June 2005

Hi, I enjoyed your website very much. I discovered it by accident when I was trying to figure out what and where Fort Amador. C.Z was. It was noted in the military papers of my Great Uncle William Bunbury. I had no idea what C.Z stood for. I entered Ft. Amador, Arizona into Google and found that C.Z. stood for Canal Zone. I even copied some of your photos, although I didn't know enough about Ft. Amador. Uncle Bill was a band leader in the 7th Infantry. He was stationed at Ft. Amador in Nov. 26, 1938. I know he traveled world wide playing for the military. I never knew he was in the Panama Canal Zone.
Thank you so much for your website. I wonder what happened to Uncle Bill's pictures. His wife's name was Lillian. They did not have any children.

Comments

Great site. Thanks for your time, effort, and expense. I was in the Canal Zone with the US Army from April 1966 to October 1967 with the 3rd Civil Affairs Detachment in Bldg 519 on Fort Clayton. I regret not making it back before the CZ disappeared. We had some great times there.

I was in Panama this April 2005 and drove by the high school. I was online and found your web site. Thanks for keeping it up.

You should be commended and congratulated. I was born in 1940 in either the CZ or in Panama. I graduated from Balboa High School in 1959. I have not been back, since then. My foster father settled on the canal to help build it.

I am writing this email to tell you how great I think your website is, I think I should start by saying that I am a 100% Panamanian and that I was born a couple of years before the invasion (1986) so I only lived the last years of the Canal Zone. As a Panamanian I must say that I feel that the transfer of power and land was something that had to be done but at the same time every time I drive through Balboa or any part of the Canal Zone, I feel this big emptiness inside. Like if I was passing through the grounds a dead civilization and a great melancholy comes over me, for I know that the grounds that I am walking on stores the history and/or the lives of many and that I will never be able to be part of. Even though I think that I had a great amount of access to the Canal Zone when it was still in the hands of the United States, because I have a couple of Zonians with who I entered the bases to go bowling or to the movies or to eat spicy chicken at Popeye's. I still feel that there is so much to explore and to know and your website is a great place to look into the history of what I consider is mystical place that is know as the Canal Zone.