"Operation Friendship" Wins Panamanian Acceptance
By PHIL NEWSOM
UPI Foreign News Analyst
Quarry Heights, Panama
Canal Zone-WPIi-Capt. David
Hanrahan is glad he is a boy
from Brooklyn because, he
says, a boy from Brooklyn can
do anything.
At any rate. Captain Hanra
han is the only U S. citizen
to have a school in Panama
named after him and he is one
of the thousands of reasons
for a vast change of heart
among the Panamanians in
their feelings toward the
United States.
Panamanians who in the
riots of Nov. 3, 1959, were
throwing rocks at the Ameri
cans, today toss off smiles
instead, and the rocks are
going into new homes and
roads.
There are two root causes,
one so simple as to make it
seem odd that the idea hadn't
occurred years ago. It is "Op
eration Friendship," under
taken in July, 1960, by Maj.
Gen. Theodore Bogart, com
manding general, U.S. Army
Caribbean, and now bearing
its first fruits.
Alliance Helps
The other is the Alliance
for Progress whose funds al
located to Panama so far are
not large but which are pro
viding Panamanians with con
vincing examples of what can
be done.
A third element will be
Introduced next month when
the first Peace Corps workers
arrive to help in Panama's
back-country heal t li problem.
But to come back to Cap
tain Hanrahan, a lanky boy
from Brooklyn.
It began on Thanksgiving
day when a woman from the
little town of Colinas de Ca
cercs wondered if the 112
men in Battery B of the 22nd
Artillery couldn't help the
I town put a new roof on its
I tiny school.
Hanrahan made himself an
jjS advance party of one to in
Jyspect the problem.
Need School
I The school not only needed
'.a roof. What it needed was
' . a whole new school.
I Back- at base, Hanrahan
drew up a set of plans. Meet
ings with the townspeople fol-
lowed. Merchants in Panama
;; City contributed goods and
I money. The townspeople man
ufactured their own bricks.
Lots of hand labor and $2,000
turned the trick.
When the town dedicated
the new school, they named
il after Hanrahan and once
each year, on May 4, the
United States flag flics beside
the Panamanian in the school
yard.
In 1961, it was discovered
that Cuba had smuggled
I 100,000 pencils into Panama
and was distributing them
' among school children. Two
pictures of Castro decorated
fly' the lop of each pencil and
js below were flags of every
5 Latin American country.
Cuban Pencils
In the country schools of
Panama pencils are a luxury,
a stub end frequently being
shared by several children.
. So when the Panama govern
,mcnt began taking up the pen-
i cils, Castro had won at least
a negative victory.
It was Capt. Jack Leonard
who filled the gap. He wrote
to each Catholic diocese in
I Connecticut, New York and
H New Jersey, appealing for
I pencils. Within weeks he had
I collected 300,000. They were
I distributed by air, horseback
I and Jeeps.
To make delivery to one
tchool, Leonard made a nine
hour trip on horseback.
The list of such things is
long in what the Army calls
its "Civic Action" program.
Schools and orphanages
have been adopted by the
Army. Sgl. Harry Raymond
discovered a woeful lack of
supplies in the country's blood
bank. Prospective donors
cither feared to give blood
or were rejected for health
reasons.
Give to Needy
Ravmond instituted a pro-
cram of education and action
under a slogan of "Give to the
Needy." Now the hospital of
Panama, if the supply still
docs not meet the demand, at
least are better off than they
were.
The shacks and lean-to's ol
the poor, built of tin and dis
carded lumber, cluster in
upon Panama City's outskirts
and huddle in vacant lots
alongside modern city build
ings.
But gradually, they
arc disappearing.
With hclD from the Alii
ancc for Progress, the people
of one small community out
side Panama City built 20 new
hniTK-s even before they had
decided who would live
them. The effort was so suc
cessful that now 50 more arc
coin2 up
Under the self-help require
ments of the Alliance, the
people elsewhere are build
inn mnre homes and schools
Links Villages
a nrw road links three
amall villages on the Allan
tic side and eventually will
jive them access to Colon and
a market for their fruit.
On the Pacific side, a fish
ing village has received a
refrigerator truck, enabling
ihcm to market their fish. A
freezer plant is being planned.
Just outside Panama City
and today's modern living,
the jungle reclaims the land,
a rain forest of towering
trees, palms, trailing vines
and a dense undergrowth. An
airplane could crash there or
a man could die there and
the jungle would close over
without leaving a trace.
The Panama jungle is the
home of the deadly poisonous
fer der lance, the bushmaster.
the boa constrictor, trees
whose sap can blind and fruits
that are beautiful but which
also are deadly poison. But
it also is the home of fur
bearing animals that can be
eaien, plants that preserve
water and other plants that
preserve life.
Know Jungle
It takes special men to
know the jungle.
One such is Morgan Smith,
a stocky muscular man with
a wide smile who began adult
life as an anthropologist and
now heads up the Air Force
Tropic survival school, Al
brook Air Force base.
Another is Gcrtrudis Arauz,
a dark-skinned, leathery man
who was born in a small jun
gle clearing in the Chyman
district of Panama. He travels
the jungle by day or night
as easily as most men cross
a city street.
A third is chief Antonio
Zarco, a Choco Indian who
owns the jungle by tribal
right. Visitor? in the jungle
are there by his consent, an
enemy at his own risk.
Chief Appears
Zarco is only his Spanish
name. He believes that to dis
close his real name to a for
eigner would be to surrender
something of his own spirit.
The chief and his men ap
peared at the edge of the
hacked-out clearing suddenly
and silently, small men, mus
cular and beautifully propor
tioned with finely chiseled
features and great dignity.
The chief, in borrowed
shirt and trousers, had visited
Lt. Gen. Andrew P. O'Meara,
commander - in - chief of the
Unified Caribbean command.
at his headquarters in Quarry
heights. He had witnessed a
review and seen the general
shaking hands along the
ranks.
The general, too, he real
ized was a chieftain.
And so, in ihe desert clear
ing, in bright red loin cloth,
his body streaked with black
and wearing a straw head
dress decked with red hibiscus
SECTION B
Medford
PAGES 1 to I
Tribune
MEDFORD. OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 11. 1963
flowers, tne chief drew up
his visitors in a solemn line
and greeted each.
Morgan Smith said the
chief had paid his guests a
great honor.
Chief Zarco and his men
do occasional jungle rescue
work for the military and
play what under other cir
cumstances would be a deadly
game.
Paid for Seise
In air commando exercises,
the Indians, operating silent
ly and unseen, are paid SO
cents for each commando that
they can seize. In effect, each
is a dead commando.
Air Force instructors say
the Indians aren't getting rich
from these games but admit
ruefully they manage to do
quite well.
This dispatch is being writ
ten in a moment of aching
rest, with a sore backside ac
quired from a slide that seem
ed halfway down the moun
tain from the jungle clearing,
a slightly sprained ankle and
a great respect for the Mili
tary Tropic Survival school.
It is written with respect
for the pilot who airdropped
cold drinks into the clearing.
His aim was good even if the
parachute did fail to open.
It also is written with a
conviction that meat from the
iguana, a giant lizard, never
will become a popular house
hold dish no matter what the
jungle epicures may say.
THE
DANMOORE
HOTEL
1217 SW Morrioon St. '
PORTLAND, OMGON
All transient )uh. AH rim who
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block from Hotel. Ope until 10
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far cleanliness.
CHILDMN UNDU
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