For the first time in decades, Marines and soldiers are back in Panama to train
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American Marines and soldiers are once again rucking through the Panamanian jungle, for the first time in more than two decades.
The U.S. military, along with Panamanian security forces, revived jungle warfare courses for conventional forces this fall. Soldiers and Marines are learning survival techniques including foraging, navigating dense tropical forest terrain and combat in the jungle as part of the new Combined Jungle Operations Training Course. U.S. Southern Command recently put the first group through the full new course.
Special operations forces have regularly trained in Panama in the intervening years, but this fall the Pentagon began sending conventional troops south again in order to train in survival and combat tactics in dense, tropical environments.
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The new 21-day course put American and Panamanian forces through three phases of training. Images of the training shared by the military on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service shows American and Panamanian troops conducting weapons drills, and carrying out survival exercises including purifying water, building shelters, and maneuvering through thick vegetation.
The revived jungle warfare program comes after an earlier security agreement between the Untied States and Panama; following bellicose threats by the Trump administration to seize the Panama Canal, the two nations agreed to let U.S. troops conduct exercises, training and other activities,” as France24 reported at the time. The program is not directly related to the U.S. military build up in the Caribbean and ongoing attacks on small boats in the region, but it is part of a renewed focus on Latin America. As the military has sent several ships, aircraft and thousands of service members to the region, it has also been revitalizing some former bases and aging infrastructure, including the Roosevelt Roads naval station in Puerto Rico.
Panama was a long-time training site for American forces when it came to jungle warfare. The military began sending troops there to learn jungle tactics in 1916, shortly after the Panama Canal opened. That expanded during World War II and in the 1950s the military formally established the Jungle Operations Training Center at Fort Sherman. Troops went through a course nicknamed the “Green Hell.” The base trained thousands of American and Latin American military personnel each year when it was previously in use. However the military turned over Fort Sherman to Panama in 1999 and with the advent of the Global War on Terror jungle warfare became less important. Troops have conducted jungle training on a smaller scale in sites such as Hawaii.
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<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A Marine makes a water filtration device during jungle warfare training in Panama. Army photo by Trey Woodard</figcaption></figure>ABC News reported that 46 people had graduated the course so far, including Marines, a soldier and members of Panamanian security forces.
An earlier trial run of the program started in August, with 10 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines taking part. Agence France-Press spoke with Col. Ada Cotto, commander of the Joint Security Cooperation Group – Panama, who said that it was “focused only on survival; this one adds some tactics and jungle tracking.” Troops are training at both ends of Panama, including the country’s Base Aeronaval Cristóbal Colón.
Task & Purpose reached out to SOUTHCOM for additional information on the Combined Jungle Operations Training Course and how many troops it expects to send through it each month, but has not heard back as of press time.
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