The morning after PFC Scott Roth was killed (our 1st morning after H-hour), my team along with another relieved PFC Roth's team outside of a housing area across from Albrook Air Force Base (AFB).  I was 19 at the time and I just remember that we were ready to fight.  PFC Roth was a real nice guy and we used to play darts together in the barracks.  He had a personality that you just liked, real laid back.

        We were both M60 Machine gunners and I think the only reason I am alive today is because we both received different orders at H Hour.  It could have easily been me. 

        We took fire from the AFB the next day when a vehicle blew our roadblock almost hitting one of my buddies.  The AFB began to fire a M60 Machine gun from an elevated position when some of my brethren opened up on this fleeing vehicle.  Myself and SPC Robert Anderson were pinned down behind a HumVee for a few minutes as the M60 gunner shot at the civilian vehicle.

        It was weird because there was nothing Anderson or I could do.  The vehicle ended up being operated by some officers that had stayed out past curfew.  It was really infuriating at the time.  Anderson and I were nearly victims of a friendly fire incident.  I remember our company commander coming out to the site.  I was talking a mile a minute on the radio seconds after the shooting stopped.

        We had also detained a Panamanian civilian that supposedly knew the location of GEN Noriega.  The guy shit his pants.  It was pretty funny at the time and Anderson and I laughed hard at that and also realizing that we were lucky to be alive.

        Although I served three more years, the experience in Panama was the most memorable.

PVT Michael D. White, 3rd Platoon, 401st MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Brigade, 1989-1990.