On 17 December 1989 the national command authority (NCA) directed the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to execute PLAN 90-2. JTFSO received the JCS execute order on 18 Dec with a D-Day and H-Hour of 20 ... MoreDec 0100 local. The operation was conducted as a campaign with limited military objectives. JTFSO objectives in PLAN 90-2 were to:

At Forts Bragg, Benning, and Stewart, D-Day forces were alerted, marshaled, and launched on a fleet of 148 aircraft. Units from the 75th Ranger Regiment and 82d Airborne Division conducted airborne assaults to strike key objectives at Rio Hato, and Torrijos/Tocumen airports.

On December 20, 1989, the 82d Airborne Division conducted their first combat jump since World War II onto Torrijos International Airport, Panama. The 1st Brigade task force made up of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, parachuted into combat for the first time since World War II. In Panama, the paratroopers were joined on the ground by 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment which was already in Panama. After the night combat jump and seizure of the airport, the 82nd conducted follow-on combat air assault missions in Panama City and the surrounding areas.

They were followed later by the 2d and 1st Bdes, 7th Inf Div (L), while the in-place forces comprised of the 3d Bde (-), 7th Inf Div (L); 193d Infantry Brigade (L) and 4-6 Inf, 5th Inf Div (M), assaulted objectives in both Panama City and on the Atlantic side of the Canal. By the first day, all D-Day objectives were secured. As initial forces moved to new objectives, follow-on forces from 7th Inf Div (L) moved into the western areas of Panama and into Panama City.

As the lead headquarters for SAC's tanker support, the Eighth Air Force tasked, executed, and directed 144 missions to refuel 229 receivers with over 12 million pounds of fuel. According to General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Eighth’s "air refuelers did not just make a difference in this operation -- they made it possible." This mission introduced the F-117A Stealth Fighter to combat for the first time.

Air National Guard units participated in the operation because of their regularly scheduled presence in Panama for Operations CORONET COVE and VOLANT OAK. Only Pennsylvania's 193d Special Operations Group (SOG) was part of the integral planning process by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Air Staff for the invasion of Panama. The 105th Military Airlift Group (MAG) and the 172 MAG provided airlift support for the operation. They flew 35 missions, completed 138 sorties, moved 1,911 passengers and 1,404.7 tons of cargo which expended 434.6 flying hours. ANG VOLANT OAK C-130 aircrews flew 22 missions, completed 181 sorties, moved 3,107 passengers and 551.3 tons of cargo, which expended 140.1 flying hours. The ANG CORONET COVE units, the 114th TFG and the 18Oth TFG flew 34 missions, completed 34 sorties, expended 71.7 flying hours and expended 2,715 rounds of ordnance.

Urban terrain provides high potential for fratricide because of the likelihood of close quarters (high weapons density), recognition problems, and unfamiliar secondary effects of weapons. During Operation JUST CAUSE soldiers employed several ineffective and dangerous techniques to breach various fences, walls, and barred doors with grenades, rifle fire, and even anti-tank weapons. Direct fire support, even from just a block away, is very difficult to control. During JUST CAUSE mechanized forces providing fire support were told by brigade a light force had cleared a tall hotel building only to the second floor. In actual fact, it had cleared to the tenth floor and was fighting in a counter-sniper engagement. Seeing this fire and apparently some weapons protruding, the mechanized forces began to suppress. This drew return fire from the friendly light force for some seconds before coming under control. The extensive destruction of civilian housing seen by TV viewers around the world resulted rather from a style of fighting that is based on abundant firepower.

The high casualties and use of resources usually associated with all-out urban warfare did not occur. The United States suffered 23 KIA and 324 WIA, with estimated enemy casualties around 450. There were an estimated 200 to 300 Panamanian civilian fatalities. Some were killed by the PDF, others inadvertently by US troops. More civilians almost certainly would have been killed or wounded had it not been for the discipline of the American forces and their stringent rules of engagement (ROE). However, the United Nations (UN) put the civilian death toll at 500; the Central American Human Rights Defense Commission (CODEHUCA) and the Peace and Justice Service of Panama both claimed between 2,000 to 3000; the Panamanian National Human Rights Commission and an independent inquiry by former Attorney- General Ramsey Clark claimed over 4,000. Thousands were injured. As it turned out, the figure of Panamanian dead was large enough to stimulate debate over the need for the invasion to remove Noriega, but not large enough to generate a sense of outrage in Panama or abroad, or to turn the Panamanian people against the US intervention or the nation-building program that followed it.

The US troops involved in Operation Just Cause achieved their primary objectives quickly, and troop withdrawal began on December 27. Noreiga eventually surrendered to US authorities voluntarily. He is now serving a 40-year sentence in Florida for drug trafficking.

Operation JUST CAUSE was unique in the history of U.S. warfare for many reasons. As the largest single contingency operation since World War II, it focused on a combination of rapid deployment of critical combat power and precise utilization of forward deployed and in-country forces. Impressed by the smooth execution of JUST CAUSE, General Stiner later claimed that the operation was relatively error free, confining the Air-and Battle doctrine and validating the strategic direction of the military. He concluded, therefore, that while old lessons were confirmed, there were "no [new] lessons learned" during the campaign. Despite Stiner's assertions, Operation JUST CAUSE offers important insights into the role of force in the post Cold War period and the successful conduct of a peacetime contingency operation.

The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June–9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking ... Morethe expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.

Bombardment of Saipan began on 13 June 1944. Fifteen battleships were involved, and 165,000 shells were fired. Seven modern fast battleships delivered twenty-four hundred 16 in (410 mm) shells, but to avoid potential minefields, fire was from a distance of 10,000 yd (9,100 m) or more, and crews were inexperienced in shore bombardment. The following day the eight older battleships and 11 cruisers under Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf replaced the fast battleships but were lacking in time and ammunition.

The landings began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. More than 300 LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. The naval force consisted of the battleships Tennessee and California. The cruisers were Birmingham and Indianapolis. The destroyers were Norman Scott, Monssen, Colahan, Halsey Powell, Bailey, Robinson and Albert W. Grant. Careful Japanese artillery preparation — placing flags in the lagoon to indicate the range — allowed them to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and the Japanese strategically placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. However, by nightfall the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had a beachhead about 6 mi (10 km) wide and 0.5 mi (1 km) deep. The Japanese counter-attacked at night but were repulsed with heavy losses. On 16 June, units of the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Division landed and advanced on the airfield at Ås Lito (which is now the location of Saipan International Airport). Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. On 18 June, Saito abandoned the airfield.

The invasion surprised the Japanese high command, which had been expecting an attack further south. Admiral Soemu Toyoda, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy, saw an opportunity to use the A-Go force to attack the U.S. Navy forces around Saipan. On 15 June, he gave the order to attack. But the resulting battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes. The garrisons of the Marianas would have no hope of resupply or reinforcement.

Without resupply, the battle on Saipan was hopeless for the defenders, but the Japanese were determined to fight to the last man. Saito organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapotchau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. The nicknames given by the Americans to the features of the battle — "Hell's Pocket", "Purple Heart Ridge" and "Death Valley" — indicate the severity of the fighting. The Japanese used the many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. The Americans gradually developed tactics for clearing the caves by using flamethrower teams supported by artillery and machine guns.

The operation was marred by inter-service controversy when Marine General Holland Smith, unsatisfied with the performance of the 27th Division, relieved its commander, Army Major General Ralph C. Smith. However, General Holland Smith had not inspected the terrain over which the 27th was to advance. Essentially, it was a valley surrounded by hills and cliffs under Japanese control. The 27th took heavy casualties and eventually, under a plan developed by General Ralph Smith and implemented after his relief, had one battalion hold the area while two other battalions successfully flanked the Japanese.

By 7 July, the Japanese had nowhere to retreat. Saito made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured." At dawn, with a group of 12 men carrying a great red flag in the lead, the remaining able-bodied troops — about 3,000 men — charged forward in the final attack. Amazingly, behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. The Japanese surged over the American front lines, engaging both army and Marine units. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment were almost destroyed, losing 650 killed and wounded. However, the fierce resistance of these two battalions, as well as that of Headquarters Company, 105th Infantry, and supply elements of 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Artillery Regiment resulted in over 4,300 Japanese killed. For their actions during the 15-hour Japanese attack, three men of the 105th Infantry were awarded the Medal of Honor — all posthumously. Numerous others fought the Japanese until they were overwhelmed by the largest Japanese Banzai attack in the Pacific War.

By 16:15 on 9 July, Admiral Turner announced that Saipan was officially secured. Saito — along with commanders Hirakushi and Igeta — committed suicide in a cave. Also committing suicide at the end of the battle was Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo — the naval commander who led the Japanese carriers at Pearl Harbor and Midway — who had been assigned to Saipan to direct the Japanese naval air forces based there.

In the end, almost the entire garrison of troops on the island — at least 30,000 — died. For the Americans, the victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War. 2,949 Americans were killed and 10,464 wounded, out of 71,000 who landed. Hollywood actor Lee Marvin was among the many American wounded. He was serving with "I" Company, 24th Marine Regiment, when he was shot in the buttocks by Japanese machine gun fire during the assault on Mount Tapochau. He was awarded the Purple Heart and was given a medical discharge with the rank of Private First Class in 1945.

THE Armistice was signed at 5:00 o'clock in the morning of November 11, 1918, on Marshall Foch's train in the Forest of Compiegne, and took effect at 11: 00 a. m. on the same day.< ... More/p>

Its terms, which are summarized on pages 507-509, required Germany to evacuate all invaded and occupied territory in Belgium, Luxemburg and France (including Alsace-Lorraine), and to withdraw her armies across the Rhine River. They also provided that the Allied forces should be permitted peaceably to occupy bridgeheads, 18 miles in radius, east of the Rhine at Mayence, Coblenz and Cologne, and that a neutral zone 6 miles wide in which neither the Allies nor Germany could maintain troops would be established along the east bank of the Rhine and around each of the bridgeheads.

The advance of the American and Allied Armies was so regulated that they occupied all territory evacuated by the Germans within a short time after the German troops withdrew. The plans fer the advance prescribed that the French should move through Alsace-Lorraine to Mayence, the Americans through Luxemburg and the Moselle valley to Coblenz, the British to Cologne, and the Belgians by way of Aix-la-Chapelle to the lower Rhine River.

On November 7 the Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces had directed that an American Third Army be organized and on November 14 this Army, with Major General Joseph T. Dickman as commander, was designated as the Army of Occupation. It was composed initially of the III Corps, containing the 2d, 32d and 42d Divisions; and the IV Corps, comprising the 1st, 3d and 4th Divisions. To these were added on November 22 the VII Corps, containing the 5th, 89th and 90th Divisions. On that same day the Third Army detached the 5th Division from the VII Corps and gave it the duty of guarding the extended lines of communication of the Army.

The advance to the Rhine was begun by the Americans and Allies on November 17 along the entire Western Front. Although active operations against a hostile enemy were not involved, there were nevertheless many difficult problems to be met. For the Americans, these included the creation in a limited time of a staff and services for the supply and rapid movement of more than 200,000 men through country where transportation lines in many places were completely destroyed and where food was scarce. Moreover, the weather was cold and rainy and in many places the roads were nearly impassable. Although the troops had been hastily assembled and had been allowed no opportunity to rest and refit after the trying period of the Meuse­Argonne offensive, they cheerfully met every demand made upon them. The advance elements of the Third Artillery passed through the city of Luxemburg on November 21 and arrived two days later at the German frontier. There they rested until December 1 when all of the Armies of Occupation pushed on into Germany.

Through the liberated districts of France and Luxemburg the Americans were received with wild demonstrations of joy, but upon entering Germany they were regarded with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. However, the fine conduct of the Army and the firmness and justice of the American commanders quickly quieted any apprehensions the civil population may have had and no incidents of hostility took place.

The leading troops of the Third Army reached the Rhine River on December 9. On the 13th, American, French and British infantry divisions crossed the river, having been preceded in some cases by advance elements the day before. In the American Third Army, the III Corps, whose composition had been changed to include the 1st, 2d and 32d Divisions, was designated to occupy the northern portion of the bridgehead at Coblenz, the southern portion having been transferred to French control. The American bridgehead included the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein located immediately across the Rhine River from Coblenz and dominating it.

The III Corps crossed on four bridges—two at Coblenz, and one each at Engers and Remagen below Coblenz and by the night of December 14 had completed the occupation of the American part of the bridgehead. The remainder of the American Army of Occupation, consisting of the IV Corps, comprising the 3d, 4th and 42d Divisions, and the VII Corps, containing the 89th and 90th Divisions, remained west of the Rhine. Luxemburg was occupied by the 5th and 33d Divisions, both of which were under command of the American Second Army, and not under control of the Army of Occupation.

To the south of Coblenz the French occupied a bridgehead with headquarters at Mayence, while to the north, the British occupied a bridgehead with headquarters at Cologne. Although the Belgians advanced to the Rhine and occupied jointly with the French a zone in the Rhineland to the north of the British, with headquarters at Aix-la-Chapelle, they had no force across the river.

An additional bridgehead at Kehl across the Rhine from Strasbourg and including the ring of forts of that place,was established on February 4, 1919, by the French on their own responsibility.

When finally located on December 21, 1918, the headquarters of the principal units of the American Army of Occupation in Germany were placed as follows:

Third Army — Coblenz

III Corps — Neuwied

IV Corps — Cochem

VII Corps — Wittlich

1st Division — Montabaur

2d Division — Heddesdorf

3d Division — Andernach

4th Division — Bad Bertrich

32d Division — Rengsdorf

42d Division — Ahrweiler

89th Division — Kylburg

90th Division — Berncastel

Immediately after the Armistice the American Commander-in-Chief started preparations for moving his forces back to the United States with the least possible delay. The Services of Supply was promptly reorganized to carry out the intricate details connected with this work, and approximately 25,500 men of the American forces actually sailed from France, homeward bound, in November. Before the end of the year this number had been increased to about 124,000.

Upon the cessation of hostilities practically every man of the 2,000,000 in the A.E.F. wanted to return to the United States at once; but with the limited number of ships available this was, of course, impossible. While military training was continued after the Armistice against the remote possibility that operations might be resumed, the higher commanders realized that this was a most trying period for the soldiers and undertook measures to make life for them as interesting as possible commensurate with the maintenance of a satisfactory standard of discipline and military conduct.

Men were allowed regular leaves to visit leave areas established at various summer and winter resorts in France and in the occupied portion of Germany, and arrangements were made whereby they could visit several other countries such as Great Britain, Belgium and Italy.

A vast school system was established, in which more than 230,000 men enrolled. Wherever troops were quartered in any number, classes were organized and instruction given in practically every subject taught in the public schools of the United States, as well as in trade and business subjects. At Beaune a huge university was established for advanced instruction and approximately 9,000 soldiers registered to take the course.

An Education Corps Commission was formed to direct all lecturers, schools and extension courses in the A.E.F. The men selected as instructors for the schools were competent educators with previous experience. This often resulted in classes for officers being conducted by privates from the ranks. The educational system on the whole was democratic, well planned and produced very substantial results.

Horse shows were held by nearly every division, and many of the units organized theatrical troupes, which traveled throughout the A. E. F. giving performances. These activities were encouraged and aided in every way by the army officials, and to a large extent contributed to the pleasure and contentment of the troops.

The men were also encouraged to participate in sports and games, and a great athletic program was carried out which culminated in the Inter-Allied Games held near Paris in June and July, 1919. Upon the invitation of the American Commander-in-Chief, eighteen of the Allied and associated nations sent contestants to this meet, which was a remarkable success from every standpoint. The Pershing Stadium, where it took place, was built mainly by engineers from the American Army. The funds were donated by the Young Men's Christian Association, which presented the structure to General Pershing. It was later turned over by him to the French people.

In the spring of 1919 a composite regiment of selected officers and men was formed from the Third Army. Selection was based on appearance, soldierly qualities and war record. It was used as an escort of honor to the American Commander-in-Chief, and paraded in Paris, London and other places, including New York and Washington, D. C., when the regiment returned to America.

In the meantime the transfer of troops to the United States had been progressing rapidly. Marshal Foch wished to retain a large force, at least 15 divisions, in Europe, but was told that the American Army would be withdrawn as soon as possible. President Wilson finally agreed that American representation in the occupied territory would be a small detachment only, to be known as the "American Forces in Germany", which would serve, as the French said, merely to keep the American flag on the Rhine.

By May 19, 1919, all American combat divisions, except five in occupied German territory, had received their embarkation orders to sail for American ports.

The units of the Army of Occupation were relieved as fast as practicable during the summer of 1919, and the 1st Division, the last large organization to leave for home, began its movement on August 15. With the dissolution of the Third Army on July 2, 1919, the "American Forces in Germany" consisting of about 6,800 men came into being and remained on the Rhine for more than three years. The American flag on Fort Ehrenbreitstein was finally lowered on January 24, 1923, when the last of the American troops in Germany entrained. The American zone was formally turned over to the French three days later on.