Operation Just Cause; A Senior Commander’s Perspective
By Lt Gen Bruce L. Fister, USAF (Retired)
Much has been written about Operation Just Cause, which in the early planning stages was known as “Blue Spoon.”This paper is written from my vantage point as the sole surviving senior commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force for the Panama mission. My boss during this time was General Wayne Downing who passed away a few years ago. Wayne was a dear friend and one of the best commanders with whom I had the pleasure of serving.
As I recall, planning for Blue Spoon began in May of 1989. Combat operations were set to begin at 0100 on 20 December 1989. The night before, Gen Jim Lindsay, commander US Special Operation Command, called me at my headquarters and asked if we could call the Panama operation something other than Blue Spoon— a spoon didn’t seem to inspire, even if it was blue. I agreed and we settled on Operation Just Cause.
Prior to the operation, during November, I was deployed with an undercover force to Panama called Nifty Package. We resided in Hanger One at Howard AFB on the south end of the Panama Canal zone. This force included a small contingent of Army special operators, four MH-60 Blackhawks and six A/MH-6 “Little Birds,”two of which were armed with guns and rockets, and two Air Force AC-130H gunships. It was a loose cover and we had two missions if conflict started. First, was to rescue Kurt Muse held in the Panamanian prison, across the street from the Panamanian Army Headquarters. Kurt was an undercover agent in Panama operating among other things, a pirate radio station. Our second mission was to capture Panamanian dictator Manual Noriega.
During the November deployment to Howard AFB, we conducted rehearsals every other night using the Department of Defense elementary school, which was approximately midway up the Canal Zone. The elementary school building had the same planform as the Panamanian prison, so it was perfect for rehearsals and to practice various contingency operations that might occur should things not go exactly as expected. Additionally, every other night we sent an MH-60 from Howard to the Gorgas Army Hospital helicopter pad in Panama City, with directions to extend their flight path over the prison so personnel guarding Kurt Muse grew accustomed to hearing helicopter noise so as to not be alerted if and when we assaulted the prison. This also gave us the opportunity to record videos of the prison and to serve as a morale booster for Kurt.
At the end of November of 1989, the Pentagon directed that we redeploy our force back to the United States. This didn’t last very long. On the 15th of December four American service members were assaulted by members of the Panamanian Defense Force (PDF). One American died of his wounds. Sometime later that evening, a Navy couple in town for dinner were also assaulted by the PDF. These incidents were the final straw and President George H. W. Bush ordered US Forces to invade Panama…