1St Battalion Of The United States Marine Corps In Panama Relieved By The Warlords -

(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) A company of the 1st Battalion of the Marine Corps (Marines) known as“The First of the Firsts”, 8th Regiment, has handed over the pennant to the relief company of the 2nd Battalion of Marines, the“Warlords”, after completing a 2-month operational deployment in the Panama area, an operation that is part of the security and defense agreements that the Panamanian Government signed last April with the United States Department of Defense. This will be the second contingent of Marines mobilized to deploy within the security areas agreed upon by the Pentagon, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Panamanian executive branch, demonstrating Washington's commitment to protecting the geographic areas it considers to be of geostrategic importance on its flank in South America.

Marines from the 2nd Battalion instruct SENAN personnel on how to fire assault rifles

The contingent, which is made up of a total of 92 Marines and Sailors, was mobilized aboard a Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules of the 19th Transport Wing of the United States Air Force (USAF) from Camp Lejeune base (North Carolina) to the Panama Pacific Airfield, where the rest of the Marines of the 2nd Battalion company are expected to arrive for deployment to the Panama Canal area, where together with Panamanian personnel from the National Aeronaval Service (SENAN) and the National Border Service (SENAFRONT) they will carry out joint military training and strengthening operations as part of the bilateral military coordination agreements. Other tasks that will also be carried out by the Marines will focus on civil-military cooperation and combined operations. The latter confirm one of the new administration's objectives in Washington: to strengthen security around the Canal to optimize mutual preparedness and improve regional preparedness in response to transnational threats.

The“Warlords”

The 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, also known as the“Warlords,” is part of the 2nd Marine Division and the II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It is an experienced light infantry unit with an extensive operational history spanning from World War I, where it served in France, to current deployments in the Middle East and Africa. The next changeover will take place in two months and should be carried out by another company of Marines, this time from the 3rd Marine Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, tactical units that are part of the 2nd Marine Division, and all based at Camp Lejeune, and these in turn are subordinate to the US Marine Corps Forces, South (MARFORSOUTH), also subordinate to the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

Other military units deployed in Panama include the 553rd Engineer Detachment, Forward Engineer Support Team-Advance (553rd FEST-A) of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which deployed in early May from its base in New York and is tasked with inspecting the valve systems and physical infrastructure of the Canal locks, as well as a helicopter detachment from the 228th Aviation Regiment, the Winged Warriors. As part of the agreements signed last April between Panama and the United States regarding the reinforcement of the military presence in the Panama Canal Zone, the Southern Command has carried out the replacement of a Marine company that had been deployed two months earlier with another fresh Marine unit.

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