~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~
Operation BIG PINE II
(Ahuas Tara II), Honduras
August 1983 - February 1984
     The country of Nicaragua is the largest in Central America (57,143 square miles - slightly larger than Iowa), and is the geographic center of the region. Straddled between the Pacific and Caribbean Oceans, Nicaragua is bordered on the north by El Salvador and Honduras, both contending with leftist Communist insurgencies. To the south lies politically neutral Costa Rica, which has no military and is the only land buffer between Nicaragua and Panama. Both Honduras and Costa Rica provide sanctuaries to the Sandinista counterrevolutionary forces seeking to topple the Nicaraguan government.

  The Sandinist National Liberation Front, acronym  FSLN, (Sandinista's) was a left-wing Nicaraguan political party named for Augusto Cesar Sandino, a former insurgent leader and was formed in 1962 to oppose the Nicaraguan regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In 1979 the  Sandinista's launched a Communist offensive from Costa Rica and Honduras that toppled Somoza.

Nicaragua

  They established a military junta that nationalized such industries as banking and mining, postponed elections, and moved steadily to the left eventually espousing Communist Marxist-Leninist positions. The Sandinista dominated government was opposed by U.S. supported guerrillas known as the  Contras. In 1984, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra, won the Nicaraguan presidency in an election that was boycotted by some opposition groups.

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   During the early 1980s, the conflict in Central America increased Honduras’s strategic importance and led the United States government to maintain a significant military presence in the region as a counterforce against the new Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The purpose, according to senior United States officials, was to demonstrate the ability of U.S. military forces to operate in Central America and to persuade the Sandinista government of Nicaragua to desist from fomenting Communist insurrection and influence via financial and material assistance from Cuban and Union Of Socialist Soviet Republic-USSR (Russia) in the region. The mission, a joint U.S. Honduran military exercise was called Operation BIG PINE, and was the largest of its kind ever held in the country. The U.S. troops and materials provided for joint training to help Honduran forces improve their deployment techniques, logistical support in the field and improve their military support facilities. A number of U.S. military advisors remained behind to continue training in infantry tactics and service a new radar installation built in Tegucigalpa.

   Critics alleged that the U.S. Forces used the operation as cover to continue to funnel arms and materials to the Contra forces fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua under a not so secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation.
   During Operation BIG PINE II, August 1983-February 1984, the U.S. forces carried out, a considerably more extensive military exercise than the earlier Big Pine maneuvers. Up to 5,000 United States military personnel, were involved in extensive naval maneuvers including two United States Navy aircraft carrier task forces, another task force led by the battleship U.S.S. New Jersey, a landing by U.S. Marines on the Caribbean coast, a combined field training exercise of Honduran units and U.S. Army Special Forces in a counterinsurgency exercises in a remote area of Honduras, and a combined artillery exercise of the division artillery from the 101st Airborne Division and the Honduran army.
   With such a large force dedicated military police functions also had to be provided. The 720th MP Battalion detachment assigned included the 401st MP Company, under the command of CPT Charles Bradley, several members of the 410th MP Company, LEA (Law Enforcement Activities) members consisting of Provost Marshall Investigators and a Criminal Investigations Division agent were assigned as security, primarily for engineering units.

    The detachment initially flew into San Pedro Sula and convoyed to Camayagua-Palmerola Air Force Base where they relieved a U.S. Army MP detachment from Panama, and were essentially the first combat support unit in the area. They supported a JTF (Joint Task Force) under the 41st Support Command from Fort Carson, Colorado. They immediately established military police operations to include Provost Marshals Office, supported U.S. engineer elements as they constructed facilities throughout the country, and in addition also provided air mission support with the 101st Aviation Battalion (101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, KY), military law enforcement duties throughout the areas most frequented by U.S. troops, training of Policia Militar (Honduran MPs) as well as civilian law enforcement, the FUSEP or Fuerza de Seguridad Pública (Public Safety Force, Honduras). They also provided convoy security for arriving troops and material, border security against Sandanista insurgents from Nicaragua, physical security at Palmerola Air Force Base and joint U.S. / Honduran law enforcement operations in Comayagua in conjunction with civilian and military locals.
   Their downtown MP Desk in Comayagua, an impoverished town of 30,000 people, was unique and offered many advantages to the U.S. troops on leave or pass. It was co-located with the FUSEP (Honduran Civil Police) one block north of the main square. The desk was manned from Sunday through Thursday 1300 to 1600 Hours (1:00 to 4:00PM), by a Spanish-speaking member of the 401st MP Company. On Friday and Saturday nights, it provided three jeep and one foot patrol that crisscrossed the town to assist U.S. service members. Each downtown patrol was staffed by a U.S. MP and FUERZA PM (Honduran Military Policeman) from Palmerola Air Base.
   With the influx of over 1,200 U.S. troops swelling the billets at Palmerola Air Base, the locals began constructing new commercial establishments to service them. The new American oriented businesses, mostly bars and restaurants with names like- Restaurant Texas and Xenon Disco Bar, provided plenty of distraction for the off duty troops. The underground economy, consisting of the town’s red light district was also booming. In all, the sudden growth provided the military police mission with plenty to keep it busy.
  A special thank you goes out to CPL Howard P. Starr, II of the 401st MP Company for his information and document contributions to this page.
Photograph Index
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PFC Michael Orr, 411th MP Company working at the main gate to Palmerola Air Base.
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