Operation Big Pine II (Ahuas Tara II), Honduras
August 1983 through February 1984
~~~~~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~~~~~ |
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Operation Big Pine II (Ahuas Tara II), Honduras |
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August 1983 through February 1984 |
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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/Provost Marshall Investigators), and a Criminal Investigations Division agent were assigned as security, primarily for engineer units during Operation Big Pine II (Ahuas Tara II) between August 1983 and February 1984. The detachment initially flew into San Pedro Sula and convoyed to Camayagua-Palmerola Air Force Base where they relieved an MP detachment from Panama and were essentially the first Combat Support unit in the area. They then established military police operations to include Provost Marshal's Office, supported engineers as they constructed facilities throughout the country, air mission support with the 101st Avation Battalion (101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, KY), law enforcement duties throughout the country, training of Policia Militar (Honduran MP's) as well as civilian law enforcement. They also provided convoy security for arriving troops and material, border security against Sandanistas from Nicaragua, physical security at Palmerola and law enforcement operations in town-in conjunction with civilian and military locals in Comayagua. The 401st supported a JTF (Joint Task Force) under the 41st Support Command from Fort Carson, Colorado. |
The United States forces carried out, a considerably more extensive military exercise than the earlier Big Pine maneuvers in Honduras. 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 the United States 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. The purpose, according to a senior United States official, was to demonstrate the ability of United States 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) in the region. |
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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 (FSLN) of Nicaragua under a not so secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation. |
 Nicaragua |
 FSLN |
Nicaragua is the largest country 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 insurgents. 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 Counterrevolutionary forces (Contra) seeking to topple the Marxist junta in Nicaragua. Nicaragua, on the other hand, provides sanctuary for Communist insurgents operating throughout Central America. |
