FTX MANDINGA, conducted from  28 May until 28 June. 8th SFG(A) /8th SAF conducted in an area on the Atlantic coast some fifty miles east of Colon. FTX Mandinga had several objectives, namely, counterinsurgency training, unit proficiency, and joint training with other U.S. and Latin American units. These were detachments from the 4th Battalion, 10th Infantry, and from Panama’s Guardia Nacional. According to the scenario, MANDINGA was the site of an imaginary country named Mooding. This small nation was troubled by general unrest, Insurgents and communist-dominated guerrilla bands controlled most of the country and had twice the strength of Mooding’s home guard who were called the Lanceros. The 8th SFG(A) /8th SAF deployed in the area from LCMs early on the morning of 28 May and were joined by the Panamanian Guardia Nacional about a week later. By this time guerrilla and counterinsurgent forces were actively engaging each other in mock combat. The FTX MANDINGA included nearly all techniques of unconventional warfare. The counterinsurgent forces organized a system of On-Call air strikes to aid in fixing and disorganizing the enemy. ln turn, the 7th SFG(A) guerrilla forces organized a successful escape and evasion net. Other combat maneuvers followed which were paralleled by civic action, medical, and psychological operations involving the local populace, particulary at the nearby village of Santa Isabel. Finally the civic action programs obtained the full support of the civilian population in all of the counterinsurgent activities. Then a final big push by the friendly forces, coordinated‘ with air strikes, effected the total disorganization of the guerrillas. 

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During the later months of 1963, the Special Action Force planned a large exercise known as ”Operation GREEN BERET throughout Panama. This project concerned all units of the 8th Special Action Force and was a type of comprehensive MTT within Panama. Plans had been made for instruction of the Panamanian Armed Forces in counterinsurgency, psychological operations,medical operations, riot control, civic action and other fields by the 8th SFG(A).  By the beginning of 1964, the teams and equiment were being deployed to various places within Panama when civil and political disturbances in the country forced the cancellation of the project.