Fort Gulick, Panama

Canal Zone

As of January 25, 2012

 

  

 

545^th MPs Swartz and Shearon (saluting) on the Main Gate at Fort Gulick, Panama 1956

 

Night Life outside the Main Gate at Fort Gulick, Panama 1956

 

Chorus Line at the off Post MP Club at Ft Gulick, Panama 1956

 

Hand to Hand – Close Combat Instructor

 

What a show for the Off Duty MPs! What a hardship tour! Panama 1956

 

 

 

Fort Gulick began with an Executive Order approved by the President of the United States as seen here below:

 

 

EXECUTIVE ORDER 8737

FORT GULICK MILITARY RESERVATION

April 16, 1941

CANAL ZONE

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 5 of title 2 of the Canal Zone Code, approved June 19, 1934, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

SEC. 1. Setting apart of reservation; boundaries. The following-described area of land in the Canal Zone (including the corridor hereinafter described) is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a military reservation, which shall be known as Fort Gulick Military Reservation, and which shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of War, subject to the provisions of section 2 of this order:

The tract of land proposed to be reserved as the Fort Gulick Military Reservation, consisting of the main reservation and a 100-foot right of way or corridor connecting the reservation with the Bolivar Highway, is situated southeasterly of Mount Hope on the western shore of the Quebrada Ancha Arm of Gatun Lake, in the Canal Zone.  The tract as described contains an area of 1,608 acres, more or less.

RIGHT OF WAY OR CORRIDOR FROM BOLIVAR HIGHWAY

The right of way or corridor connecting the main reservation with Bolivar Highway is a strip of land 100 feet in width, extending 50 feet on each side of the center line.

THE END OF FORT GULICK

Sadly, Fort Gulick, a US Army installation in the former Panama Canal Zone, located on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal Zone near Fort Sherman no longer exists as a military base.

It was perhaps best known as the location of the School of the Americas.  During the 1980s, control of the fort was turned over to the Republic of Panama who renamed it Fuerte Espinar, and the School of the Americas was moved to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984.  The US retook over the administration of the fort as a result of the 1989 United States invasion of Panama but kept the name of Fort Espinar.

The former site of Fort Gulick is now part of the municipal district of Colon, Panama and is the location of the Hotel Melina.

The 545th MP Company was inactivated 15 October 1957 at Hokkaido, Japan and relieved from assignment to the 1st Cavalry Division. Two years prior to that a detachment of the unit was stood up Fort Gulick, Panama where they remained until the 545^th was once again assigned to the 1^st Cavalry Division in Korea on 15 July 1963 and by February of 1964 the entire 545^th MP Company was once again reactivated at Camp Custer, Korea under the ROAD Concept.

 

Present day Hotel Melina which was converted from part of the old Fort Gulick

 

545^th MP Det Barracks, Fort Gulick, 1956

 

 

Post Headquarters, Fort Gulick, 1956

 

 

Fort Gulick, Panama