When I was in, I consistently heard from everybody who attended, from any branch of the service, that the Jungle Warfare course in Panama was THE BEST training they EVER got in the military.
Nobody who attended it ever disagreed that I heard. And anytime two graduates got together, that’s all they talked about.
The cross-country land navigation/jungle survival phase being the main subject of praise.
That was, and remains my attitude, that Jungle Warfare was thee best training I received. There wasn’t a single part of it that wasn’t challenging and interesting.
The most challenging part as I recall was the river crossing problem using Aussie poncho rafts on the Chagres. Never swam so hard in my life.
Best of all, if you were Nam-bound, it preconditioned you mentally to be at ease in the jungle.
A few days after I took over my first platoon my RTO wanted to know if he could ask me something: Had I been in the Nam for a prior tour?
Nope. Why?
Well me and some of the guys have been talking and we’ve never seen anyone get used to the jungle so fast. Figured you must have been here before.
Hell, I was In Panama.
Panama? That must be some bad shit.
You don’t know, Specialist.