Operation Acid Gambit
Operation Acid Gambit | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the United States invasion of Panama | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Panama | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Manuel Noriega Unknown | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
1st SFOD-D Night Stalkers | Panama Defense Forces | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
23 Delta Operators 4 MH-6 helicopters | unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
4 wounded 1 helicopter crashed |
5 killed 1 captured |
Operation Acid Gambit took place as an opening action of the United States invasion of Panama, on 20 December 1989. It was a U.S. Delta Force operation that retrieved Kurt Muse, an American expatriate living in Panama who had been arrested for leading a plot with other Panamanian to overthrow of the government of Panama, from the Cárcel Modelo, a notorious prison in Panama City.
Background
Muse had been arrested in 1989 for setting up covert anti-
The last contact Muse had with an American official before the raid was intense and unnerving. The meeting between Muse and an unidentified American colonel was in the public visiting area with other prisoners as well as numerous Panamanian guards. During the visit an American helicopter buzzed at a low altitude and high speed above the prison. When the sound subsided, the colonel addressed Muse loud enough for the entire room to hear. He stated that there was an order to kill Muse if the United States were to become involved in a conflict with Panama, which essentially meant Muse was not a prisoner but a hostage. The colonel then stood up and said in a loud and deliberate tone that if anyone harmed him, not one person would walk out of that prison alive. With this the room fell entirely silent as the colonel turned and walked out. He stated this with the knowledge that a rescue mission was about to be executed.[3]
The operation
Leading the operation was
After breaching the rooftop door with breaching charges, the Delta operators raced down the two flights of stairs towards Muse's cell. A Delta operator killed the guard who was responsible for killing Muse in case of a rescue. Muse's lock on his cell door was shot twice; however, the lock did not break, and a small explosive was used to gain access to his cell.[3][4] Delta operators gave Muse body-armour, a ballistic helmet and goggles and moved him to the roof, where they would be exfiltrated by MH-6 Little Birds back to the US base.
Their "Precious Cargo" (Muse) was now secure and a Delta operator called in for extraction. During extraction from the prison, the Hughes
Several years after the rescue, Muse collaborated on a book about the incident titled Six Minutes to Freedom with bestselling author John Gilstrap.[5]
See also
- List of special forces units
- List of operations conducted by Delta Force
- List of Delta Force members
- Raid at Renacer Prison
References
- ^ Rohter, Larry (6 December 1996). "With a Bang, Panama Is Erasing House of Horrors". The New York Times.
- ^ Moore, Molly (2 May 1991). "US Sought Premise for Using Military in Panama; Months Before 1989 Invasion, Bush Was Waiting for Noriega to 'Overstep'". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b c Hunter, Thomas B. "Operation Acid Gambit: The Rescue of Kurt Muse". SpecialOperations.Com. Archived from the original on 29 November 2013.
- ^ "Acid Gambit Archives", ShadowSpear Special Operations, retrieved 27 August 2019[dead link]
- ^ Gilstrap, John, "Six Minutes to Freedom", Citadel Press, 2012
External links
- ShadowSpear: Operation Acid Gambit Archived 18 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- Operation Acid Gambit - The Rescue of Kurt Muse