<p>During the first hours of Operation Just Cause, the December 1989 American effort to oust Panama's Manuel Noriega, 212 American aircraft were aloft, 205 of which belonged to Military Airlift Command. That night, C-141Bs loaded up with paratroopers in chilling ice storms at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, made a five-hour journey to the tropics, and dropped the air assault on Panama's Omar Torrijos Airport by 2,000 members of the 82nd Airborne Division, the largest combat drop since Normandy.
</p>
<p>The USAF's unconventional forces performed well during Just Cause. MH-53J Pave Low III dropped US Navy SEAL commandos who assaulted Panama City's Patilla Airport and destroyed a Lear Jet which might otherwise have been used by Noriega to escape. AC-130 gunships shot up Panamanian targets with enviable accuracy and firepower.
</p>
<p>It was time for the 'Stealth Fighter' to come out of the closet—part way. Two F-117s were launched to support a never-disclosed Special Operations 'snatch' of Noriega which was called off only as they approached Panamanian air space. Two other F-117s were back-ups, and two flew a bombing mission intended to 'stun, disorient, and confuse' Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) at Rio Hato. Their target: a large, open field alongside a barracks housing 200 elite PDF troops, but not the barracks.
</p>
<p>The six F-117s flew from Tonopah and refueled five times during the round trip to Panama. The two Rio Hato F-117s dropped two 2,000-lb (907-kg) bombs, both of which exploded near their intended target. Four of the six F-117s returned to their Tonopah, Nevada base with their bombs still on board. It was an event received with skepticism by the outside world. In Congress, a critic argued that the F-117 mission "could have been flown with an Aero Commander" (a twin-engined, propeller-driven business aircraft). Even so, the fixation on the Soviets died hard and Air Force leaders, in an appalling slip of judgment, chose this moment to reveal that they wanted 132 Northrop B-2 'Stealth Bombers'.
