So after I arrived in Panama, the heat, the sun the beaches and ocean were like seventh heaven. Shortly after I arrived in Nov. of '69, I bought a motorcycle so that I would have transportation and not have to rely on the buses or cabs.
After I was transferred to Clayton, I was assigned to a communications center (I forget the name) that was located between Clayton and Balboa. We worked swing shifts, six days on and two off. Whenever I worked the midnight shift, I would often go back to the barracks for breakfast then change into my cutoffs, grab a blanket and head over to Howard AFB on my motorcycle then go out the back to the ocean and sleep a couple of hours in the sun then head back to the barracks and finish my sleep.
What's funny is that all those things I did, I did on my own because none of my buddies had any interest in beaches or the oceans and probably didn't even know how to swim...........LOL!
You mentioned lobsters, on one of my snorkeling jaunts to Taboga Island, I caught two spiny lobsters off the shore but having no way to cook them, I let them go.........
As an Officer, you certainly had a magnitude of opportunities available to you that I as an enlistee didn't. But it's apparent that we both took advantage of what was offered and I have no regrets and nothing but great memories of my time in Panama. For what it's worth, my time in the Army was nothing more than a good job where I was required to wear a uniform.
4/69 - 1/72
Looking at the dates you were one lucky dude. Vietnam Nam was raging. From what I heard a lot of the guys went to Panama for 6 weeks to acclimatize and train in the Jungle at Ft. Sherman before they were shipped to Nam. The still had the zoo at Fort Sherman when I was there. They had an anaconda that had escaped from a crashed plane that they had caught in their jungle. That thing had a head the size of a basket ball and was over twenty feet long. That is a lot of snake!