1 - The Black Vault

Chapter 12
Operation Just Cause (1989–90)
I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour—his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear—is that
moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of
battle—victorious.
—Vince Lombardi
On 17 December 1989 the 8th SOS learned that
an operation in Panama was imminent. The
squadron had just completed a series of demanding
training exercises that culminated in an airfield
seizure operation conducted at Choctaw Auxiliary
Airfield just west of the Eglin AFB range
complex. It was Sunday evening, and most assigned
personnel and their spouses were attending
the annual 8th SOS Squadron Christmas party
being held at Liollio’s restaurant in downtown
Fort Walton Beach. Honored guests had begun to
arrive, with about 150 people already at the restaurant,
when the 1st SOW commander, Col
George Gray, came in. An easygoing and likable
professional, Gray showed no outward sign that
something was brewing. After greeting several
members of the squadron, Gray found an opportune
time to speak privately with the 8th SOS
squadron commander, Colonel Thigpen, and confide
in him the developing situation. Tensions had
increased in Panama over the past several days,
and Manuel Noriega, the strongman who had controlled
the country since the early 1980s, had declared
war on the United States. Gray directed
Thigpen to put together four crews and to place
them in crew rest in anticipation of a noon Monday
launch from Hurlburt Field.
Not to arouse suspicion, Colonel Gray remained
at the Christmas party through the dinner meal,
but during the break at 2030, Thigpen made an
announcement to the group. The squadron had
just completed JRT 90-1 the previous Friday, and
Thigpen relayed to the guests that another iteration
of the exercise had been scheduled for the fol -
lowing week. All 8th SOS assigned personnel were
told to continue to enjoy the social event but to stop
consuming alcohol by 2100. The party resumed,
although somewhat subdued, with entertainment
and other scheduled activities. Although nothing
further was said about the unplanned tasking,
spouses and squadron members alike (many of
whom had been in special operations for most of
their professional lives) sensed that something
more than an exercise was imminent. Earlier in
the evening, Thigpen had talked with Colonel
O’Reilly, his operations officer, and had directed
him to quietly leave the party after dinner, proceed
to the squadron, and put together four Combat
Talon augmented crews. O’Reilly was to use the
same crews that had participated in the recent
JRT, where possible. Some crew members, how -
ever, had departed on Saturday, 16 December, for
Christmas leave and were not available. (The old
adage that you never, never go on leave while assigned
to a special operations unit rang true
again!) Thigpen remained at the party until 2230,
when it began to break up, and the attendees left
for home. He went straight to the squadron operations
center at Hurlburt Field, where O’Reilly had
assembled a cadre of schedulers and aircrew personnel.
With only minor adjustments, Thigpen approved
the four crews and directed O’Reilly to put
them in crew rest for a Monday morning (18 December)
launch. With notifications made, everyone
left for a brief night’s sleep. Before noon the next
day, the largest air operation since the Vietnam
War was under way, and the 8th SOS Combat
Talons were in the thick of it.
Events Leading Up to
Operation Just Cause
Panama had a long history of association with
the United States going back to the turn of the
century. In 1903 a revolutionary junta, under the
protection of the United States, carried out a successful
rebellion against Columbia. As a result
Columbia granted the United States the territory
for a canal under the Isthmian Canal Convention
(the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903) and ceded
to the revolutionary junta the territory that became
the independent country of Panama. From
1903 through the Second World War, political
power in Panama was concentrated in the hands
of a few upper-class families. They built an oligarchy
that traced its roots to the early Spaniards.
After World War II, the situation continued to
change. Since 1904 the National Police Force had
been Panama’s only official armed service. By
1947 Jose Antonio Remon had risen through the
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