Eagle 12

Eagle 12: A Chronicle of a Weekend in Panama, 1991 Inspired by True EventsIn 1991, a desperate twenty-one-year-old throws a Hail Mary: the shortest Army enlistment he can find, hoping for escape from a decaying life back home—divorce, fatherhood, endless money drains. Instead, he lands in humid Panama as Military Police Investigator "Eagle 12," grinding through endless tours in the aftermath of Operation Just Cause.This raw, unflinching novelette chronicles one pivotal weekend in the barracks at Coco Solo. From dawn jolts of dread and cigarette rituals to fleeting highs amid parties, strippers, and stolen intimacy, the days blur in heat, isolation, and self-deception ("It's going to be a good day"). But when family reality crashes back—neglect, demands, a daughter held hostage miles away—the borrowed escapes shatter.Lamar D. Vine delivers a gritty military memoir of suffocation and survival: the relentless cycle of duty, loneliness, and fragile hope in a place where jungle steam fights the AC and dawn always comes. For fans of unfiltered coming-of-age stories and post-Cold War military life, Eagle 12 asks the question: Was it luck... or just another sentence?If you lived the grind, this one hits home.