G.I. Phone Home: The Use of Telecommunications by the Soldiers of Operation Just Cause

Abstract

This article is based on a secondary analysis of post combat debriefing interviews conducted by the Department of Military Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, with 811 active duty U.S. Army service men and women who participated in Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama, in December 1989. The data offer a unique and unprecedented perspective on the use of telecommunications, and this study sought to illustrate the use of telephones and television by the soldiers involved in the invasion and its aftermath. As was found in previous research, the telephone in combat proved to be primarily positive at the level of the soldier, although it did introduce new challenges for leaders. Television technology was both useful and a distraction for soldiers. Overall, one-way and real-time, two-way telecommunication devices have come to have an important impact on the experience of soldiers and their family members during war.

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