GUARDSMEN LEAVE ICY MISSOURI FOR TRAINING IN SUNNY PANAMA

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- More than 150 combat engineers and support personnel from the Missouri Army National Guard's 1140th Combat Engineers, based at Cape Girardeau, and others from around the state, have traded their winter parkas and snow boots for tee-shirts and sun-tan lotion for the next 17 days.

They, and other guardsmen who will be rotated in and out of Panama during the next six months, will be busy doing earth work, and building 47 culverts and three bridges, on a road in rural, northeast Panama, near the Atlantic Coast.

Capt. John Harmon, administrative officer for the 1140th, said an advanced group of guardsmen from Missouri left Dec. 29 to set up the base camp.

The guard's heavy construction equipment, including road graders, bulldozers, dump trucks, and other equipment, were transported to the Port of Mobile, Ala. last November, where they were loaded aboard sea-going barges for the sea lift to Panama.

Prior to their non-stop flight Friday night from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to Howard AFB, Panama, the guardsmen assembled Friday morning at the National Guard armory in Cape Girardeau. There, they received medical immunizations from Charlotte Craig, and other nurses with the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Service.

The guardsmen also did last minute packing and loading, weighing of baggage, and received a final briefing before leaving Friday afternoon for the Missouri Air National Guard base at the St. Louis airport for the flight aboard a chartered commercial jet to Panama.

Major John Agey, operations officer for the 1140th, said the six-month project is under the supervision of the 1140th, but will be completed during the final three months by guardsmen from the Alabama National Guard.

Agey said projects such as this allow the combat engineers to continue to train with their heavy construction equipment throughout the year, something that's not possible during the winter in Southeast Missouri.

"This is an ideal situation. It benefits everybody," said Agey. "The people of Panama are getting a better road, and we're getting the training we need to maintain our combat readiness efficiency."

Agey said the Missouri Guard, including the 1140th, have spent several of their training periods the past 10 years in Panama, or neighboring Honduras, building roads and bridges.