August 20, 2025 • 35 mins
Christopher Brewer grew up as an Army brat and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1973 because he wanted to be a Ranger. Even though he had never jumped out of a plane prior to joining the Army, Brewer learned quickly and passed the rest of his training to become a Ranger. He later took on and successfully completed intense training while serving overseas that served him very well in Special Forces.
In 1989, he was deployed to Colombia to assist government forces fighting against the drug cartels. The next year, he was in Panama, dealing with the volatile aftermath of Operation Just Cause.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Major Brewer walks us through his intense training as a Ranger and in Platoon Confidence Training. He also takes us moment by moment on the training mission where his primary parachute failed and it took every bit of his expertise to survive.
Then Brewer takes us to Colombia, where he could not officially serve as a member of Special Forces. He explains what the overall mission was and his critical efforts to thwart drug kingpin Pablo Escobar from attacking and destroying an American radar station.
Finally, he tells us about his deployment to Panama, confronting unrest from many different directions, sniffing out intelligence about a possible coup attempt, and dealing with turf wars within the military.
Brewer is the author, most recently, of In the Shadows Between the Wars: Becoming a Special Forces Operator.
In 1989, he was deployed to Colombia to assist government forces fighting against the drug cartels. The next year, he was in Panama, dealing with the volatile aftermath of Operation Just Cause.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Major Brewer walks us through his intense training as a Ranger and in Platoon Confidence Training. He also takes us moment by moment on the training mission where his primary parachute failed and it took every bit of his expertise to survive.
Then Brewer takes us to Colombia, where he could not officially serve as a member of Special Forces. He explains what the overall mission was and his critical efforts to thwart drug kingpin Pablo Escobar from attacking and destroying an American radar station.
Finally, he tells us about his deployment to Panama, confronting unrest from many different directions, sniffing out intelligence about a possible coup attempt, and dealing with turf wars within the military.
Brewer is the author, most recently, of In the Shadows Between the Wars: Becoming a Special Forces Operator.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is retired US Army Major Christopher Brewer, who
served as a non commissioned officer for an Army Ranger
Battalion and a Special Forces officer. Today will be discussing
some of his elite training and his deployments to Colombia
and Panama in the late nineteen eighties and early nineties.
(00:34):
Major Brewer is also the author, most recently of In
the Shadows Between the Wars, Becoming a Special Forces Operator.
Christopher Brewer was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up
in countless military communities while his father served in the Army.
When he became an adult in the early to mid
nineteen seventies, Brewer was interested in the service and in college,
(00:58):
but when he saw an opportunity he could not pass up.
He was all in in the Army.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Pretty much all I'd known all my life. I started
to go into college at North Georgia Military College at
that time as a cadet, joined the twentieth SF National
Guard to help pay the bills, and they cranked up
the first Ranger Battalion in nineteen seventy four reactivated it.
I caught the bug, dropped out and enlisted for first
(01:24):
Ranger beat and linked up with him during the activation test.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Brewer, who had never jumped out of a plane before
Ranger school, says the training was tough, largely due to
no nonsense instructors who knew what it took to succeed.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
When the Ranger Battalion was reactivated in nineteen seventy four,
every NCO in it and almost all of the officers
were combat veterans out of Vietnam, most of them survivors
of the long Ranger connoissance patrols. So you had about
as hardcore, competent, well trained, experienced cadur as you could possibly.
(02:00):
Those guys cut no slack whatsoever. They did everything to standard,
and you would do it again and again and again
until you met that standard or you didn't last there
very long.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Brewer was later assigned to the five hundred and ninth
Airborne Battalion Team, which was stationed primarily in Italy. While there,
Brewer became an expert in free fall parachuting, but he
also took part in some very difficult but highly valuable
training in Germany at a place called bod Tulls. It
was called platoon confidence training.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
The German Ranger School does a lot of things, but
some of the things they do very well, or long
range navigation in short periods of time. The whole philosophy
is that the Soviets have invaded and we have to
move back to friendly lines, which may involve moving forty
to fifty one hundred kilometers. So you get a map.
(02:55):
You're allowed to sketch the map, because if you're in
that bad a situation where the Russians run the country,
you may not have a map. There may be five
of you and only one of you has one, So
you sketch key points, you navigate off that for four
or five kilometers. They'll give you an asthmuth and a
distance which invariably goes across a lake, over a mountain,
(03:17):
over a river, some obstacle that you've got to have
find some way to negotiate around. But in this case
you don't have a map, so you don't know it
till you find it. And other little tricks that teach
you land navigation down to a fine art which came
in it really helpful. By the time I got to
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and actually got to the Special
Forces qualification course because one of the events you have
(03:40):
to get through is called the Star Course. In our class,
out of a class of four hundred people only I
think twelve fifteen of us passed on the first attempt.
Now they ran it two more times just to get
enough people to make a class, but we still only
had one hundred out of four hundred and sixty who
made it through that particul or gate. So that served
(04:01):
me very well getting that experience.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Brewer explains why the Army put him and others through
the grueling selection and assessment tests.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
The whole idea is one, are you really sure this
is what you want to do and how bad do
you want it. They're going to push you to the
point where your body and your mind says, I just
can't do it anymore, to see what you're going to
do when you reach that point, and they basically want
you to keep going to your drop, and if you're
not in good physical condition, you're going to drop pretty
(04:31):
early in that process. The other thing they're doing is
in the selection and assessment phase is they want to
see how you're going to interact with the other people
on the team. When you're dog tired, you're confused, you
don't know what's going on other than you have to
do this and you don't know why. And if you
don't all to work together, you're just not going to
(04:52):
make it. And that's really the whole purpose of selection
and assessment. Get people that are serious, they're in good
physical condition, that got good mental endurance as well, and
they can work well with team members to accomplish a goal,
even if they don't know the intended objective.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
A couple of years later, Brewer was back at Fort
Bragg and had not parachuted in a while. But it
came back to him quickly, which is a good thing.
If it hadn't, he likely would have been killed.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I'd come back to Fort Brag and had a jump.
There was a round canopy. I hadn't jumped free fall
in a year or two, and normal progression they want
you to jump a static line first to make sure
you can, and then you'll jump out. They call it
a hop and pop, and then a five second ten
second to lay. The jump master had rigged the static
(05:42):
line incorrectly, so when I jumped out, I had a
lucked container container wouldn't open, but it did pull out
a lot of the parachute, which is called a horseshoe maufunction.
If you have a bad malfunction like that, the normal
procedure is you cut it away, you get rid of it.
Can't do that when it's locked on you back, and
if you pull your reserve, it's going to wrap around
(06:03):
the other part. So there were some midair gymnastics to
try and get that under control, wrapping it around, flipping
in the air, pulled it down, fired the reserve, got
it off clean. By the time all of this had occurred,
I'd lost a good bit of altitude and this was
enough for brag. So we were over a range and
as I'm looking down, I could see all these little
(06:24):
boxes with little green things in them. Didn't register at
first what it was until I heard this deep booming
voice behind me. Is there anyone down range? Is there
anyone down range? Is there anyone down range? Fires will
watch your lanes. I was over the target rate, not
where I wanted to land, so under the reserve, I'm
(06:47):
pulling down suspension lines to slip as hard as i
could to get out of the impact area, which I
was successful in doing about one hundred feet off the
ground by this time, and I'm over trees, nowhere to
go but into the trees. So then we had to
execute a tree landing. Hit the top, branches, broke through it, collapse,
A shoote I'm hurtling toward the ground. Literally just as
(07:09):
my boots started to touch the canopy, snagged on the
top of one of those North Carolina pine trees, landed gently,
got out of it, went back over, talked to the
jump master and said, look, I know I'm supposed to
do a static line, a hop and pop, a five
second and a ten second delay before I can jump
my own rig. But considering I just did all of
(07:32):
that in the last jump with the reserve activation and
a cutaway with a horseshoe malfunction, can I please now
jump my own parachute? Have I proven my proficiency? And yeah,
you're good, you go on ahead.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Not long after that, Brewer faced a difficult career choice.
Went faced with many years of being a ranger drill instructor.
It's a job he did not want, but there were
very few options to get out of it.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
When I was in Germany, I got picked up for
a sergeant first class E seven with only about seven
years in. I was two weeks, literally two weeks in
the secondary zone, but I was a section leader for
our particular unit out there at the time. So I
told all my guys, you're all going to go down
and you're going to get your DA photo. And they
all said, we're not going to get picked up. We're
(08:21):
all just in the secondary zone being a good leader.
I said, no, we're all going to do it because
you just don't know, and lo and behold, I got
picked up. So I was relisted about that time, and
I figured, you know, as an E six, just making
E seven, you have to have instructor time. I really
didn't want to be a drill instructor, so I thought,
I'll reenlist for Fort Benning. I'll go be a ranger instructor.
(08:41):
I'll check that block and then I can go back
to the Ranger Battalion, or I'll volunteer for s F training,
both of which sounded pretty good to me. Got there,
the start major looked at me and said, welcome, boy,
buy yourself a house. You'll be here for the rest
of your career. No, sorry, Major, come on, man, I've
only got eight years in now. I'm not staying here
for twelve years, and say, yes you are, since you
(09:03):
are here at Fort Benning. You'll be here in the
department for two or three years, but you will be
selected to be a drill sergan and we're critically shorter
of drill sergeants, so it is currently a five year
stabilized tour. So that's seven years right there. You got
eight in. You'll be about fifteen by the time you
get off the trail. We'll bring you back over here
for a couple of years in the department, maybe send
(09:23):
you to the Airborne Department to get you twenty. Just
buy a house. You ain't going anywhere, sorry, Major, I'm
going back to the range of beds. No you're not.
You're an E seven. There's a three year waiting list
for the sevens to get there. Besides which that doesn't
take priority over drill. Well, I want to be an SF.
We keep on dreaming there, chumbling, you're not going to
SF either. We're getting rid of SF. All those snake
(09:46):
eaters are of no use in the modern army, so
we're just working all ready to get rid of them.
And of course you know that how that turned out.
But I gots kept looking around, and the only thing
that took precedence over drill sergeant was Officer Candidate School.
So if the ultimate active betrayal to the NCO Corps,
A volunteered to become a second lieutenant as a sergeant
(10:08):
first class from the Ranger Department went into OCS with officers,
some of whom had been thrown out of Ranger School,
which is how they wound up as tack officers at OCS.
Which that was an interesting couple of months there to
make it through that, sat through classes in the NCO
Advanced Course before I went that were the same classes
(10:29):
with the same instructor in OCS, and then to the
same instructors, same classes for a third time at the
Infantry Officer's Basic Course before I got out and got
to go to my first unit.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
As a Special Forces officer, Brewer knew that he and
his men could be deployed at any time, but he
says the biggest challenge was embracing the mindset needed to
be in special Forces.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I think the thing that has to come to the
forefront of your mind is when you go in one
of those jobs, nobody's coming to help. If you get
in trouble. You're on your own and you're going to
have to figure it out, and you really need to
keep that in the forefront of your mind with everything
that you do, and as long as you go into
it with that attitude, it can be very interesting work
(11:13):
and liberating to a great extent too. But these days,
you've got cell phones. The guys who've got helmet cameras,
they got the earphones on. They've got some officers sitting
three thousand miles away when they're going through a room
clearing rooms, telling no, go left, don't go right. There's
nothing they can do that. Somebody isn't leaning over their
(11:33):
shoulder and watching, but you're still three thousand miles away.
If it doesn't turn out right, they're still not going
to be able to get there to help you.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's Christopher Brewer. He's a retired Ranger Battalion NCO and
Special Forces officer. The book is in the Shadows between
the Wars, when we come back facing the Colombian drug cartels.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Sixty Seconds of Service.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
This sixty seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile
recognizing these steadfast edication and sacrifices made by service members
and their families. T mobile is committed to supporting active
duty veterans and military spouses. Visit t mobile dot com
slash military to learn more.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Marine veteran Ethan Carter thought his best days were behind
him until his Doberman Maverick stopped an armed robbery in
their small town. Their active bravery went viral. Encouraged by neighbors,
Ethan ran for mayor and one Maverick still shows up
to city hall every day wearing a badge. Now, Ethan
uses his role to support veterans, and Maverick's calm presence
(12:36):
puts everyone at ease, from war zone to hometown hero.
They're a team built on courage and trust. Today's sixty
Seconds of Service is brought to you by Prevagen. Prevagen
is the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand. You
can find Prevagen and the Vitamin Aisle in stores everywhere.
For more great veteran stories, just go to National Defense
(12:56):
Network dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
This is Veterans Chronicle. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is retired US Army major and Special Forces
officer Christopher Brewer. His new book is in the Shadows
Between the Wars. In August of nineteen eighty nine, Colombian
presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan was assassinated by hitmen hired
by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The country was rife with violence,
(13:24):
and the US decided to get involved in a limited way,
enter Christopher Brewer and the seventh Special Forces Team.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
George Herbert Bush was the president at that time, and
he went on national TV after Galan was assassinated by
Escobar and said, we are going to help the Colombian
government stand up to the cartels. We'll provide logistics, we'll
protride helicopters, we'll give them whatever they need, but we
are not going to get involved in a Latin American war.
We will not send combat troops. So one of the
(13:53):
first things that they asked Force is where we really
need a medical Corman school. We don't have any medics,
and when we go out into the jungle, if our
guys get hurt, they die. So we figured out that
we need a metavact capability. That went down to an
office that's called at that time was called the Security
Assistance Training Management Office, and they basically provided doctors, nurses, logisticians, engineers,
(14:18):
non combat arms folks that they would send out to
teach other foreign governments and military and police non combat
related items or skill sets. But when they looked at
Bogata at that time, there were on a normal day
in Bogatah, there'll be one hundred people get killed just
from street crime. And at that time, the cartels were
(14:39):
setting off bombs all over the city, and no one
really knew who in the military was compromised and who
in the government was compromised. The government had just decided
they're going to fight back against the cartels and they
had a real challenge on their hands, so nobody could
guarantee the safety of anyone that went down there. So
SATMO said, look, you know, we can't put and nurses
(15:00):
into that environment. So mission came over to seventh Special
Forces Group. We speak Spanish, but it called for six
medical trainers. Now you've only got two medics on an
a team, and none of the guys that were down
in Panama who were some of the best Spanish speakers.
A third battalion wanted to give up all the medics
for three teams. So it came to us.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Brewer explains how he and his men were not officially
Special Forces in Columbia and the limited resources they were given.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
So we got the job. But the way they handled
it was they transferred us on orders out of Special
Forces to SATMO. So once we were officially SATMO not
special Forces, put on Savine clothes luggage, went down to
Miami Airport and jumped on a flight going down to Bogata.
(15:51):
And while I was in there, I saw this book
just come out Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger. So
I bought that book to read on the flight down.
We got there, the RSO briefed up. Everybody said, nobody
goes out of the embassy unless you're an armored vehicle,
most dangerous posting since Beirute, and all the casualty figures
except for you guys. We'll drive you down there to
(16:13):
the middle of South Bogatah where all the shooting's going on.
You're going to be living there. Here's a bretta pistol,
and here's a box of fifty rounds to protect yourself with.
Call us once a week let us know if you're
still alive.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
The closest Brewer got to combat in Colombia came as
Escobar vowed to attack a US radar site that was
causing him problems with his drug trafficking, but Brewer needed
a lot more weapons and a plan to stop Escobar's attack.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
There was trouble down in the valley between Bogata and
Median and Escobar knew that there was a US Air
Force radar site that had been set up at a
Colombian Air Force base, and that radar was picking up
the drug planes that were flying out of that valley
and handing them off to Colombian jets and US Air
(17:01):
Force jets that were intercepting him on the way to Miami. Now,
obviously that interfered with Escabar's business. He didn't like that.
But the president has said there weren't any US troops
down there, so this was TSSCI. Nobody could know about this,
and the Colombian government wouldn't let him bring down more
troops to protect the base. Escobar called the base up
(17:23):
and said, if you don't shut off that damn radar,
I'm gonna come on there and I'm going to kill
all the gringoes and I'm going to blow up the radar.
So they were in a quandary. They didn't know what
to do, so they called us. There were only six
of us there and we were running a school. We
couldn't really afford to let anyone go, so I took
one guy with me. They flew us out on a
Columbian general's airplane. We landed. We brought along one set
(17:46):
of combat fatigues with us, with no patches or anything.
So we had that tucked up in our backpacks and
we got out, changed out of saving closed, changed into
army gear. Still only had a burretta and to talk to.
There were only about five or six US Air Force
people there. There was a commander, some technicians, and one
(18:07):
security policeman. And first thing we did would say, hey,
we're here to help. First off, if you guys got
any guns, This bread is all I got. He said,
oh yeah, come on. So he took us out to
this GP large tent that was in a grass strip
between the two runways, and I thought that was their
command post. But that GP large tent was completely full
(18:30):
of crates of guns, of ammunition, explosives. Now there was
literally enough there to outfit a couple of companies, And
I said, what the hell were you going to do
with all this. I said, well, we were going to
equip the Colombians, but we think they're compromised and descobars
paying them off, so we couldn't give it to them.
But you guys can have whatever you want. So we
(18:51):
started opening up boxes and grabbed an M sixteen, found
these beautiful little chopped M sixty machine gun, Grabbed a
couple of things of ammunition, loaded up a jeep trailer,
found crates of claymore minds. Loaded all those up and
he felt a lot better at that point in time,
a lot more comfortable.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That's retired US Army Major Christopher Brewer. His book is
In the Shadows Between the Wars. When we come back,
we'll finish the story in Columbia, and then Brewer is
off to the unstable aftermath of Operation Just Cause in Panama.
I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition
(19:35):
is retired US Army Major Christopher Brewer. He served as
a Ranger Battalion NCO and a Special Forces officer. His
latest book is entitled In the Shadows Between the Wars.
Becoming a Special Forces operator. In just a moment, you'll
hear how Brewer and his team went to Panama after
Operation Just Cause in order to deal with these significant
(19:59):
instabilities there following the deposing of Manuel Noriega. But first
we head back to Columbia. Brewer now explains what it
was like waiting for Escobar's attack and how the situation unfolded.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Escobar had already cleared trail going up to it, so
we went back down. We talked to the base commander says, look,
we need to use this company for about a day.
We need to clear fields of fire all the way
around that hill. We need to dig fighting positions, communication trenches,
and we're going to put those claim wars up. So
we did all of that. We made a point to
(20:32):
getting the Columbian officers out there with the machine guns,
showed them how to operate the machine guns, let them
shoot that made them happy, got good food for the troops,
and water that made them happy. And knowing full well
that we're being observed the whole time by Escobar and
his crew. So by the time we got done the
target that he had already made plans to have his
guys crawl up through this trail in the jungle and
(20:54):
blow them up. Now had three hundred meters of open
ground all the way around it, with dug and fighting
with them, sixty machine guns set up in them and
claymore set out. And the last thing we did before
the sun went down on the night he was supposed
to come, we told all the cabos, the corporals that
we were pretty sure were compromised, do not come on
(21:14):
this hill tonight. You don't come. Don't let any of
your guys come, because we will kill anybody who comes
up that road tonight. This is when Escobar said he's
going to come, and I can't tell them at you
or them, so don't come. I care about you. I
don't want you to get hurt. And lo and behold,
eight man patrols started walking up that road about three
in the morning, and it was pretty obvious these were
(21:37):
not the same guys. But that cabo that I'd talked
to popped up out of the brush and stopped him
at the base of the hill, talking to him, pointing up.
They turned around and they left, and the next day
Escabar called the base commander. I said, I don't give
a damn about your radar or your green berets, and
that was it.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Because of the assignment in Colombia, Brewer and his team
were part of Operation Just Cause in Panama in late
December nineteen eighty nine, but they were not home for
long before they were on their way to Panama to
deal with the volatile aftermath of removing Noriega from power.
Brewer explains the less than enviable task he was given
(22:18):
with respect to the recently defeated Panamanian forces.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
We got down there and we were met by some
people who, in briefness that said that you're going to
go out to all of the Panamanian National Defense Force
compounds with all of their troops. We want you to
go and give them their guns back. They've just been
shooting them. A lot of these guys have been killed
just the week before. Literally give them their guns back
(22:45):
and tell them they're police now. Now, in that culture,
if you were too fat and lazy to be in
the army, you could be a cup. So telling all
these guys that you're not in the army anymore your
cups was not going to go over very well. And said, okay, well,
you want us to teach them how to be cops.
Said no, you can't do that. You're not cops. You're
(23:06):
a tripwaar. We want you to live with them, keep
an eye on them, and if it looks like they're
going to mutiny and try to mount a coup, you
let us know. And if you don't check in after
three days, we'll figure you're dead, and they will know
pretty well that the coup's going on.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
To find out whether there were plans for a coup,
Brewer and others on his team routinely patrolled areas to
keep order and keep an eye out for anything resembling
a plot to stage a coup. But Brewer also explains
that simply walking through different areas gave him ample opportunities
to gather intelligence without even trying.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
We'd go out of the compound because we wanted to know.
They weren't going to tell us much, so we'd go
talk to the people in the village. We'd leave. We'd
walk around initially in twos, but there weren't enough of us,
because there's only four in my location. Some places only
had two. So sometimes you'd go walk alone, but you'd
walk with there were lots of witnesses. You'd keep moving
(24:06):
you never let anybody know other than your own guys,
where you're going or at what route you're going to
never follow the same route twice. And we weren't allowed
under US law at that time to establish an intelligence network.
In fact, we got in trouble with that with some
of the army intel people because they accused us of
being spies, and we're spies. You're not spies. You can't
(24:26):
do that, as we told them, says, we're not spies.
We're going out and saying hello and having coffee with
the people. And if the people want to come up
and tell us something, who am I to tell them? No,
I'm just being friendly. I'm not tasking anyone. I'm not
saying go find this and come back. I'm not paying anybody.
I'm just being a nice guy and just getting out
(24:49):
and being a nice guy. We started to get better
intel than the military intelligence unit back an amatur in
the Canal Zone was getting, which really pissed them off
no end. So then wound up doing the dance with
the nory Gistas, the Dignity Battalion guys who have been
formed by No Diego that were part of the organization
(25:10):
trying to mount a coup, and the US military police
who really didn't like green Beres, and the US military
intelligence unit who was trying to catch us doing intel operations. GUS,
we were walking on their turf.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
As you heard, Christopher Brewer was not only dealing with
the very real possibility of a coup, but he was
also embroiled in turf wars within our own military and
orders from higher ups that he found completely unacceptable. Here,
Brewer explains the back and forth he had with a
higher ranking officer about what the rules of engagement ought
(25:46):
to be for him and the other Special Forces members
on this assignment in Panamon.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
When they said go to civilian clothes, they stipulated, we
have credible intelligence you're at risk out there, and well,
no shit, we knew that when we got here. But
if we want you to go armed, and we want
you to carry your weapons concealed. So the only thing
we had that we could conceal, you know, the rifles
are obviously going to be too big, but we had
(26:12):
the baretta. So we got people to make us some
holsters that we could put on our civilian clothes, and
we started carrying the bretta concealed and said now here's
your rules of engagement. First off, make sure you carry
that pistol unloaded. You can have a loaded magazine in
your pocket, but do not put it in the pistol. Now,
if you're in a situation where you feel your life
is in danger, draw that unloaded pistol and shout halt,
(26:37):
I am armed. If they don't stop, pull out your
magazine and say halt. If they still don't stop, put
it in and say halt and they still don't stop,
load around and yell halt. And if they still don't stop,
and your life is in danger, shoot to wound, not
to kill. Yeh listen, Oh God, we go. They don't
(27:01):
have a clue. So finally I said, look, man, no,
if that's the roe, we're going unarmed. We're not going
to carry any guns at all, because all you're going
to do is get us killed. Because even the local
crooks are going to know we're carrying an expensive Buretta
pistol that's unloaded, and they're not going to have any
trouble at all taking it away from us, so they're
going to kill us just to get the gun. So no,
(27:22):
we're not going to do that. And I got to
reply it back, saying, well, what is your roe? I said, Okay,
my ro is very simple, and I'm going to brief
my guys in Spanish out in the compound, where I'm
sure that all the Panamanian Defense Force guys can hear
every word I say, and I'm going to use a
loud voice, and I told my guys we are in
(27:45):
danger out here, there is a threat. You will carry
your weapon on your person at all times. There will
be around in the chamber. And if you find yourself
in a situation where you think your life is in danger,
I want you to negotiate, and I want you to
warm threaten whatever you have to do to de escalate
(28:05):
without anyone being harmed. Don't be afraid to run if
you have to. But if you're cornered and there's nothing
you can do and your life is in danger, you
draw that pistol and you kill whoever represents the threat.
If that gun comes out of the holster, there better
be a dead man at your feet. Otherwise, you keep
that gun in the holster and you keep talking or
(28:26):
you get running. That's those are the conditions.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
When it came to turf wars, Brewer says he had
a memorable and intense exchange with a colonel from military intelligence.
As you might have guessed from some of Brewer's earlier comments,
special forces and military intelligence were not on the best
of terms due to the military intelligence leadership becoming convinced
that the special forces were encroaching on their turf. Brewer's boss,
(28:54):
also a full colonel, did not want Brewer revealing anything
to the kernel from military intelligence. Brewer was a captain
at the time, but followed his colonel's orders precisely.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Officer in charge of US called me and told me that, look,
this MI I Brigade commander is coming out and he's
coming to your compound and he wants to be briefed.
You don't tell him a thing because this is a
turf war. We don't want to give him any leverage.
Just tell him you can't brief him. Leave it at that, say, man,
(29:26):
you know he's not going to be happy and he's
going to be a full bird talking to a captain,
So yeah, we'll handle it all right. So he showed up,
came in, and I was going to give him the
standard briefing that we would give to any military tourists
that showed up that none of the really sensitive stuff.
But here's where we are and where we're positioned, and
how many people this compound and this compound we've been
(29:48):
here for this long. And get about halfway through that,
and he said, I don't want to hear any of
that crap. Tell me about the guns. He said, look sir,
we know in where we're sitting right here is probably surveilled.
I would be very surprised if they didn't have this
place tapped. And I can't talk about stuff like that. Well,
you're gonna have to tell me anyway, all right, come
(30:09):
on with me. And I took them to a place
that we knew was clean because we had our people
all the way around it and we checked it. Sat
him down, said, look sir, you've got an MI person
here on the team. He'd sent out a young lady
who she was a translator. She spoke flawless Spanish, showed
up at our door saying, have you got any bullets
(30:31):
for this thing? With a bretta that was unloaded, and
she'd been sent out to gather intel and a sign
to live with us. So we said, look, you know,
first off, let us teach you how to shoot that gun. Second,
let us teach you a little bit about collecting intel
and let one of our guys go with you because
this is not a safe area in it. And over
(30:52):
a period of time she learned she was really sharp.
She ultimately went over to the FBI and she got
to be a strong member of the team. But she
knew everything we knew, and that helped solve the dilemma.
Because she was military intelligence, she could task, she could
pay people, but legally we couldn't. So it actually made
a good functioning team. And I told him, says, sir,
(31:12):
your representative here knows everything we know. I don't care.
I want you to tell me. Sarah can't. Well, you
should have called back and got permission, Sarah. I did
call back, and they said not to tell you. I
don't know what's going on. I don't know what the
conflict is, but I have my orders. I can't do that.
And he crosses his arm says, well, Captain, I'm giving
(31:32):
you a direct order. You're going to brief me, and
you're going to do it right now. And I've had
about all of this guy that I can handle on
that particular day. So I said, look, sir, I have
my orders. I can't violate my orders. I will tell
you that I've got a situation going on in here
right now where I don't feel that we're safe or
you're safe, and you're getting in the way of me
(31:53):
being able to accomplish my mission. So I'm asking you
please leave now. I'm done talking. Well, Captain, I'm not leaving, sir,
Yes you are. If you don't leave on your own,
then we're going to take you out of here. Well
how are you going to do that, captain? And I'd
already called two of my guys to come on in,
(32:14):
told him, come on in here, bring a duffel bag. Well,
you need it, the duff bag. Just bring a duffel
bag and fleck scuffs. So you see these two E
seven standing behind you? Yeah, I see him. Well, sir,
if you will not cooperate and leave voluntarily in your car,
I can't have you going out of here kicking the screaming.
So what's going to happen these two E seven's here.
(32:35):
They're going to cuff you, They're going to gag you,
and they're going to put you in that duffel bag
and then they're going to carry you out, put you
in the trunk of your car, and we're going to
drive your car with another one of my vehicles and
my guys in it to protect you back to the
canal zone. And he just looks at me real hard.
I'm looking at in and I finally he blinked and
he got up and walked out.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
But that is not the end of the story. Brewer
says he faced a list of court martial charges from
the military intelligence colonel, but Brewer explains how the allegations
were methodically countered.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But as soon as he got to the canal zone,
he tried to started bringing court maultra charges, and he
tried to charge me with assault that I didn't lay
a hand on him. I just extribed what I was
going to do for his safety, disobedience of direct order,
which I had the conflicting orders for my colonel. They
backed me up, and ultimately he charged me with sexual
(33:30):
harassment because I would not let his female agent go
out into the field alone, and I had had to
explain this look. Ultimately, we did let her go out alone,
but we asked her to stay and take training from
us and allow us to escort and shore around so
she didn't wind up dead in a hole someplace, and
she voluntarily did so and turned into be a damn
(33:54):
good member of the team.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Christopher Brewer spent twenty four years in the US Army,
retiring as a major in nineteen ninety seven. Much of
that time was spent in Special Forces, where your role
and your work are often kept secret for years, decades
or longer. In fact, he had to fight to declassify
certain details from the mission in Panama before he could
(34:18):
talk about them in his book. But despite the occasional
clashes with Army bureaucracy, Brewer is grateful for his service
and to have served alongside the excellent soldiers in US
Army Special Forces.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
We accomplished a lot of good things, a lot of
good things people don't really know about, and Special Forces
is still doing that. The guys that are out there
don't get enough credit for what they do, So I
was just proud to be able to be one of
them and stand out there with them.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
That is retired to US Army Major Christopher Brewer. He
served as a non commissioned officer for an Army Ranger
battalion and as a Special Forces officer. His latest book
is In the Shadows Between the Wars becoming a Special
Forces operator. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi.
(35:17):
This is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:38):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is retired US Army Major Christopher Brewer, who
served as a non commissioned officer for an Army Ranger
Battalion and a Special Forces officer. Today will be discussing
some of his elite training and his deployments to Colombia
and Panama in the late nineteen eighties and early nineties.
(00:34):
Major Brewer is also the author, most recently of In
the Shadows Between the Wars, Becoming a Special Forces Operator.
Christopher Brewer was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up
in countless military communities while his father served in the Army.
When he became an adult in the early to mid
nineteen seventies, Brewer was interested in the service and in college,
(00:58):
but when he saw an opportunity he could not pass up.
He was all in in the Army.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Pretty much all I'd known all my life. I started
to go into college at North Georgia Military College at
that time as a cadet, joined the twentieth SF National
Guard to help pay the bills, and they cranked up
the first Ranger Battalion in nineteen seventy four reactivated it.
I caught the bug, dropped out and enlisted for first
(01:24):
Ranger beat and linked up with him during the activation test.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Brewer, who had never jumped out of a plane before
Ranger school, says the training was tough, largely due to
no nonsense instructors who knew what it took to succeed.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
When the Ranger Battalion was reactivated in nineteen seventy four,
every NCO in it and almost all of the officers
were combat veterans out of Vietnam, most of them survivors
of the long Ranger connoissance patrols. So you had about
as hardcore, competent, well trained, experienced cadur as you could possibly.
(02:00):
Those guys cut no slack whatsoever. They did everything to standard,
and you would do it again and again and again
until you met that standard or you didn't last there
very long.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Brewer was later assigned to the five hundred and ninth
Airborne Battalion Team, which was stationed primarily in Italy. While there,
Brewer became an expert in free fall parachuting, but he
also took part in some very difficult but highly valuable
training in Germany at a place called bod Tulls. It
was called platoon confidence training.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
The German Ranger School does a lot of things, but
some of the things they do very well, or long
range navigation in short periods of time. The whole philosophy
is that the Soviets have invaded and we have to
move back to friendly lines, which may involve moving forty
to fifty one hundred kilometers. So you get a map.
(02:55):
You're allowed to sketch the map, because if you're in
that bad a situation where the Russians run the country,
you may not have a map. There may be five
of you and only one of you has one, So
you sketch key points, you navigate off that for four
or five kilometers. They'll give you an asthmuth and a
distance which invariably goes across a lake, over a mountain,
(03:17):
over a river, some obstacle that you've got to have
find some way to negotiate around. But in this case
you don't have a map, so you don't know it
till you find it. And other little tricks that teach
you land navigation down to a fine art which came
in it really helpful. By the time I got to
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and actually got to the Special
Forces qualification course because one of the events you have
(03:40):
to get through is called the Star Course. In our class,
out of a class of four hundred people only I
think twelve fifteen of us passed on the first attempt.
Now they ran it two more times just to get
enough people to make a class, but we still only
had one hundred out of four hundred and sixty who
made it through that particul or gate. So that served
(04:01):
me very well getting that experience.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Brewer explains why the Army put him and others through
the grueling selection and assessment tests.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
The whole idea is one, are you really sure this
is what you want to do and how bad do
you want it. They're going to push you to the
point where your body and your mind says, I just
can't do it anymore, to see what you're going to
do when you reach that point, and they basically want
you to keep going to your drop, and if you're
not in good physical condition, you're going to drop pretty
(04:31):
early in that process. The other thing they're doing is
in the selection and assessment phase is they want to
see how you're going to interact with the other people
on the team. When you're dog tired, you're confused, you
don't know what's going on other than you have to
do this and you don't know why. And if you
don't all to work together, you're just not going to
(04:52):
make it. And that's really the whole purpose of selection
and assessment. Get people that are serious, they're in good
physical condition, that got good mental endurance as well, and
they can work well with team members to accomplish a goal,
even if they don't know the intended objective.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
A couple of years later, Brewer was back at Fort
Bragg and had not parachuted in a while. But it
came back to him quickly, which is a good thing.
If it hadn't, he likely would have been killed.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I'd come back to Fort Brag and had a jump.
There was a round canopy. I hadn't jumped free fall
in a year or two, and normal progression they want
you to jump a static line first to make sure
you can, and then you'll jump out. They call it
a hop and pop, and then a five second ten
second to lay. The jump master had rigged the static
(05:42):
line incorrectly, so when I jumped out, I had a
lucked container container wouldn't open, but it did pull out
a lot of the parachute, which is called a horseshoe maufunction.
If you have a bad malfunction like that, the normal
procedure is you cut it away, you get rid of it.
Can't do that when it's locked on you back, and
if you pull your reserve, it's going to wrap around
(06:03):
the other part. So there were some midair gymnastics to
try and get that under control, wrapping it around, flipping
in the air, pulled it down, fired the reserve, got
it off clean. By the time all of this had occurred,
I'd lost a good bit of altitude and this was
enough for brag. So we were over a range and
as I'm looking down, I could see all these little
(06:24):
boxes with little green things in them. Didn't register at
first what it was until I heard this deep booming
voice behind me. Is there anyone down range? Is there
anyone down range? Is there anyone down range? Fires will
watch your lanes. I was over the target rate, not
where I wanted to land, so under the reserve, I'm
(06:47):
pulling down suspension lines to slip as hard as i
could to get out of the impact area, which I
was successful in doing about one hundred feet off the
ground by this time, and I'm over trees, nowhere to
go but into the trees. So then we had to
execute a tree landing. Hit the top, branches, broke through it, collapse,
A shoote I'm hurtling toward the ground. Literally just as
(07:09):
my boots started to touch the canopy, snagged on the
top of one of those North Carolina pine trees, landed gently,
got out of it, went back over, talked to the
jump master and said, look, I know I'm supposed to
do a static line, a hop and pop, a five
second and a ten second delay before I can jump
my own rig. But considering I just did all of
(07:32):
that in the last jump with the reserve activation and
a cutaway with a horseshoe malfunction, can I please now
jump my own parachute? Have I proven my proficiency? And yeah,
you're good, you go on ahead.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Not long after that, Brewer faced a difficult career choice.
Went faced with many years of being a ranger drill instructor.
It's a job he did not want, but there were
very few options to get out of it.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
When I was in Germany, I got picked up for
a sergeant first class E seven with only about seven
years in. I was two weeks, literally two weeks in
the secondary zone, but I was a section leader for
our particular unit out there at the time. So I
told all my guys, you're all going to go down
and you're going to get your DA photo. And they
all said, we're not going to get picked up. We're
(08:21):
all just in the secondary zone being a good leader.
I said, no, we're all going to do it because
you just don't know, and lo and behold, I got
picked up. So I was relisted about that time, and
I figured, you know, as an E six, just making
E seven, you have to have instructor time. I really
didn't want to be a drill instructor, so I thought,
I'll reenlist for Fort Benning. I'll go be a ranger instructor.
(08:41):
I'll check that block and then I can go back
to the Ranger Battalion, or I'll volunteer for s F training,
both of which sounded pretty good to me. Got there,
the start major looked at me and said, welcome, boy,
buy yourself a house. You'll be here for the rest
of your career. No, sorry, Major, come on, man, I've
only got eight years in now. I'm not staying here
for twelve years, and say, yes you are, since you
(09:03):
are here at Fort Benning. You'll be here in the
department for two or three years, but you will be
selected to be a drill sergan and we're critically shorter
of drill sergeants, so it is currently a five year
stabilized tour. So that's seven years right there. You got
eight in. You'll be about fifteen by the time you
get off the trail. We'll bring you back over here
for a couple of years in the department, maybe send
(09:23):
you to the Airborne Department to get you twenty. Just
buy a house. You ain't going anywhere, sorry, Major, I'm
going back to the range of beds. No you're not.
You're an E seven. There's a three year waiting list
for the sevens to get there. Besides which that doesn't
take priority over drill. Well, I want to be an SF.
We keep on dreaming there, chumbling, you're not going to
SF either. We're getting rid of SF. All those snake
(09:46):
eaters are of no use in the modern army, so
we're just working all ready to get rid of them.
And of course you know that how that turned out.
But I gots kept looking around, and the only thing
that took precedence over drill sergeant was Officer Candidate School.
So if the ultimate active betrayal to the NCO Corps,
A volunteered to become a second lieutenant as a sergeant
(10:08):
first class from the Ranger Department went into OCS with officers,
some of whom had been thrown out of Ranger School,
which is how they wound up as tack officers at OCS.
Which that was an interesting couple of months there to
make it through that, sat through classes in the NCO
Advanced Course before I went that were the same classes
(10:29):
with the same instructor in OCS, and then to the
same instructors, same classes for a third time at the
Infantry Officer's Basic Course before I got out and got
to go to my first unit.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
As a Special Forces officer, Brewer knew that he and
his men could be deployed at any time, but he
says the biggest challenge was embracing the mindset needed to
be in special Forces.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I think the thing that has to come to the
forefront of your mind is when you go in one
of those jobs, nobody's coming to help. If you get
in trouble. You're on your own and you're going to
have to figure it out, and you really need to
keep that in the forefront of your mind with everything
that you do, and as long as you go into
it with that attitude, it can be very interesting work
(11:13):
and liberating to a great extent too. But these days,
you've got cell phones. The guys who've got helmet cameras,
they got the earphones on. They've got some officers sitting
three thousand miles away when they're going through a room
clearing rooms, telling no, go left, don't go right. There's
nothing they can do that. Somebody isn't leaning over their
(11:33):
shoulder and watching, but you're still three thousand miles away.
If it doesn't turn out right, they're still not going
to be able to get there to help you.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's Christopher Brewer. He's a retired Ranger Battalion NCO and
Special Forces officer. The book is in the Shadows between
the Wars, when we come back facing the Colombian drug cartels.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Sixty Seconds of Service.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
This sixty seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile
recognizing these steadfast edication and sacrifices made by service members
and their families. T mobile is committed to supporting active
duty veterans and military spouses. Visit t mobile dot com
slash military to learn more.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Marine veteran Ethan Carter thought his best days were behind
him until his Doberman Maverick stopped an armed robbery in
their small town. Their active bravery went viral. Encouraged by neighbors,
Ethan ran for mayor and one Maverick still shows up
to city hall every day wearing a badge. Now, Ethan
uses his role to support veterans, and Maverick's calm presence
(12:36):
puts everyone at ease, from war zone to hometown hero.
They're a team built on courage and trust. Today's sixty
Seconds of Service is brought to you by Prevagen. Prevagen
is the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand. You
can find Prevagen and the Vitamin Aisle in stores everywhere.
For more great veteran stories, just go to National Defense
(12:56):
Network dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
This is Veterans Chronicle. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is retired US Army major and Special Forces
officer Christopher Brewer. His new book is in the Shadows
Between the Wars. In August of nineteen eighty nine, Colombian
presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan was assassinated by hitmen hired
by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The country was rife with violence,
(13:24):
and the US decided to get involved in a limited way,
enter Christopher Brewer and the seventh Special Forces Team.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
George Herbert Bush was the president at that time, and
he went on national TV after Galan was assassinated by
Escobar and said, we are going to help the Colombian
government stand up to the cartels. We'll provide logistics, we'll
protride helicopters, we'll give them whatever they need, but we
are not going to get involved in a Latin American war.
We will not send combat troops. So one of the
(13:53):
first things that they asked Force is where we really
need a medical Corman school. We don't have any medics,
and when we go out into the jungle, if our
guys get hurt, they die. So we figured out that
we need a metavact capability. That went down to an
office that's called at that time was called the Security
Assistance Training Management Office, and they basically provided doctors, nurses, logisticians, engineers,
(14:18):
non combat arms folks that they would send out to
teach other foreign governments and military and police non combat
related items or skill sets. But when they looked at
Bogata at that time, there were on a normal day
in Bogatah, there'll be one hundred people get killed just
from street crime. And at that time, the cartels were
(14:39):
setting off bombs all over the city, and no one
really knew who in the military was compromised and who
in the government was compromised. The government had just decided
they're going to fight back against the cartels and they
had a real challenge on their hands, so nobody could
guarantee the safety of anyone that went down there. So
SATMO said, look, you know, we can't put and nurses
(15:00):
into that environment. So mission came over to seventh Special
Forces Group. We speak Spanish, but it called for six
medical trainers. Now you've only got two medics on an
a team, and none of the guys that were down
in Panama who were some of the best Spanish speakers.
A third battalion wanted to give up all the medics
for three teams. So it came to us.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Brewer explains how he and his men were not officially
Special Forces in Columbia and the limited resources they were given.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
So we got the job. But the way they handled
it was they transferred us on orders out of Special
Forces to SATMO. So once we were officially SATMO not
special Forces, put on Savine clothes luggage, went down to
Miami Airport and jumped on a flight going down to Bogata.
(15:51):
And while I was in there, I saw this book
just come out Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger. So
I bought that book to read on the flight down.
We got there, the RSO briefed up. Everybody said, nobody
goes out of the embassy unless you're an armored vehicle,
most dangerous posting since Beirute, and all the casualty figures
except for you guys. We'll drive you down there to
(16:13):
the middle of South Bogatah where all the shooting's going on.
You're going to be living there. Here's a bretta pistol,
and here's a box of fifty rounds to protect yourself with.
Call us once a week let us know if you're
still alive.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
The closest Brewer got to combat in Colombia came as
Escobar vowed to attack a US radar site that was
causing him problems with his drug trafficking, but Brewer needed
a lot more weapons and a plan to stop Escobar's attack.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
There was trouble down in the valley between Bogata and
Median and Escobar knew that there was a US Air
Force radar site that had been set up at a
Colombian Air Force base, and that radar was picking up
the drug planes that were flying out of that valley
and handing them off to Colombian jets and US Air
(17:01):
Force jets that were intercepting him on the way to Miami. Now,
obviously that interfered with Escabar's business. He didn't like that.
But the president has said there weren't any US troops
down there, so this was TSSCI. Nobody could know about this,
and the Colombian government wouldn't let him bring down more
troops to protect the base. Escobar called the base up
(17:23):
and said, if you don't shut off that damn radar,
I'm gonna come on there and I'm going to kill
all the gringoes and I'm going to blow up the radar.
So they were in a quandary. They didn't know what
to do, so they called us. There were only six
of us there and we were running a school. We
couldn't really afford to let anyone go, so I took
one guy with me. They flew us out on a
Columbian general's airplane. We landed. We brought along one set
(17:46):
of combat fatigues with us, with no patches or anything.
So we had that tucked up in our backpacks and
we got out, changed out of saving closed, changed into
army gear. Still only had a burretta and to talk to.
There were only about five or six US Air Force
people there. There was a commander, some technicians, and one
(18:07):
security policeman. And first thing we did would say, hey,
we're here to help. First off, if you guys got
any guns, This bread is all I got. He said,
oh yeah, come on. So he took us out to
this GP large tent that was in a grass strip
between the two runways, and I thought that was their
command post. But that GP large tent was completely full
(18:30):
of crates of guns, of ammunition, explosives. Now there was
literally enough there to outfit a couple of companies, And
I said, what the hell were you going to do
with all this. I said, well, we were going to
equip the Colombians, but we think they're compromised and descobars
paying them off, so we couldn't give it to them.
But you guys can have whatever you want. So we
(18:51):
started opening up boxes and grabbed an M sixteen, found
these beautiful little chopped M sixty machine gun, Grabbed a
couple of things of ammunition, loaded up a jeep trailer,
found crates of claymore minds. Loaded all those up and
he felt a lot better at that point in time,
a lot more comfortable.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That's retired US Army Major Christopher Brewer. His book is
In the Shadows Between the Wars. When we come back,
we'll finish the story in Columbia, and then Brewer is
off to the unstable aftermath of Operation Just Cause in Panama.
I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition
(19:35):
is retired US Army Major Christopher Brewer. He served as
a Ranger Battalion NCO and a Special Forces officer. His
latest book is entitled In the Shadows Between the Wars.
Becoming a Special Forces operator. In just a moment, you'll
hear how Brewer and his team went to Panama after
Operation Just Cause in order to deal with these significant
(19:59):
instabilities there following the deposing of Manuel Noriega. But first
we head back to Columbia. Brewer now explains what it
was like waiting for Escobar's attack and how the situation unfolded.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Escobar had already cleared trail going up to it, so
we went back down. We talked to the base commander says, look,
we need to use this company for about a day.
We need to clear fields of fire all the way
around that hill. We need to dig fighting positions, communication trenches,
and we're going to put those claim wars up. So
we did all of that. We made a point to
(20:32):
getting the Columbian officers out there with the machine guns,
showed them how to operate the machine guns, let them
shoot that made them happy, got good food for the troops,
and water that made them happy. And knowing full well
that we're being observed the whole time by Escobar and
his crew. So by the time we got done the
target that he had already made plans to have his
guys crawl up through this trail in the jungle and
(20:54):
blow them up. Now had three hundred meters of open
ground all the way around it, with dug and fighting
with them, sixty machine guns set up in them and
claymore set out. And the last thing we did before
the sun went down on the night he was supposed
to come, we told all the cabos, the corporals that
we were pretty sure were compromised, do not come on
(21:14):
this hill tonight. You don't come. Don't let any of
your guys come, because we will kill anybody who comes
up that road tonight. This is when Escobar said he's
going to come, and I can't tell them at you
or them, so don't come. I care about you. I
don't want you to get hurt. And lo and behold,
eight man patrols started walking up that road about three
in the morning, and it was pretty obvious these were
(21:37):
not the same guys. But that cabo that I'd talked
to popped up out of the brush and stopped him
at the base of the hill, talking to him, pointing up.
They turned around and they left, and the next day
Escabar called the base commander. I said, I don't give
a damn about your radar or your green berets, and
that was it.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Because of the assignment in Colombia, Brewer and his team
were part of Operation Just Cause in Panama in late
December nineteen eighty nine, but they were not home for
long before they were on their way to Panama to
deal with the volatile aftermath of removing Noriega from power.
Brewer explains the less than enviable task he was given
(22:18):
with respect to the recently defeated Panamanian forces.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
We got down there and we were met by some
people who, in briefness that said that you're going to
go out to all of the Panamanian National Defense Force
compounds with all of their troops. We want you to
go and give them their guns back. They've just been
shooting them. A lot of these guys have been killed
just the week before. Literally give them their guns back
(22:45):
and tell them they're police now. Now, in that culture,
if you were too fat and lazy to be in
the army, you could be a cup. So telling all
these guys that you're not in the army anymore your
cups was not going to go over very well. And said, okay, well,
you want us to teach them how to be cops.
Said no, you can't do that. You're not cops. You're
(23:06):
a tripwaar. We want you to live with them, keep
an eye on them, and if it looks like they're
going to mutiny and try to mount a coup, you
let us know. And if you don't check in after
three days, we'll figure you're dead, and they will know
pretty well that the coup's going on.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
To find out whether there were plans for a coup,
Brewer and others on his team routinely patrolled areas to
keep order and keep an eye out for anything resembling
a plot to stage a coup. But Brewer also explains
that simply walking through different areas gave him ample opportunities
to gather intelligence without even trying.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
We'd go out of the compound because we wanted to know.
They weren't going to tell us much, so we'd go
talk to the people in the village. We'd leave. We'd
walk around initially in twos, but there weren't enough of us,
because there's only four in my location. Some places only
had two. So sometimes you'd go walk alone, but you'd
walk with there were lots of witnesses. You'd keep moving
(24:06):
you never let anybody know other than your own guys,
where you're going or at what route you're going to
never follow the same route twice. And we weren't allowed
under US law at that time to establish an intelligence network.
In fact, we got in trouble with that with some
of the army intel people because they accused us of
being spies, and we're spies. You're not spies. You can't
(24:26):
do that, as we told them, says, we're not spies.
We're going out and saying hello and having coffee with
the people. And if the people want to come up
and tell us something, who am I to tell them? No,
I'm just being friendly. I'm not tasking anyone. I'm not
saying go find this and come back. I'm not paying anybody.
I'm just being a nice guy and just getting out
(24:49):
and being a nice guy. We started to get better
intel than the military intelligence unit back an amatur in
the Canal Zone was getting, which really pissed them off
no end. So then wound up doing the dance with
the nory Gistas, the Dignity Battalion guys who have been
formed by No Diego that were part of the organization
(25:10):
trying to mount a coup, and the US military police
who really didn't like green Beres, and the US military
intelligence unit who was trying to catch us doing intel operations. GUS,
we were walking on their turf.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
As you heard, Christopher Brewer was not only dealing with
the very real possibility of a coup, but he was
also embroiled in turf wars within our own military and
orders from higher ups that he found completely unacceptable. Here,
Brewer explains the back and forth he had with a
higher ranking officer about what the rules of engagement ought
(25:46):
to be for him and the other Special Forces members
on this assignment in Panamon.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
When they said go to civilian clothes, they stipulated, we
have credible intelligence you're at risk out there, and well,
no shit, we knew that when we got here. But
if we want you to go armed, and we want
you to carry your weapons concealed. So the only thing
we had that we could conceal, you know, the rifles
are obviously going to be too big, but we had
(26:12):
the baretta. So we got people to make us some
holsters that we could put on our civilian clothes, and
we started carrying the bretta concealed and said now here's
your rules of engagement. First off, make sure you carry
that pistol unloaded. You can have a loaded magazine in
your pocket, but do not put it in the pistol. Now,
if you're in a situation where you feel your life
is in danger, draw that unloaded pistol and shout halt,
(26:37):
I am armed. If they don't stop, pull out your
magazine and say halt. If they still don't stop, put
it in and say halt and they still don't stop,
load around and yell halt. And if they still don't stop,
and your life is in danger, shoot to wound, not
to kill. Yeh listen, Oh God, we go. They don't
(27:01):
have a clue. So finally I said, look, man, no,
if that's the roe, we're going unarmed. We're not going
to carry any guns at all, because all you're going
to do is get us killed. Because even the local
crooks are going to know we're carrying an expensive Buretta
pistol that's unloaded, and they're not going to have any
trouble at all taking it away from us, so they're
going to kill us just to get the gun. So no,
(27:22):
we're not going to do that. And I got to
reply it back, saying, well, what is your roe? I said, Okay,
my ro is very simple, and I'm going to brief
my guys in Spanish out in the compound, where I'm
sure that all the Panamanian Defense Force guys can hear
every word I say, and I'm going to use a
loud voice, and I told my guys we are in
(27:45):
danger out here, there is a threat. You will carry
your weapon on your person at all times. There will
be around in the chamber. And if you find yourself
in a situation where you think your life is in danger,
I want you to negotiate, and I want you to
warm threaten whatever you have to do to de escalate
(28:05):
without anyone being harmed. Don't be afraid to run if
you have to. But if you're cornered and there's nothing
you can do and your life is in danger, you
draw that pistol and you kill whoever represents the threat.
If that gun comes out of the holster, there better
be a dead man at your feet. Otherwise, you keep
that gun in the holster and you keep talking or
(28:26):
you get running. That's those are the conditions.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
When it came to turf wars, Brewer says he had
a memorable and intense exchange with a colonel from military intelligence.
As you might have guessed from some of Brewer's earlier comments,
special forces and military intelligence were not on the best
of terms due to the military intelligence leadership becoming convinced
that the special forces were encroaching on their turf. Brewer's boss,
(28:54):
also a full colonel, did not want Brewer revealing anything
to the kernel from military intelligence. Brewer was a captain
at the time, but followed his colonel's orders precisely.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Officer in charge of US called me and told me that, look,
this MI I Brigade commander is coming out and he's
coming to your compound and he wants to be briefed.
You don't tell him a thing because this is a
turf war. We don't want to give him any leverage.
Just tell him you can't brief him. Leave it at that, say, man,
(29:26):
you know he's not going to be happy and he's
going to be a full bird talking to a captain,
So yeah, we'll handle it all right. So he showed up,
came in, and I was going to give him the
standard briefing that we would give to any military tourists
that showed up that none of the really sensitive stuff.
But here's where we are and where we're positioned, and
how many people this compound and this compound we've been
(29:48):
here for this long. And get about halfway through that,
and he said, I don't want to hear any of
that crap. Tell me about the guns. He said, look sir,
we know in where we're sitting right here is probably surveilled.
I would be very surprised if they didn't have this
place tapped. And I can't talk about stuff like that. Well,
you're gonna have to tell me anyway, all right, come
(30:09):
on with me. And I took them to a place
that we knew was clean because we had our people
all the way around it and we checked it. Sat
him down, said, look sir, you've got an MI person
here on the team. He'd sent out a young lady
who she was a translator. She spoke flawless Spanish, showed
up at our door saying, have you got any bullets
(30:31):
for this thing? With a bretta that was unloaded, and
she'd been sent out to gather intel and a sign
to live with us. So we said, look, you know,
first off, let us teach you how to shoot that gun. Second,
let us teach you a little bit about collecting intel
and let one of our guys go with you because
this is not a safe area in it. And over
(30:52):
a period of time she learned she was really sharp.
She ultimately went over to the FBI and she got
to be a strong member of the team. But she
knew everything we knew, and that helped solve the dilemma.
Because she was military intelligence, she could task, she could
pay people, but legally we couldn't. So it actually made
a good functioning team. And I told him, says, sir,
(31:12):
your representative here knows everything we know. I don't care.
I want you to tell me. Sarah can't. Well, you
should have called back and got permission, Sarah. I did
call back, and they said not to tell you. I
don't know what's going on. I don't know what the
conflict is, but I have my orders. I can't do that.
And he crosses his arm says, well, Captain, I'm giving
(31:32):
you a direct order. You're going to brief me, and
you're going to do it right now. And I've had
about all of this guy that I can handle on
that particular day. So I said, look, sir, I have
my orders. I can't violate my orders. I will tell
you that I've got a situation going on in here
right now where I don't feel that we're safe or
you're safe, and you're getting in the way of me
(31:53):
being able to accomplish my mission. So I'm asking you
please leave now. I'm done talking. Well, Captain, I'm not leaving, sir,
Yes you are. If you don't leave on your own,
then we're going to take you out of here. Well
how are you going to do that, captain? And I'd
already called two of my guys to come on in,
(32:14):
told him, come on in here, bring a duffel bag. Well,
you need it, the duff bag. Just bring a duffel
bag and fleck scuffs. So you see these two E
seven standing behind you? Yeah, I see him. Well, sir,
if you will not cooperate and leave voluntarily in your car,
I can't have you going out of here kicking the screaming.
So what's going to happen these two E seven's here.
(32:35):
They're going to cuff you, They're going to gag you,
and they're going to put you in that duffel bag
and then they're going to carry you out, put you
in the trunk of your car, and we're going to
drive your car with another one of my vehicles and
my guys in it to protect you back to the
canal zone. And he just looks at me real hard.
I'm looking at in and I finally he blinked and
he got up and walked out.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
But that is not the end of the story. Brewer
says he faced a list of court martial charges from
the military intelligence colonel, but Brewer explains how the allegations
were methodically countered.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But as soon as he got to the canal zone,
he tried to started bringing court maultra charges, and he
tried to charge me with assault that I didn't lay
a hand on him. I just extribed what I was
going to do for his safety, disobedience of direct order,
which I had the conflicting orders for my colonel. They
backed me up, and ultimately he charged me with sexual
(33:30):
harassment because I would not let his female agent go
out into the field alone, and I had had to
explain this look. Ultimately, we did let her go out alone,
but we asked her to stay and take training from
us and allow us to escort and shore around so
she didn't wind up dead in a hole someplace, and
she voluntarily did so and turned into be a damn
(33:54):
good member of the team.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Christopher Brewer spent twenty four years in the US Army,
retiring as a major in nineteen ninety seven. Much of
that time was spent in Special Forces, where your role
and your work are often kept secret for years, decades
or longer. In fact, he had to fight to declassify
certain details from the mission in Panama before he could
(34:18):
talk about them in his book. But despite the occasional
clashes with Army bureaucracy, Brewer is grateful for his service
and to have served alongside the excellent soldiers in US
Army Special Forces.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
We accomplished a lot of good things, a lot of
good things people don't really know about, and Special Forces
is still doing that. The guys that are out there
don't get enough credit for what they do, So I
was just proud to be able to be one of
them and stand out there with them.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
That is retired to US Army Major Christopher Brewer. He
served as a non commissioned officer for an Army Ranger
battalion and as a Special Forces officer. His latest book
is In the Shadows Between the Wars becoming a Special
Forces operator. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi.
(35:17):
This is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:38):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.