Action After Fatal Panama Accident : Base Intruders Highly Trained, Marine Says

A U.S. Marine said Friday a highly trained group of uniformed men harassed and tried to surround his patrol inside a U.S. fuel depot earlier this week and then fired three or four shots, prompting two hours of sporadic American machine-gun and mortar fire that ended without casualties when the intruders withdrew.

First Sgt. Alexander J. Nevglovski, a 24-year Marine veteran, spoke to reporters about the incident that occurred Tuesday night near the Panama Canal following scornful Panamanian suggestions that frightened Marines had fired at swaying palm trees, thinking they were Panamanian intruders.

Psychological Warfare

The dispute has taken on an air of psychological warfare in the tension-filled American attempt to drive Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega from power following February indictments on drug-trafficking charges by two grand juries in Florida.

In addition to imposing severe economic sanctions, the Reagan Administration has sent an additional 1,300 troops to Panama, including Nevglovski’s I Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines from the 2nd Marine Division, stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. His 10-man squad was patrolling the Navy fuel tank farm Tuesday at dusk, less than 24 hours after Marine sentries had mistakenly killed one of their own men while pursuing similar intruders.

In a 30-minute news conference at Quarry Heights, headquarters for the more than 11,000 U.S. troops now in Panama, Nevglovski said he saw two groups of intruders, including 12 atop a mound covering a fuel tank. He said “another 15 to 20 came out of the jungle straight ahead of us in columns of twos, and they peeled off and went around as if to try to surround us.” He said, however, that he did not see any of the men he observed carrying weapons.

Fuel Tanks Buried

He said the men, wearing “black garb type uniforms,” observed him with the same night-vision gear with which he was watching them, from a range of 125 to 200 meters.

The jungle surrounds a clearing where the Navy depot’s 36 fuel tanks are buried underground.

After a half-hour standoff, the trespassers fired three to four rounds in a few seconds, he said, adding that he had counted the muzzle flashes. He immediately called for fire from his machine gunner, who responded with 10 to 15 rounds before being ordered to stop shooting. Another gunner in a second Marine unit nearby also opened fire.

The intruders then slipped back into the jungle. Nevglovski said his men did not give chase, partly because of the death of the Marine the previous night.

In addition to the men at the edge of the jungle, another group of seven to 10 men had surrounded a unit of eight Marines and one Navy man near a fuel tank and a brief firefight took place, Nevglovski said. Military officials have said there were about 40 to 50 intruders altogether.

Reinforcements Arrive

Marine reinforcements arrived, bringing the force in the 807-acre fuel depot to about 100. They fired illumination flares and three high-explosive mortar rounds while helicopters churned overhead with searchlights.

None of the Marines’ gunfire apparently hit any of the intruders during more than two hours of shooting, no Marines were wounded and officers say they are still searching for physical evidence that intruders had been present.

Noriega and Panama’s government-controlled media have heaped ridicule on the U.S. military over the affair. The newspaper Critica said Thursday, “There were heart-rending cries of fear, desperation and terror (when) the Marines confused the palm trees with soldiers of the Panama Defense Forces.” An accompanying cartoon showed two Marines looking at palm trees. One warned the other: “Mike, suspicious shadows!” to which blurry-eyed Mike replied, “Stop. Let me finish smoking this special Turkish marijuana.”

On Friday, the Panamanian Foreign Ministry sent a formal protest to the United Nations alleging U.S. violations of Panama sovereignty during the Tuesday night fire-fight.

‘The Best We Have’

Annoyed by questions on whether anything actually happened, 1st Sgt. Nevglovski said: “These kids I was with are the most highly professional, dedicated and disciplined Marines I’ve worked with. . . . The Marines we had out there were the damned best we have in the Marine Corps.”

In a separate interview with Armed Forces Television, he said, “We don’t shoot at palm trees unless they’re shooting at us.”

Asked by reporters at the news conference what he thought the men wanted to achieve, Nevglovski replied: “They were training. They were using us for training aids. They were harassing us--they were doing everything short of firing on us, they were very provoking--to see what they can get around and what they can’t get around, how they can get detected and how they cannot get detected.”

Trained in Jungle Warfare

He added, “In my professional opinion, they were very good, trained in jungle warfare and military tactics.”

Nevglovski declined to speculate further on who the men were and whether they might have been from a special Panamanian forces unit. American military officials say Noriega’s Israeli-trained special forces are highly competent soldiers.

Noriega has said the United States is preparing to invade Panama but that his 15,000-member defense force is being extremely careful not to provide the Americans with a pretext to take military action against him.