zero hour

The assault at Torrijos-Tocumen began just under one hour after H-hour; see above 1720th history (p.

Watson and Tsouras reported a total of 1,700 Rangers dropped at both Torrijos-Tocumen and Rio Hato at H-hour. Of that number, 700 jumped at Torrijos-Tocumen; about 1,000 at Rio Hato.

Note that Watson and Tsouras' work refers in one passage to 1,700 Rangers jumping at H-hour (at Rio Hato and Torrljos-Tocumen) followed by 2,000 Airborne troopers in the second jump at Torrijos-Tocumen; another section, however, refers to a total of 4,000 that "parachuted in.

Just prior to H-Hour, in-country Army units were flown from Albrook AFS to the Pacora Bridge, some 15 km north of Tocumen/Torrijos airfield, to block a counterattack by the PDF Battalion 2000.

The 48-man team landed on the coast immediately south of the civilian airfield just before H-Hour and moved towards the hangars at the end of the field.

There had been essentially no CA expertise on the SOUTHCOM staff at H-Hour: one Army officer in J5 had been working CA staff actions on a part time basis.

As H-hour approached, soldiers went about their last-minute preparations.

But to his dismay, it was still long before H-Hour when the enemy fled in strength.

This contingency had been addressed during the planning process: The brigade commander had stated that early activity would not initiate H-Hour prematurely, especially since the operation depended upon the synchronized arrival of other units flying in from the United States.