HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

terminal building, however, the troops were
impressed with how completely the AH-6s had
destroyed the guard house outside the terminal
and killed the two guards there. The 3rd platoon
seized the fire station on the north side of the
terminal and then received fire from the second
floor of the terminal.
These Rangers entered the terminal from the
north, where they encountered two surprises.
First, two civilian flights had arrived just prior
to H-hour, and about 400 civilians were in the
terminal. The other surprise was that the PDF
troops defended the terminal more determinedly
than anywhere else in the Torrijos/Tocumen
complex.
When two Rangers searched one of the airport’s
huge men’s rooms on the second floor, two
PDF soldiers jumped out of a stall and shot one
of the Rangers several times with a pistol. The
other Ranger returned fire and, with the assistance
of two more Rangers, dragged his wounded
buddy out of the men’s room. In the process,
the Ranger, pulling the wounded man, was shot
twice in the back of the head, but his kevlar helmet
stopped both rounds. From outside the
men’s room door, the unhurt Rangers threw in
grenades, but the stalls protected the PDF soldiers.
The Rangers then re-entered the men’s
room and waited for the PDF to show themselves.
The Rangers got the better of the ensuing
hand-to-hand struggle. One of the PDF soldiers
was killed in the men’s room while the
AC-130H Spectre crew member loading a 105mm round.
American soldiers the morning after seizing
Torrijos/Tocumen.
other was knocked out of the window; he fell two
stories and almost landed on a Ranger patrolling
outside. When the PDF soldier tried to draw his
pistol, the Ranger killed him.
Meanwhile, 2nd Platoon entered the terminal
from the south and started clearing the
building, with one squad on each of the three
main floors. Enemy soldiers opened fire on the
third floor, but the Rangers’ counterattack drove
them from the terminal, and they cleared the
rest of the third floor without incident.
The situation on the first floor was more difficult;
about ten PDF troopers had taken two
American girls hostage. When their escape
route led them into the Ranger security detail
stationed outside the terminal, they fled back
inside, where 2nd Platoon Rangers cornered
them after several exchanges of fire. At 0500,
after a tense two and a half hour standoff, the
Rangers announced they were going to come in
shooting. Rather than face an all-out assault,
the holdouts then released their hostages and
surrendered.
Later that morning, at about 1100, the 82nd
Airborne Division assumed operational control
(OPCON) of 1st BN, 75th Ranger Regiment and
began operations out of Torrijos/Tocumen.
Likewise, Company C, 3rd BN was put under
the OPCON of TF BAYONET to clear La
Comandancia at 1500 on 20 December. The
Rangers’ extensive training in airfield seizure
and building clearing, along with their detailed
mission plan, were key factors in their success-
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