Bush Salutes ‘Courageous Men’ : Casualties: The President visits American soldiers wounded in the invasion. A little girl says her best Christmas present was ‘her daddy.’

Sgt. 1st Class James Almeida of Taunton, Mass., lay in his bed at Brooke Army Medical Center, his hands and feet swathed in gauze. The Purple Heart awarded for the combat wound he suffered in Panama was pinned to his pillow, and his wife, son and two daughters were at his side Sunday morning as President Bush approached.

Spying 8-year-old Noella Almeida, the President asked the youngster what her favorite Christmas present had been.

Without missing a beat, Noella--she of shiny face, straight black hair and ruffled blue pinafore--looked at the President of the United States and replied: “My daddy.”

The tearful moment occurred as Bush visited for the first time with the men he had sent into battle--the soldiers wounded in the invasion of Panama. He stopped by the bedsides of most of the 44 still hospitalized here--some were in wheelchairs--”to salute these courageous men and tell them . . . how proud we are of them.”

And the men--some young enough to show the scars of teen-age skin problems but old enough to bear the scars of combat--responded. In a private moment recounted later by First Lady Barbara Bush, a man paralyzed in both legs presented the President with a small U.S. flag and told him, “This is from all the men in Panama. . . . Thank you for sending us.”

A morning spent at Wilford Hall Medical Center, at Lackland Air Force Base and at Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston presented Bush with an opportunity to put a human dimension on the invasion, which he ordered in a secret meeting with advisers after slipping away from a holiday gathering two weeks ago Sunday.

Reflecting a new sensitivity toward criticism of the military operation, or, in his words, “little post-mortems here and there,” Bush said:

“Everything I’ve heard is that the operation--although some were desperately hurt, some regrettably killed--was a superb operation. There should be no second-guessing, and the beautiful thing about this visit is I get strength from them about no second-guessing.”

The issue of military deaths and injuries is always a difficult one for an Administration to handle, and the hospital tour signaled presidential concern--to both the soldiers and the American public in general. The Pentagon has said that 23 servicemen and two American civilians were killed in the assault. A third American civilian casualty came to light late last week--an American teacher abducted and slain in the early hours of the invasion by partisans of ousted Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega.

Twice in the past two weeks, Bush was seen in televised news conferences--occasionally making lighthearted comments--at the same moment that the television networks were simultaneously broadcasting painful, somber scenes that resulted from the assault: the return of coffins carrying servicemen killed in action to a military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and then the funerals of the soldiers.

The split-screen images--the President chatting with reporters and the visual reminders that the invasion brought death--angered White House officials.

The sensitivity of the issue and the way it is perceived by the public was reflected Sunday in the presence of Sig Rogich, a senior presidential assistant charged with overseeing the presentation of Bush’s political messages.

Former President Ronald Reagan made some of his strongest public impressions when he took on the role of the commander in chief presiding over such solemn moments as a memorial for the U.S. servicemen killed in the terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. But such events are particularly difficult for President Bush, who freely admits he has trouble with the more emotional elements of his job.

Indeed, speaking at a memorial for the 47 victims of the explosion aboard the battleship Iowa last April, Bush was unable to deliver the most dramatic and moving lines from his prepared speech for fear of becoming overwhelmed by emotion.

The President’s tour here was kept low-key, and he visited quietly with patients in four wards. He spoke with men like Sgt. Kyle Kelley, a 20-year-old Army Ranger from Santee, Calif., who had a bullet fragment wound in his lower back, and Marine Sgt. Gregory A. Johnson, 24, of Anchorage, Alaska, who spoke through clenched teeth because his jaw had been fractured by a bullet.

Asked later if the visit was difficult for him, Bush, whose eyes had become moist while he met with the men, replied: “I’m not too good at that kind of thing, but, yeah, because you can identify with these families. This little girl there, I mean. . . .”

But in a lighter moment, Bush also posed for a home video being shot by the brother of one of the patients. “I want to assure the family that they’re looking after this guy,” Bush said.

The two hospitals that Bush visited are primary military facilities for treatment of combat injuries.

Beginning 12 hours after the invasion was launched at 1 a.m. Dec. 20, they have received 252 servicemen wounded in the fighting, treating them for injuries ranging from broken bones to severe gunshot wounds that forced multiple amputations.

Of the wounded who were evacuated from Panama, three died en route to Texas and one died after arrival here, an Air Force spokesman said. He said that 11 of those still hospitalized are in serious or very serious condition.

The spokesman, Lt. Col. Johnny Whitaker, said that about 100 of those wounded and treated here suffered orthopedic injuries--a common risk in paratroop operations.

In another area, the White House steered reporters away from a report from Panama, published in the Houston Chronicle, that officials were preparing an accord under which the Vatican embassy, where Noriega has been a refugee since Christmas Eve, would turn over the ousted dictator to Panamanian authorities and that they would transfer him to U.S. custody. Noriega is wanted for trial in the United States on federal drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater checked on the report with Brent Scowcroft, the President’s national security adviser, and then said that the Administration is unaware of any such impending arrangement.

Bush flew to San Antonio from Houston, and he returned there after his visit.