16-inch Navy Mk.II M1 gun on M1919 barbette mount in Panama.
Fortifying the Canal
The Hay-Pauceforte and Hay-Bunau-Varilla
treaties implied but did not specifically give the United States the right to
fortify the Canal Zone. Central to America’s decision to fortify was Article Three
of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty, which gave the United States all powers,
rights, and authority in the Zone. Panama protested in 1904 when the United
States government used this sovereignty in establishing ports of entry,
customhouses, tariffs, and post offices in the Zone. An amendment giving some
concessions to Panama in those areas was made after Secretary of War Taft,
George Goethals, and other Army leaders visited the Isthmus in November 1904 to
determine questions relating to possible fortifications. The amendment was
supposed to be in effect only during the construction period, but it lasted
until 1924, and efforts for a new treaty were unsuccessful.
The debate over Canal fortification
continued until 1911, when Congress passed a $2 million appropriation for that
purpose. The following year, Congress added $1 million for gun and mortar
batteries and $200,000 for land defenses. Construction began on 7 August 1911
under Sydney Williamson, Goethals’ Chief of the Pacific Division, and on 1
January 1912, Goethals’ son, Lieutenant George R. Goethals, was put in charge
of fortification work. The construction towns of Empire and Culebra, no longer
needed, were used for the Army garrisons. There were large forts with gun
batteries built at each end of the Canal, with field work for 6,000 mobile
force troops (infantry, cavalry, engineer, signal, and field artillery). The
work of The Panama Canal staff increased significantly with the 1915 military
appropriation of $1,290,000 and subsequent assignment of Army barracks and
quarters construction. All design and construction work for Army post buildings
was assigned to The Panama Canal. Much of the early quarters construction
undertaken by The Panama Canal for the Army utilized existing “type
house” designs. By June 1915, almost $15 million had been spent on
fortifying the Canal, including the locks and dams. Military reservations were
officially designated on 18 September 1917 as Fort Grant, Fort Amador, Fort
Sherman, Fort Randolph, and Fort de Lesseps.19 That same year The Panama Canal
designers were asked “… to furnish preliminary plans and estimates for
cantonment construction for Army troops and for the proposed permanent posts
for mobile troops on the Canal Zone.”20
This request developed from the investigation
and findings of an Army Board of Officers convened to recommend post locations
for the troops in the Canal Zone, and to recommend the type and character of
buildings required. The Board members represented the Infantry, Engineer Corps,
Cavalry, Medical Corps, and Field Artillery. In their report, dated 28 August
1917, the Board recommended placing one brigade of infantry at Gatun, and all
other mobile force troops on the Pacific side. There, they supported the
location of one infantry brigade at Miraflores Dump, another adjacent to the
Curundu River, and one artillery brigade and one cavalry regiment south of the
Diablo Ridge. Corozal was the location recommended for the sanitary troops, the
Signal Corps troops, and the Engineer regiment, as well as for the main supply
depot site. Quarry Heights (created on the site of the former Ancon Quarry)
would serve as department and division headquarters.21
The placement of troops on the Isthmus did
not wait for the construction of military reservations. As early as 1903, there
was a Marine detachment present that kept the Panama Railroad open during the
revolution. This detachment remained until January 1914, and at the end
consisted of 12 officers and 375 enlisted men. The first permanent Army troops
(Tenth Infantry) arrived in October 1911 and were stationed at Camp E. S. Otis
in Empire. Three companies of the Coast Artillery Corps arrived on the Isthmus
September 1914 and were in temporary quarters at Fort Amador and Fort Sherman
by November. That same month the Fifth Infantry arrived with several members of
the Medical Corps and the Quartermaster Corps, and the regiment was quartered
at Empire. Continued arrivals placed the troop strength on the Canal Zone at
approximately 5,000 when the United States entered World War I. 22 Authority
over the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone was transferred from the Canal Zone
Governor to the commanding general of the U.S. Army forces in the Canal Zone by
President Woodrow Wilson in a 9 April 1917 Executive Order.23 An additional
Executive Order was used to proclaim the neutrality of the Canal on 23 May
1917.24
A consolidated command called United States
Troops, Panama Canal Zone had been put into place on 6 January 1915 under Brig.
Gen. C. R. Edwards, as part of the Eastern Department. Initially located at
Ancon, the headquarters were moved to Quarry Heights in 1916. A separate
geographical department was created 1 July 1917 and named the Panama Canal
Department of the United States Army. Also headquartered at Quarry Heights, the
Department was first commanded by Brigadier General Cronkhite25. The war passed
quietly enough in the Canal Zone, and control of the Canal was returned to the
Governor at the war’s end.
For the Panama Canal Department, the
inter-war years provided an opportunity to increase defensive strength by
creating permanent posts and upgrading defenses against the growing threat of
air attack.
When Canal defense requirements were first
considered, the threat to be countered was primarily a naval one. Armament and
fortifications were planned to repel a frontal naval assault and landing. As
aviation technology developed, aerial attacks were perceived as a growing
threat, and steps were taken to counteract them. The Army Air Force in the
Canal Zone was implemented to “gain and maintain sufficient air
superiority to secure the Canal and its accessories against an air attack, to
observe fire for the Coast and Field Artillery, to cooperate with the Infantry,
to attack any enemy land or naval forces and to cooperate with the Navy in the
execution of its mission.”26 By late 1920, the Army aviation base of
France Field, and the infantry bases of Fort Clayton (Pacific) and Fort Davis
(Atlantic) were in place and manned. By 1925 the Coast Artillery District was
abolished and Coast Defense units organized into regiments with separate
antiaircraft batteries. A Pacific-side air field (Albrook Field) was
constructed by 1932.27
In 1932, the Panama Canal Department was
divided into Atlantic and Pacific sectors. The Atlantic Sector contained France
Field and the Panama Air Depot, and Forts Sherman, Randolph, Davis, and de
Lesseps, while Forts Amador, Clayton, and Kobbe, Albrook Field, and the Post of
Corozal were located in the Pacific Sector.28 Headquarters remained at Quarry
Heights. In January 1934, the Department consisted of 419 officers and 8,884
enlisted men. This manpower level was considered too low, and by 1936 enlisted
strength had increased to 12,990.29
Diplomatic issues continued to be
negotiated between Panama and the United States. The Hull-Alfaro Treaty, signed
on 2 March 1936, helped settle differences over the devaluing Panama dollar and
the Canal annuity payments. It guaranteed joint action and consultation between
the countries in times of emergency. The United States also gave up the right
to intervene in Panama to maintain public order. After debate in the United
States over whether the treaty adequately protected American interests in the
area, the Senate ratified it three years later.30
As World War II broke out in Europe,
efforts were underway in the Canal Zone to heighten defenses. One of these
efforts had both defensive and economic justifications. The original Canal
designers were aware that transit capacity would need to be increased in the
future, both in terms of ship size and the number of ships able to transit at
any one time. After several years of military and civilian study, Congress
authorized the construction of an additional set of locks in 1939. Known as the
“third locks project,” new, larger locks would be constructed near
the existing ones at Gatun, Pedro Miguel, and Miraflores to increase capacity.
For defense purposes, they would be built some distance away (1,500 to 3,000
ft) and connected to the existing locks by approach channels. An initial appropriation
of $15 million was made through the War Department Civil Appropriations Act of
1941. The total cost of the expansion was estimated at $277,000,000. A Special
Engineering Division of the Department of Operation and Maintenance was created
to handle the work in close cooperation with existing Panama Canal
organizations. Canal employees had been producing plans for the design and
construction and selecting potential key employees in the United States since
the 1939 authorization. Among the first orders of business were three new
construction towns (Caecal, Diablo Heights, and Margarita) for the estimated
6,300 employees and dependents associated with the project.31
Excavation at the Pacific end of what would
be the approach channel to the new Miraflores lock was begun on 1 July 1940.
The new locks were designed to be used by the 58,000 ton Montana class
battleships on order for the Navy. As the threat of war heated up, defense
considerations soon outweighed those of commerce. However, upon the United
States’ entry into the war, continuation of the project grew uncertain. There
was strong Navy support for completing the project as soon as possible to
accommodate the warships due in late 1945. Through a series of meetings held in
January 1942, the War Department decided to accept the Navy position and to
press for rapid completion. Some military officers, however, felt the extra
locks only provided another target for air attack. Several months later
circumstances changed when the Navy indefinitely postponed its battleship
construction program. As a result of these factors, the War Department, the
Navy, and the President all concurred in a decision to halt almost all work on
the third locks, effectively canceling the project.32
As World War II approached, Canal Zone Army
installations were reinforced by increasing the troop strength in Panama from
13,451 in 1939 to 31,400 by the time of the United States’ entry in December
1941. Garrison strength was up to 66,619 by January 1943. Housing these reinforcements
constituted only part of a larger construction program. As some troops arrived
before construction had begun, however, housing was given the highest priority.
Congress appropriated $50 million on 10 June 1939 for improvement of Panama
Canal defenses.33
Subsequent contract discussions delayed
calls for bids until March 1940. The first contractors arrived on the Isthmus
in July 1940. Troop labor was used in the meantime to clear construction sites
and put in footings. Housing needs were especially acute, and a Board of
Officers was appointed to study and report on “the locations and general
layout, plan for the new construction in the Pacific Sector contemplated in the
Panama Canal Department housing program, the Coast Artillery Expansion Program,
and the Air Corps Augmentation Program.34 Once begun, actual construction was
fairly swift, as it was essential to get men and materiel out of tents and into
buildings as quickly as possible. Even so, it was a huge job and every
available soldier was detailed to some aspect of construction. Little civilian
labor was available to assist with the military construction, as the Third
Locks project competed for workers.35 Due to the severe time constraints, much
of the new construction was of a temporary nature. It was common to use
existing building plans but substitute readily available, less expensive, and
less labor-intensive construction materials. Designs were stripped down to the
essentials, and all ornamental details were eliminated. Temporary structures
were less durable, and many were intended to be easily disassembled and
reerected elsewhere.
Emergency measures were initiated in the
last days of August 1939, and in addition to troop buildup, included
anti-sabotage measures and a change of Canal authority. The Army garrison was
given the mission of “protecting the Canal against sabotage and of
defending it from positions within the Canal Zone.”36 The Navy was tasked
to provide offshore defense, provide armed guards for ships transiting the Canal,
and maintain a harbor patrol at both ends of the Canal.37 As early as 5
September 1939, an Executive Order was issued transferring jurisdiction and
authority over the Canal and the Canal Zone to the Army’s Panama Canal
Department.38 Before long, photography of Canal installations was banned for
the duration of the war, mines were placed at both entrances to the Canal,
low-altitude barrage balloons were placed over the locks with anti-submarine
and torpedo nets placed in front of the locks, and chemical smoke pots were
positioned throughout a 60 square mile area. The massive guns and batteries on
military installations at either end of the Canal were prepared for use. The 6
to 16 inch (in.) guns were housed in 11 Atlantic and 12 Pacific batteries, and
had a range up to 25 miles. To protect against air attack, anti-aircraft
batteries were put in place across the Zone and two antiaircraft detachments
were sent in September 1939. Two long-range radar stations were also
established that autumn. The main runway at Albrook Field was improved to allow
deployment of the more modem bombers that had arrived in June 1939. Military
dependents were evacuated to the United States by October 1941.39
Also around 1939, the Panama Canal
Department commander began an effort to secure additional defense sites outside
the Canal Zone in the Republic of Panama, primarily for airfields. Dozens of
sites were eventually requested, but action on this request ran into diplomatic
trouble between the United States and Panama. The primary problems were leasing
versus buying the sites, and the limits of United States defense authority as
defined in the as yet unratified 1936 Hull-Alfaro Treaty. The Treaty was
finally ratified on 17 April 1939, and negotiations continued for the
additional defense sites even as funding was allocated to lease them from the
Panamanian government. An agreement was reached on 21 March 1941 to allow
United States forces to acquire sites and begin use before formal approval. On
18 May 1942, the two countries signed the Defense Sites Agreement, in which the
United States would utilize 134 sites leased from Panama until one year after
the end of the war.40
By the time the build-up was complete,
defenses consisted of “nine airbases and airdromes, 10 ground forces posts,
30 aircraft warning stations, and 634 searchlights, antiaircraft gun positions
and miscellaneous tactical and logistical installations.”41 Twelve
outlying airbases were also constructed in Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica. An outer defense parameter of 960 nautical miles from the Canal
was established and patrolled by air and sea.42
In 1941, a major command reorganization was
precipitated when the United States took into protective custody the British
possessions (and prospective base sites) of Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia,
Trinidad, and British Guyana. To administer these new bases, and to quell
issues of command extent between the various Army and Navy forces in the area,
a theater command was established. The Caribbean Defense Command was officially
activated on 10 February 1941, under the command of General Daniel Van Voorhis,
then the commander of the Panama Canal Department. The Caribbean Defense
Command was initially set up as strictly Army, and coordination with Navy
operations was by “mutual cooperations” A separate command, the
Caribbean Air Force, was established for air defense about the same time.
General Frank M. Andrews succeeded General Van Voorhis in August 194l.43
The Army and Navy personnel in Panama had
been on full alert since midsummer 1941. The first immediate effects of the
United States’ December entry into the war were ones of command structure and
reinforcements. The first order of business was to create a unified command
through which Army and Navy could be coordinated. President Roosevelt put the
Army in charge of the Panama sector, and the Navy in charge of the more distant
Caribbean Coastal Frontier on 12 December 1941. General Andrews thus assumed
command of both Army and Navy forces in the area on 18 December 1941.44 Both
air and ground forces were heavily augmented over the next two months, with the
Panama garrison strength reaching 39,000 by the end of December, and growing to
47,600 by the end of January 1942.45
For those living and working in the Canal Zone,
World War II was “a time of perceived danger during which the movement of
materiel, troops and supplies through the waterway was a critical part of the
war effort.”46 While Panama and the Canal both escaped enemy attack, a
damaging U-boat campaign was carried out against shipping in the Caribbean.
From February through December 1942, some 270 ships in the area had been sunk
by U-boats. The peak of the German U-boat threat came in the summer of 1942. In
the month of June alone, 29 vessels were sunk in the Atlantic Sector of the
Panama Sea Frontier.47 Caribbean Defense Command peak strength of 119,000 was
reached in December 1942. Of these, over half were stationed in Panama to
protect the Canal from attack or sabotage.48 by mid-summer 1943, the U-boat threat
was receding due to increased effectiveness of the theater’s antisubmarine
forces, the effects of Allied victories in other waters, and the shift of
U-boats away from the Caribbean.49
With the threat of Canal attack
diminishing, the reduction of troop strength became feasible. Downsizing was
begun in January 1943, and continued until the end of the war. From a peak of
119,000, Army forces had dropped to 91,000 by the end of 1943. When the war in
Europe ended in May 1945, Caribbean Defense Command strength was down to
67,500.50 War-time defenses, including large artillery guns, landing fields,
and mine fields were removed as the military returned to a peace-time defensive
position. The Caribbean Defense Command was reorganized into the U.S. Army Caribbean
and the Caribbean Command (a unified authority over the Army, Navy, and Air
Force components)51 This command structure would last until 1963, was
redesignated as the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), and the Army
component became the United States Army Forces Southern Command (USAFSO). The
major Army command would be inactivated in 1974, then re-activated as the
United States Army South (USARSO) in 1986.52
In October 1947, the United States tried to
negotiate an agreement for five more years occupation of 13 auxiliary World War
II sites and the military air base at Rio Hato, 70 miles west of Panama City,
for 10 to 20 years. In December, with pressure from the Communist Party in
Panama and student anti-American demonstrations, the Panamanian Assembly
unanimously rejected the agreement, and the United States agreed to evacuate
the remaining 14 sites immediately, while continuing to negotiate. With
national elections coming up in 1948, Assembly members wanted to reduce
American influence in Panama as much as possible to appease the voters.53
In the 1950s, the United States made
several concessions to the Panamanians: a single pay scale for American and
Panamanian workers was established; Spanish became an official language in the
Canal Zone along with English; Panama was given more money from Canal toll
collections. The United States was given 19,000 acres in the Rio Hato area for
military training. Panama, however, twice rejected requests by the U.S. to
deploy Nike missiles in 1956 and 1958. Two ground-to-air HAWK-AW missile
batteries were deployed in 1960 at Fort Sherman and Fort Amador. Growing
nationalistic sentiment expressed in student demonstrations in 1955, 1958,
1959, and 1964 helped to finally convince the United States to renegotiate the
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty.54
In 1974, the United States, under chief
negotiator Ellsworth Bunker, agreed in principle to relinquish control of the
Panama Canal and the Canal Zone to Panama. At that time, there were about
46,000 people living in the Canal Zone. Most (30,000) were active duty
military, their dependents, and civilian employees. Roughly 10,000 Americans
(employees and dependents) were associated with the Panama Canal Company.
During the administrations of President Jimmy Carter and General Omar Torrijos,
two treaties were negotiated. The first, called the Panama Canal Treaty,
abolished the Canal Zone and returned the territory to Panama, with the United
States having the authority to manage, operate and defend the Canal with
increasing participation by the Republic of Panama. At noon on 31 December
1999, Panama will assume control of the area and responsibility for the Canal
as the United States’ presence ends. The second treaty gave the United States
the permanent right to defend, jointly with the Republic of Panama, the Canal’s
neutrality. The treaties were signed on 7 September 1977 by Presidents Carter
and Torrijos at the Organization of American States. After months of heated
debate, the United States Senate passed the two treaties in March and April
1978, each by a vote of 68 to 32, drastically changing American military and
political influence in Panama.55
Implemented on 1 October 1979, the Panama
Canal Treaty impacted U.S. armed forces in Panama through the immediate
turnover of some military facilities, the relocation of other facilities, and
the undertaking of some social responsibilities formerly run by the Panama
Canal Company. Some facilities at Fort Amador were turned over to the
Panamanian government immediately, necessitating the relocation of U.S. Army
headquarters to Fort Clayton. Facilities were also shifted from the Albrook
Army Airfield to Air Force installations in the former Canal Zone. The
Department of Defense became responsible for the education, health care, and
postal services previously run by the Panama Canal Company. Since 1979, the
turnover of military facilities has continued and will proceed until the
expiration of the Panama Canal Treaty at 12 noon on 31 December 1999.56
U.S. Military Aviation in Panama
World War I and France Field
The outbreak of World War I brought the
first pioneering aviation operations to the Canal Zone. As the efficiency of
combat aviation progressed during that conflict, it became clear that the U.S.
must provide some form of air force for the defense of the Canal. In March
1917, just prior to American entry into the War, the 7th Aero Squadron deployed
to Panama to provide aerial reconnaissance capabilities in cooperation with
Navy and Coast Artillery forces in the Canal Zone. This first aviation unit
consisted of just two officer pilots and 51 enlisted men, under the command of
Captain H. H. “Hap” Arnold. Its entire aircraft complement consisted
of two Curtiss R-4 observation planes. For the first few months after arrival
in Panama, the 7th shifted its operations between a number of Army bases while
its new flying field was under development. March found the 7th at Corozal, but
it immediately moved to Camp Empire, and then to Fort Sherman by August 1917.
In the meantime, development had begun on a new Army air field adjacent to the
Navy’s air station at Coco Solo. The first preliminary improvements centered
around providing an adequate landing surface, which was accomplished by laying
a base of crushed coral and covering it with hydraulic fill. Grass was planted
over this base by August 1918, at which time flying operations commenced on a
small scale. It was not until January 1919, however, that the 7th permanently
moved into its new quarters at France Field. After the war, a significant construction
program commenced in order to provide permanent facilities for the Air Corps’
growing commitment in Panama. Most of the original permanent construction at
France Field was completed between 1920 and 1922, including a new flight line
with six hangars. Nevertheless, significant problems plagued France Field
throughout its existence, centering around its inferior landing surface. Its
flying field could not be expanded due to its location. More importantly, the
coral foundation was prone to constant uneven settling, which required an
inordinate amount of costly new filling and leveling work. It was also rather
brittle and could not safely support the ever-increasing weights of new
aircraft. Already by the early 1930s, France Field was deemed unsafe for the
operation of the large bombers and commercial aircraft of the day. As soon as
other airfields were available in the Canal Zone, it became a secondary
operation. Eventually, the limitations of its landing surface prohibited France
Field’s efficient use as an Air Force Base. By late 1949, France Air Force Base
supported only a small caretaker detachment. In accordance with Canal Zone
Order Number 54, it ceased to be an Air Force. installation on 22 August 1960,
and its lands were assigned to the Department of the Army, Department of the
Navy, and The Panama Canal Company.57
