‘Friendly Fire’ Killed Buena Park Soldier : Military: The Army admits that a 19-year-old was accidentally shot by other U.S. servicemen during Panama invasion.

It was near dawn on Dec. 20 when the small squad of U.S. soldiers inched its way to the cluster of buildings occupied by crack troops of the Panamanian Defense Forces.

In the confusion of the early-morning gunfire, which was erupting from all sides of the entrenched squad, Army Pfc. Roy Dennis Brown Jr. was shot and killed, not by the Noriega loyalists, but by his own troops, U.S. Army officials acknowledged this week.

Brown, a 19-year-old from Buena Park, was one of two soldiers killed by “friendly fire” in the score of battles that were fought as part of the surprise U.S. invasion of Panama launched to dethrone Gen. Manuel Noriega, Brown’s mother said on Friday.

“I had a gut feeling that something like that had happened,” Julie Otto said in an interview on Friday. “I can’t explain why.”

Details surrounding her son’s death surfaced after the Pentagon acknowledged that more servicemen than previously disclosed had been hit by friendly fire.

In addition to the two deaths, the Pentagon said Monday that 19 combat soldiers were wounded accidentally by other U.S. soldiers. A third death and 21 other injuries are under investigation as possibly also resulting from friendly fire.

In total, 23 GIs were killed and 324 were wounded in the invasion that resulted in the capitulation of the Noriega regime. About 24,000 troops fought in the invasion, called “Operation Just Cause.”

Noriega is awaiting trial in a Miami court.

On Wednesday, Otto said, an Army colonel and a sergeant who served with her son in Panama came to her Buena Park home and spent more than two hours with her explaining how her son died.

Brown, who was assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion of the 75th Ranger regiment at Fort Benning, Ga., was one of the first soldiers to parachute into Panama.

As part of the assault team Task Force Red, Brown’s job during the opening hours of the nighttime invasion was to take control of a PDF army camp at Rio Hato, considered a stronghold of Panamanian resistance.

Brown managed to get within 75 meters of an army barracks held by the Panamanian defenders before he was “caught by the cross-fire,” Otto said.

“They were all being fired upon,” Otto said, adding that the pre-dawn light made it more difficult for U.S. soldiers to discriminate between other U.S. servicemen and the enemy. “It was confusing.”

Otto said she is not bitter toward the government for her son’s death. She noted that Brown, who received a combat infantry badge and a Purple Heart posthumously, fought bravely, followed the orders of his superiors and gave his life willingly.

“There is nothing I can do now,” she said, when asked if she contemplated any lawsuit. “It’s all over and done with.”

In fact, in the wake of the latest information, Otto said that she is furious with Newsweek magazine for its report on the number of dead and wounded by friendly fire during the invasion.

“I’m angry at Newsweek,” she said. “(The article is) nothing they should have done. It doesn’t serve any purpose to bring up all the old wounds like that.”

Otto said that she is now trying to put the pain of her son’s death behind her and cherish the good memories she has.

“I’m just glad to find out one way or another,” she said.