I got to attend the Jungle Warfare Course, at the Jungle Operations Training Center, at Fort Sherman, Panama in 1987.
I was an infantry private with the 1-504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. We went through the one month long course as platoons.
We had many classes and practical exercises in dismounted patrolling, small unit tactics, raids, ambushes, recon patrols, land mines and boobytraps, jungle survival and bushcraft, climbing and rappelling, river and ocean insertion and infiltration, and the famous green hell obstacle course.
The first three weeks were training, while the last week was the evaluated field training exercise (FTX).
I had just turned 18. My first time out of the USA. We flew from North Carolina to Panama, in Central America, in C-141 Starlifter aircraft. I did a lot of growing up in this month long adventure.
It was one of the best courses I ever went through. – back when you still got the diploma. We got to wear the badge for a couple months on our OG 107s, then they changed the rules.
Black palm, vampire bats, snakes, and huge ants still make me cringe.
We were lucky and got two R&R weekend passes to go see Panama City and the city of Cologne.
Beautiful blond Colombian girls (prostitutes, of course), cheap booze, food and hotel rooms. Beautiful jungle landscapes, beaches, ocean, and warm breezy tropical weather. A young kid’s dream come true. I was in paradise.
One of my most memorable times in the army, with both good and bad memories and experiences. I learned a lot about the jungle, the army, and life in general. I am grateful that I was able to attend and graduate from this course.
It was an awesome school that all infantry and special operations units rotated through for many years. Then after the invasion in 1989, and subsequent U.S. withdrawal from Panama, the school was obviously shut down.
Many years passed without an Army designated jungle school. Then, not too long ago, they decided to start it back up in Hawaii with the 25th ID. 25th ID troops get awarded the Jungle tab, which they can wear in Hawaii only, for now.
They didn’t have the jungle school there when I was in Hawaii as it was still in operation in Panama.
But they did teach a version of it called the Tropic Light Fighter Course (TLFC). And that was another similar training experience, which I got to attend and graduate from as well.
So with all of my training and experience, graduating from the jungle warfare course, and 4 years of patrolling the mountainous and heavily vegetated terrain of Hawaii (Oahu), I was ready to put my skills to the test.
So in keeping with the highest traditions of the government screwing everything up, the Army sent me to the desert.
Anyway, that’s a story for a different post.
Evade & Survive 