our way onto the tarmac to link up and I had to use some bolt cutters that I had brought with me to cut a hole in the perimeter fence. While humping in, I linked up with my Bn. XO and we noticed a lot of heavy drops (Hummers, M551's, etc.) that landed in the swamp and could not be retrieved (much of these were later blown in place). Once inside the perimeter, I noticed a Hummer that had landed upright and I pointed it out to the XO. He said, "Ok, we'll mark it on the map and let D Co. know where the vehicle is located (Ok, ummm...NO!!!)

We'd been humping through the swamp and elephant grass for almost an hour, so if I could get a ride the rest of the way in, that's what I was going to do! I cut off all of the heavy drop rigging, mounted the .50 cal., and I drove the Hummer onto the tarmac with the XO on the gun. We had all been scrambled throughout the swamps, so when I pulled up onto the tarmac, paratroopers were still scrambling to get to their link up points.

Our original assignment was to make link up on the airfield and then to air assault into Panama Viejo within 45 minutes after the jump for an assault on their UESAT base. Needless to say, we didn't hit the hard time and it took almost 5 hours before we were in the air again on our way to the objective.

Just to clarify, we (I can only speak of my Recon Plt.) did know that the Bat Boys would be going in ahead of us. This was told to us at our S-2 briefings. How well the information was disseminated to the line companies, I do not know. Also, we did not fly in with lights on, at least, not initially. Bear in mind that jumpers were still coming in long after H-Hour, so I would venture to guess that at some point, lights were on as the threat to incoming aircraft was minimized.

I do know, for a fact, that once we knew that we were jumping in, O's from all over the place were coming out of the woodwork and kicking off mission critical personnel so that they could get their mustard stains...pathetic. These guys jumped in, waited for the birds to land and returned home the same day.
A Co. 2/504 ('86-'87)
Recon Plt. 2/504 ('88-'90)
Operation Just Cause

RS 14-88
User avatar
Looon
Ranger
Posts: 9488
Joined: March 30th, 2003, 7:27 pm

Re: Re:

Post by Looon »

Furious George wrote:
O's from all over the place were coming out of the woodwork and kicking off mission critical personnel so that they could get their mustard stains...pathetic.
That's the only reason why the jump was made by the 82d.
B Co 3/75
1989-1990
Just Cause Airlando Commando
User avatar
RANGER513
Ranger
Posts: 3079
Joined: September 2nd, 2006, 4:38 am

Re: Ranger Jump Into Panama

Post by RANGER513 »

My squad had a PFC carrying the M-203 that got kicked off our bird so a Captain from Regi-bot land could jump into Rio Hato. :evil:

WTF !!???

He even got moved up the chalk closer to the door for some reason. ( Myself and two members of my squad were about the middle of the chalk, maybe a little closer to the door. I could see tracer fire out the jump door when the J.M. said " stand by Rangers ! " )

I have no confirmed facts, but the story goes that this Captain from Regimental H.Q. was back in Texas TWO FUCKING days later visting our wounded with other O's from Regi-bot land.

P.O.S. got his mustard stain and flew back to the states in less than 48 hours. What a waste and tactical blunder. Still pisses me off to this day when I think about it !! :evil:
C Co 2/75
1986 - 1992
RS Class 9-87

RLTW



" The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena............ "
KW Driver
Ranger/Moderator
Posts: 6581
Joined: December 8th, 2004, 2:20 pm

Re: Ranger Jump Into Panama

Post by KW Driver »

same shit was going down for Haiti.
A Co & HHC 3/75 '93-'98.
RS 10-94.


200 meters of green shit next to a river in the desert does not qualify as a "Crescent of Fertility" -me

"The meek shall inherit the earth, one meter wide and two meters long" -Lazarus Long
Post Reply

Return to “Airborne Operations”