Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian politician and military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, Noriega had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the U.S. invasion of Panama removed him from power.
The Battle of Mogadishu, also known as the Black Hawk Down Incident, was part of Operation Gothic Serpent. It was fought on 3–4 October 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States—supported by UNOSOM II—against the forces of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and armed irregulars of south Mogadishu.
The United States invaded Panama in mid-December 1989 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. The stated purpose of the invasion was to depose the de facto ruler of Panama, General Manuel Noriega, who was wanted by U.S. authorities for racketeering and drug trafficking. The operation, codenamed Operation Just Cause, concluded in late January 1990 with the surrender of Noriega. The Panama Defense Forces (PDF) were dissolved, and President-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office.
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as 160th SOAR(A), is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and these missions are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice.
The 75th Ranger Regiment, also known as the Army Rangers, is the premier light infantry and direct-action raid force of the United States Army Special Operations Command. The 75th Ranger Regiment is also part of Joint Special Operations Command via the Regimental Reconnaissance Company (RRC). The regiment is headquartered at Fort Moore, Georgia and is composed of a regimental headquarters company, a military intelligence battalion, a special troops battalion, and three Ranger battalions.
The Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low series is a retired long-range special operations and combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter for the United States Air Force. The series was upgraded from the HH-53B/C, variants of the Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion. The HH-53 "Super Jolly Green Giant" was initially developed to replace the HH-3E "Jolly Green Giant". The U.S. Air Force's MH-53J/M fleet was retired in September 2008.
Operation Gothic Serpent was a military operation conducted in Mogadishu, Somalia, by an American force code-named Task Force Ranger during the Somali Civil War in 1993. The primary objective of the operation was to capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid, leader of the Somali National Alliance who was wanted by the UNOSOM II in response to his attacks against United Nations troops. The operation took place from August to October 1993 and was led by US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
Task Force 20 is a temporary combat force designation that has been used several times and may still be used by separate parts of the United States armed forces. The longer-established iteration was a part of the United States Second Fleet in the Atlantic from after the Second World War. This was part of the formal United States Military Communications-Electronic Board system.
Roberto Díaz Herrera is a Panamanian colonel under General Manuel Noriega and was most famous for his public denunciation of the Panamanian dictator in 1987, at the behest of Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian Guru who never set foot on the American soil. After Noriega placed him under house arrest, Colonel Díaz received significant support from the Panamanian people, with many passing by his house in cars to shake his hand. He was imprisoned shortly thereafter and eventually given political asylum in Venezuela. After spending 11 years of exile in various Latin American countries, Díaz returned to Panama. Diaz Herrera also ran for the presidency with a minor political party, PNP, from 1996 to 1998, but lost to a larger political party. In 2004, he was chosen by the newly elected Panamanian president, Martín Torrijos, to be the country's ambassador to Peru.
The Boeing MH-6M Little Bird and its attack variant, the AH-6, are light helicopters used for special operations in the United States Army. Originally based on a modified OH-6A, it was later based on the MD 500E, with a single five-bladed main rotor. The newest version, the MH-6M, is based on the MD 530F and has a single, six-bladed main rotor and four-bladed tail rotor.
Operation Nifty Package was a United States Delta Force and Navy SEAL-operated plan conducted in 1989 designed to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. When Noriega took refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See, deafening music and other psychological warfare tactics were used to convince him to exit and surrender himself.
Eric L. Haney is a retired member of the United States Army counterterrorist unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), more commonly known as Delta Force. In recent years he has been writing on terrorism, guerrilla warfare, and special operations. Haney is the author of Inside Delta Force, a memoir of his time in the elite unit, in which he also writes about his participation in the aborted 1980 Operation Eagle Claw mission to Iran to free American hostages.
Major General Eldon Arthur Bargewell was a United States Army officer. He served as commander of the U.S. Army's Delta Force unit.
The 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (7th SFG) (A) is an operational unit of the United States Army Special Forces activated on 20 May 1960. It was reorganized from the 77th Special Forces Group, which was also stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. 7th Group—as it is sometimes called—is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and security force assistance. The 7th SFG(A) spends much of its time conducting foreign internal defense, counter-drug, and training missions of friendly governments' armed forces in South, Central, and North America as well as the Caribbean. 7th SFG(A) participated in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983, and in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989. The 7th SFG(A) has, like all the SFGs, been heavily deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the War on Terror. The 7th SFG has lost more SF soldiers in the Global War on Terrorism than any other SFG.
The Panama Defense Forces (Spanish: Fuerzas de Defensa de Panamá; FFDD), formerly the National Guard (of Panama) (Spanish: Guardia Nacional), were the armed forces of the Republic of Panama.
The Joint Special Operations Command Task Force which fought in the Iraq War was a joint U.S. and British special operations temporary grouping assembled from different units. It has been described as a "hunter-killer team" with its core made up of the United States Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta and the 75th Ranger Regiment, as well as the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group and members of the United States Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron, all under Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and elements from the United Kingdom Special Forces, including the Special Air Service, Special Boat Service (SBS), Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), 18 (UKSF) Signal Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). The task force was reported to be responsible for the cross border raid into Syria from Iraq in October 2008 that resulted in eight deaths including Abu Ghadiya, along with several US operations in the Horn of Africa targeting al-Qaeda.
Operation Rhino was a Joint Special Operations Command raid by several special operations units, including the United States Army's 160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment and the 75th Ranger Regiment, on several Taliban targets in and around Kandahar, Afghanistan during the invasion of Afghanistan. The mission was an airfield seizure in support of a Delta Force raid on the nearby home of Mullah Omar; though intelligence suggested that perhaps neither location was occupied. Ultimately though both locations turned out to be largely empty, the operations were successfully completed, and provided substantial propaganda footage for the U.S. throughout the early war; though at the cost of two Rangers supporting the operation killed in a helicopter crash nearby in Pakistan.
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Night Stalkers 
Panama Defense Forces