CANCELED - Current Affairs Forum - March 2020

Remembrances of Operation Just Cause

Just over 30 years ago, U.S. forces launched what was at the time, the largest military operation since the Vietnam War, and what remains the largest parachute assault conducted since World War II.  Our topic for the March Current Affairs Forum is Operation Just Cause, the operation to remove Manuel Noriega from power and install the elected government in Panama.  Just Cause began on 19 December 1989, and lasted into January of 1990.  Our speaker is Colonel Steve Bond, U.S. Army Retired.  In 1989, Steve was freshly out of the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and on the Army’s XVIIIth Airborne Corps staff where he found himself in the whirlwind for planning and preparations, leading to combat operations in Panama. 

Steve retired after serving 29 years in the U.S. Army.  Over his military career, he participated not only in Just Cause, but also Operations Desert Shield and Storm in the Gulf from 1990-91, and in humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in Saint Croix, Virgin Islands in 1989, and Haiti in 1994.  In 2008-09, he served as a U.S. Government Senior Civilian in a Flag Officer position as a Transition Team Director, during Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq.  In addition to being a graduate of CGSC, he is also a graduate of the Army War College, and holds a master’s degree in history. 

Join us for the March Current Affairs Forum on Thursday, March 19^th at 0830, immediately following TMBC.  This will be a special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces who conducted this operation that still impacts military planning and operations to this day.  We encourage other veterans who participated in Operation Just Cause to join us and share their memories as well.  Reservations are not required.

Photo Caption:  Colonel Steve Bond, US Army Retired, our Current Events Forum Speaker for March, shows momentos from Operation Just Cause in Panama, including an AK-47 Bayonet captured from Panamanian stocks.