• Neutralizing the PDF and Dignity Battalions in the remainder of Panama.
• Reestablishing law and order.
• Taking care of refugees and displaced persons.
Meanwhile, all major military objectives had been achieved: The PDF had been neutralized, the PDF command and control no longer functioned, Noriega was no longer in control, and the new government had been installed.
On the downside, Noriega had not been captured, and U.S. forces had no idea where to find him.
MA BELL
Throughout D Day, heavy-lift transports had been landing at Howard Air Force Base and Torrijos-Tocumen, bringing in Major General Carmen Cavezza and two additional brigades from the 7th Infantry Division, as well as the 16th MP Brigade from Fort Bragg, to bring stability to Panama City and Colon, while extending operations to the west to neutralize the remaining PDF main force units. The 75th Ranger Regiment could now be "freed up" to join in liberating the west and clearing the area north of Panama City.
On December 20, the new government asked General Thurman to send a force to liberate political prisoners at Penomone Prison, sixty-five miles southwest of Panama City.
Wayne Downing got the call. That morning, he had flown to Rio Hato to visit Buck Kernan and his Rangers. Later that day, Stiner called him: "I want you and Kernan's rangers to conduct a battalion-size air assault tonight to liberate the political prisoners."
Meanwhile, A Company 1st Battalion, 7th SFG, which was already stationed in Panama, was to operate toward the west with the Rangers and the 2nd Brigade of the 7th Division. Later that afternoon, Major Gilberto Perez, the commander, flew his company to Rio Hato, where it would stage for these operations.
Downing and Kernan decided to fly out and take a look at the prison — which turned out to be located in a populated area. Taking it could easily result in collateral damage and civilian casualties. Later, as Downing and Kcrnan prepared the units for the assault, they kept telling themselves, "There has to be a better way to do this."
At about that time, Perez linked up with Downing and Kcrnan. Since he was already familiar with the country, they asked if he had any helpful ideas about liberating Penomone.
"I just happen to know the major who commands the prison," he told them. "So why don't you let me call him? I'll tell him what's about to happen and see if he'll surrender."
"That's a real gamble," Downing said after he and Kcrnan had talked this over. "We have to keep preparing for the assault tonight. But go ahead and call him up, and see what he says."
Perez got on the phone and called the major. "Did you see what happened to the Comandancia last night?" he asked the major in Spanish.
"Yes, it was terrible, wasn't it?" The major answered.
"You're exactly right," Perez said, "and the same thing is going to happen to you tonight."
"What do you mean? "
"The Rangers are planning to assault the prison tonight, but if you are agreeable to their terms, you can avoid loss of life."
"What do they want me to do?"
"You can send someone down here," Perez told him, "and we'll give him the terms and conditions."
"I will come myself. Where are you?"
"At Rio Hato," Perez answered.
The major showed up an hour and a half later, and Downing laid out the terms for surrender: "At eight o'clock tonight, you'll leave enough guards to keep the prisoners under control, march all the rest down to the air strip" — near the prison—"lay down your arms, and raise the white flag.
"To keep you honest, an AC-130 gunship circling overhead will sec your every move, and relay hack to me exactly what you are doing and if you are living up to the terms of the agreement. If you do what I said, no one will get hurt."
The major agreed to the terms and returned to the prison.
Meanwhile, Downing had told Kernan: "Even if this works, I want you to run the operation as planned — except with no gunfire — in order to send the message to the other PDF installations."
At 8:00 that night, Downing and Perez set up an observation post near the prison, Kernan prepared his Ranger battalion for the assault, and the AC-130 watched the prison. A few minutes after 8:00, prison guards were marching down the hill toward the airstrip. At the airstrip, they placed their weapons in a ditch alongside the runway, then got into a formation and raised the white flag.
Downing and Perez accepted the surrender ten minutes before the air assault hit the prison. The awed PDF watched as Little Bird gunships hovered over the prison compound and Rangers fast-roped down. Not one of them believed the major had made the wrong decision.
What happened at Penomone was repeated elsewhere in western Panama, became standard operating procedure, and was known as "Ma Bell."
It worked this way: One of Major Perez's A-Detachments would make contact with a PDF cuartel to find out if the commander was willing to surrender. A rifle company from Colonel Lin Burney's 2nd Brigade, 7th Infantry Division,[29] would fly in to accept the surrender — but was prepared for combat. After surrender, both the A-Detachment and the company would remain as a guard and stabilizing force until the government decided what to do with the cuartel. This was their mission: (1) To secure the cuartel and ensure that no PDF got away. (2) To gather intelligence on the weapons caches of the PDF and Dignity Battalions who had not yet surrendered. (3) To help the local civilian leaders gain control of the town. (4) To assess the local infrastructure — hospital, public utilities, law and order — and establish priorities for follow-on civil-military operations. (5) To conduct joint Panamanian/U.S. patrols throughout the area.
The second and third "Ma Bell" missions secured the cuartels at Santiago and Chitre. Each PDF commander surrendered without resistance, and one of Burney's rifle companies took control.
On Christmas Day, Perez and his team flew into Las Tablas, the capital of Las Santos Province. Perez telephoned the local commander, who willingly surrendered. As Perez and his team were searching the cuartel, a crowd of civilians gathered outside the wall — presenting Perez with an opportunity. He assembled the PDF on the parade field and had his own troops line up beside them. He then called the combined force to attention, ordered "present arms," and had the Panamanian flag raised on the cuartel's flagpole — thus demonstrating that the United States was not a conqueror, but a liberator, and gaining civilian support for follow-on U.S. efforts.
That same day, Lieutenant Colonel Joe I Iunt and his 3rd Battalion of the 75th Rangers air-assaulted into Malek airfield near David, the capital of Chiriqui Province.
David was the home of Lieutenant Colonel Del Cid, who commanded its largest PDF installation. Del Cid was the second-most-powerful man in Panama and a close friend of Noriega's — the man tagged by the dictator to carry out his plan for guerrilla warfare in the mountains. Like Noriega, he had been indicted for drug trafficking.
On December 21, as the Rangers were preparing their air assault against David, Marc Cisneros phoned Del Cid and gave him unconditional surrender terms. The following day, he agreed to the terms, and a white flag appeared over his headquarters. He was picked up by the Rangers on Christmas Day, flown to Howard Air Force Base, and arrested by the DEA. He was then flown to Homestead and on to Miami for arraignment.
Meanwhile, Burney and his brigade provided security and support throughout central and western Panama. As a result of the rapport they established, civilians provided valuable intelligence that helped locate weapons caches, people on the most wanted list, and PDF and Dignity Battalion members who had not yet been captured — and no more than eight shots had been fired in that part of Panama.
29
Burney's brigade had just arrived in country; two battalions were being positioned at Rio Hato when the "Ma Bell" program got under way.