Operation .. Just Cause" Monograph

Captain Charles T. Hensley

1 0 Apri 1 1 993

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Company) ate breakfast in tr1e rnessha 11 Rob :ornrnt-nted on how he was

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Larrv hac oeen tne battalJOn

~.upport platoon leader for 1 2 montr1s pr1 c~r to com :ng to .A.l ~dla Company 1n

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any spec i a 1 i terns of eqUJprnent. .A.s part or the orders process. a 11 the

officers rece1ved a forma 1 brief mg on trle operation. From the briefing

ar11j CPT Giduma1's order. i had a good understandlng of ti1E' batta1JOn'2 ~=~1ar··

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fv1onaay n19f1t. around 2000, i 1s~.ued rny platc~~x~ order to my four

::.qua·j ; t-a·~er2 an: ~·1 atoon sergeant Sergear.t Char: es Scr1u1tz, my F 1 rs t

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Secon•J Souaa.

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Sergeant

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Bra,io Company attack the objective . .A.d(jitlor.a'1y, bt-·:ause the ot~Jective

was surrounded by the barrio of San 1'1igue lltOi: 1 /lA.::· 2, r 21 ), we could

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Cc·l•)nel Nix, the br1~ade commander, and when we were about an r,our away

from Panama, ne ar,r"lounced over tJ',e plane·s PA system tr,at u~,e Rangers

~~,:::d J urnped but tr,a: not a 11 of the p 1 anes from Fort Bragg wouJ,j drop w i tr,

n·i1rty rn ~nut~:. from dr-N) t 1 me, the J urn1)rnasters beqan waking up

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hlm t•ecause of the thlck J ung 1 e Bee a use of the d1rt?c t 10r1 of rny drlft

during my descent, 1 thought 1 was west of trre air'fJeld, but after- a qu10:

com act w lth f"le~. tft ~, t~ut ~-it? d 1 d r,.:.t r,<:we a rna c.•, so ! t ·=· 1 ,j t·, i rn tc r-nove C·

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~eaded to tne a1roort. Art':l 'nr+ . I - ,__J' . -~ OSOC, :

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half of the company had assernb led e1ther in the north w 1 th the 1 SG and xo

or down south on the LZ w 1 tr1 tr1e CO .

. A.r·c~~Jnd 0630, L T Lar1rnar rece1ve·j word from CPT Glduma1 to rno\lE'

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Panama Citv, the Par1aman1ans waved an.j cheerea as vve flt-w over·.

n·1e ot•1ect1ve. ! wa:. sr1c•ued to see how r110h at•ove p·,e surrc:_;n'j1r,·~ ~t>rrJ~' . ' -· -

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me. As we started rnovmg u~' ttw r-:~!1, tne platoon began to mak.e cor1tact

with other elements, and, after atout ten mmutes, we sorted ourselves

sniper fire from tt'H:·

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F·:·nunately, one of troopers 1dentH1ea a van that 5everal armed people had

JUSt Jumped into after shooting at u::;. He took a1rn w1th hls !'1203 grenade

.A.fter about the f1rst hour, the 5rwotmg dlecJ d•)wn, and we were s1mply

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t,1!!. ; linked up ''l'{iU'1 L T W1111arns and sE-t up a support ~~osnwn to cover

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L T Wi 11 iarr-~s radioed to CPT Gidur·nal tt1at tr,e t~arracf<s looked empty

14

platoon and Second covered the tlarracks. W'1 tr1out event and 1n about 30

m1nutes, 1st Platoon cleared the barracks. Trle t1me was around 1100

tr1e four f"1LA s ~r-om ;:.;-,e parachute as::.ault, ana a·3 a result of tt1e a1r I

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tr'il? tlattalwn·s other patrols foun.j tr1e mortars that ttie PDF had used to

harass tt'1e battalion the previous day ancj niqht. .AJter finding the mortars,

.Aft~?r th1s first day of patrollmq(:21 December). trw ta:tal10n beqar, - -

Government .As parto of thl s patro llmg, the batt a 11 c~n rnannf:: road b 100 ~·.

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LESSONS LEARNED

1. \Atr ~ r· 1· n ~h- rqt=-., . l t' I 1_ d .. - , be in ct1arge

exper1ence level, will look to you as the1r leader to make decisions.

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mfc~rrr,atlun /0U ~~!,ie tr,ern, tt"112 t·etter e'JJ!P[jt-·: rr·1e\· .:.:r-e tc acco;·nr:dlsr-, tnt-

Fore.:- r1ad mJ~.se·J the arop zone, tnev a:.:.emt:·.ed on the :.t:ner a~~j if thev ' '

17

•X1 the 21st of Decernoer was. tr,e tJes t e:x:arnp 1e of a s.tupl d th 1 n~1 i !lave nc-.

;(jea why CPT Gidumal sent out a platoon leader wltn a platoon composed

of one squad from each rifle platoon. we never tramed tr1at way, and two

worked togetr,er as a un1t. 1 also r,ave no 1dea wr,y, after CPT Gidumai I

:_:-, ~- i e f e c rn e , 1 d 1 d not t e 11 hi rn that a con g 1 o rn era t e p 1 at C· (; n was. a t a c t 1 c a 11 y

18

C•f patrc·ls. the XO ar·1d 1 SG stayed back

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BibJ iography ~1cConne1l, f·Jalcolrn . .Just Cause. New York St. r·lartm·:::. Press, 1991.

Hensley, C Durmg Operat10n .Just Cause. 1 kept all of my notes on all orders 1n a notebook Anv facts referenced a::; notebook are from my persona 1 notes .

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