by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

SIXTH AIR FORCE CIC DETACHMENT ESTABLISHED IN PANAMA

On Jan. 9, 1944, a Counter Intelligence Corps detachment was established for the Sixth Air Force in the Panama Canal Department of the Caribbean Defense Command. One of more than a dozen such detachments established to work with Army Air Forces worldwide during World War II, its mission was mostly routine but critical to the security of military air operations.

Prior to 1943, the investigation of possible sabotage or subversion in relation to aircraft and other air materiel was the responsibility of CIC detachments with jurisdiction of the areas in which the events occurred. As the number of such incidents increased, the CIC organized specially trained detachments to deal with the special needs of air force units. Consequently, on Jan. 9, 1944, the Sixth Air Force CIC Detachment arrived at Cristobal, Panama, to establish its headquarters at Albrook Field.

The commanding officer was 1st Lt. Rene Menendez, a Cuban native educated in the United States and a former accountant for Latin American subsidiaries of a New York corporation. Menendez was joined by Executive Officer 1st Lt. Ben Roberston, a former oil company official, and four NCO special agents: Texan Melvin Diggs, a civilian investigator; Clyde Moore, a teacher also from Texas; Missouri lawyer Nealy Butler; and Robert Gooch, a law student from California. In late February, another sixteen agents arrived. All twenty-two men had attended special CIC air mechanics training in either Pennsylvania or Illinois.

Administratively, the detachment reported to the chief, CIC, in the Caribbean Defense Command, Lt. Col. E. A. Rew. Operationally, Lieutenant Menendez, who would be promoted to captain in September, and his men reported to Lt. Col. Robert W. Benn, A-2 of Sixth Air Force. In a reorganization of the command’s CIC detachments on Jul. 31, 1944, Menedez’s unit was redesignated the 606th CIC Detachment. By this time, the detachment had just two officers, fourteen agents, and four civilian stenographers.

Menendez organized his detachment into five field offices. Field Office No. 1, co-located with detachment headquarters, handled operations near Albrook Field, including the Panama Air Depot and Howard Field. It had individual sections for travel control, crash investigations, and security. No. 2, with two agents, was at Guatemala City, Guatamala, and also oversaw CI operations at the U.S. airfield in Nicaragua. In Salinas, Ecuador, two agents made up No. 3. They also handled screenings for the Galapagos Islands and an Air Force facility at Talara, Peru. The one-man Field Office No. 4 was located at France Field in the Canal Zone, while No. 5’s single agent was headquartered at Rio Hata, Puerto Rico, but also handled CI functions in parts of Panama and San Jose, Costa Rica. The agents at the geographically separated offices operated out of their local base intelligence offices.

The 606th conducted routine CI activities, like security surveys of facilities and security lectures. Its biggest responsibility was background investigations and screening of U.S. citizens cleared to work in the Canal Zone and locals working at the various air installations. Somewhat unconventionally, agents of the 606th often acted in the capacity of base intelligence officers when one was not assigned or available. The detachment headquarters also maintained all intelligence files of its field offices, as well as those of the A-2.

Specific to Air Force CIC detachments, of course, special investigations related to airplane crashes and failures of other air materiel were conducted if evidence indicated the possibility of sabotage or subversion. These types of investigations were relatively rare, but the detachment’s reporting of an “alarming” uptick in airplane crashes in the early months of 1945 led to the establishment of the headquarters section focused solely on crash investigations.

In its first sixteen months, the unit completed 26 espionage, 73 sabotage, 21 subversion, and 32 “special” cases (criminal cases, violations of censorship regulations, or others not specifically delineated). It recorded no known “enemy-inspired sabotage or espionage” within the Sixth Air Force, a testament to the dedicated work of the detachment.

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