A US military mission to Macaracas

A soldier, an educator and a government administrator cut the ribbon

A return to touch up work in Macaracas
article and photos by Eric Jackson

The US military, both for training purposes and as a goodwill gesture, periodically sends personnel, mostly from National Guard and Reserve units, to conduct engineering and health care maneuvers in Panama. Many a poor rural community has a clean water well, or more school classrooms, or a health clinic, due to the work of American troops. The US Armed Forces have worked on a lot of Panama's secondary roads and installed quite a few bridges.

Back in 2005 such maneuvers were carried out in Macaracas, Los Santos and recently a team of 14 military engineers from the US Army South (USARSO) in San Antonio, Texas came back to follow up on various projects. Captain Eric Thomas, who hails from Utah, noted that "over the past 25 years, we have built more than 500 schools, clinics and other public works." Those include an elementary school addition, community center and health clinic in the Macaracas area. A 14-member USARSO led by Colonel Kevin Wood came back to fix electrical, plumbing and drainage problems and to install back-up generators at some of these works.

The work we came to see was more mundane, but quite important. The local elementary school and the annex that the US forces built are on a street that's increasingly busy and dangerous for little kids. So the folks from USARSO put up fences to protect the kids from the traffic hazards.

Among the USARSO crew was one man who knows Panama very well. Staff Sergeant Delano Ross was born in and spent most of his childhood in Panama City, but when he was 15 his family emigrated to the United States, settling among the large Panamanian community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. A career soldier, he comes back to Panama every few years to take a vacation and visit family and friends.

And how might an Army sergeant from Utah who rode down here on a motorcycle perceive Panama on his first first impression? Visit Sergeant Grassley's website or look up halfthrottle on You Tube.

Note the English instruction in a classroom built by American troops

Something other than the usual school uniforms for this afternoon

The classroom annex was designed and built to last

Teachers look on during the ceremony

Teacher José Martínez treats students, faculty, troops and reporters to some decima

What's a Los Santos education without traditional culture?

The odd notion of "value free" education has never caught on in these parts

News \| Economy \| Culture \| Opinion \| Lifestyle \| Science \| Outdoors Noticias \| Opiniones \| Calendar \| Archive \| UnClassified Ads \| Home	Volume 14, Number 8 April 20 - May 3, 2008

lifestyle