The United States maintained control of the canal in 1989, when Langdon, a Marine, was stationed there. But as tensions mounted between President George H.W. Bush and Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, Langdon and his comrades were ordered to test the lines of the Panama Defense Forces to see how far those papers would take them.
On patrol in the muggy jungle, Langdon often reached for his pistol, the only weapon he carried, for a pinch of firepower -- just in case. It was a Beretta M9 pistol, standard issue for U.S. servicemembers.
Here in Accokeek, at Beretta's U.S. headquarters, workers kept those M9s rolling off the line, supplying the military long after Noriega was ousted. Production ramped up as U.S. soldiers moved on to the war zones of the Middle East: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya.
Now, the military says, it's time for a modern handgun for modern warfare. The M9 has long been a sturdy standby when things fall apart in battle -- a defensive weapon. The military wants soldiers to reach for the new gun -- the XM17 -- going into battle.
The military's move to retire the M9 poses a new business challenge for Beretta on top of other change. After 40 years in Maryland, it's moving its manufacturing -- and more than a hundred jobs -- out of the state in response to new gun laws that limit the sale and possession of firearms and threatened its commercial business.
And Beretta is suddenly fighting for a military contract worth $580 million with rivals it normally competes with in gun shops, not in defense contracting: Traditional military suppliers such as Beretta and Colt are facing competition from civilian manufacturers including Glock and Sturm, Ruger & Co.
Commercial handguns are sophisticated enough that the military would ask gunmakers to modify a civilian product to meet battlefield specifications. They're durable, accurate, high-capacity weapons, perhaps giving civilian gunmakers the upper hand for the first time in military contracting history, gun experts say.