 The year 1961, the place the Republic of Panama, the event, a joint military training maneuver involving armed forces of four American nations. This film is a composite story of how the Americas train, study, and work together for mutual defense. The city of Panama, in the Republic of Panama, on a carnival day in February, or festival, or Mardi Gras. This is a joyous occasion which Panama shares with her sister republics, south to Santiago, and north to New Orleans. Panama is literally and figuratively the bridge between the northern and southern continents of our hemisphere. List of the Latin American republics, Panama nonetheless possesses a history and tradition as old as the New World itself. In 2013, the explorer Balboa first sighted the Pacific Ocean. He did not live to realize how near he had come to discovering that sea route to India, which was the dream of early New World explorers. On islands off the coast of Panama, descendants of an ancient Caribbean race cling even today to ancestral laws and customs virtually unchanged since the time of Christopher Columbus. Most people of Panama have seen much change, much history. Through their land passed for three centuries the wealth of a continent, a vast golden treasure plundered from the New World for the enrichment of the old. Nor were the conquistadores alone in their claim to the spoils of conquest. Here on a promontory high above the Atlantic stands the remains of historic Fort San Lorenzo. The fort was built at the beginning of the 17th century to protect treasure awaiting shipment to the old world. Sacked by Henry Morgan's pirates in 1669 after a bitter struggle, only six of the fort's brave defenders and this ruin survived. After destroying the fort, the buccaneers sailed up the river Chagres to fall upon the old city of Panama from the rear. These ruins are all that remain of the old city. Testimony to a vanished era of armed conquerors and treasure-laden galleons. Today, there is a new city of Panama, capital of an independent American republic, and treasure still flows through the isthmus, a modern commercial treasure of food, machinery and raw materials, upon which depends the well-being and prosperity of nations throughout the world. It is therefore not beyond the realm of possibility that such an area might once again become the target of foreign aggression. An onslaught similar to that being staged here as an exercise in preparedness early in 1961, following the pattern of sudden attack made all too familiar to the people of Panama by the buccaneers of centuries ago, this is a combined land, sea and air invasion with modern weapons and tactics. With Morgan's pirates, however, these modern invaders are destined to be quickly and decisively repulsed. The training exercise serves as a graphic demonstration of the dispatch with which a group of friendly American states can come to the aid of a sister nation. Participating in this combined operation at Rio Ato, a maneuver area some 60 miles from Panama City, are units of the Colombian Army, Navy and Air Force. Panama's own Guardia Nacional, Peruvian Army, Air Force and 82nd Airborne Division troops arriving directly from Fort Bragg in the United States. Under the interested gaze of military leaders from 17 western hemisphere nations and guided by a unified command, the troops and equipment move in with dramatic suddenness to dislodge the supposed aggressor from his precarious foothold on the Isthmus. The maneuver, known officially as Operation Solidarity, is similar in purpose to previous joint United States Latin American military exercises held in the Caribbean area since 1955. Joint training exercises such as Operation Solidarity have come to play a major role in enabling the military forces of the various western hemisphere nations to keep themselves prepared for instant action in the cause of mutual hemispheric defense. Military forces have obtained control of the area surrounding their drop zone and the battle group commander is established in his command post. Injecting realism into the exercise are members of the United States Army Caribbean Second Battle Group 20th Infantry, specially trained as aggressor forces. Aggressor forces participate in military maneuvers complete with distinctive uniforms, national history, political parties and even their own language. In all such exercises a major share of the responsibility rests with the United States Caribbean Command Headquarters here on quarry heights in the canal zone. Charged by the defending forces with conduct of the joint maneuver, the Caribbean Command has overall control of the United States' own armed forces in nearly the entire area lying south of Mexico in the western hemisphere. A unified command composed of elements of the Army, Air Force and Navy, it contains some of the most interesting installations to be found in America's armed forces. One of them is at Fort Sherman on the Atlantic side of the canal zone. The U.S. Army Jungle Warfare Training Center. The popular feature of the center is the collection of jungle wildlife maintained here to familiarize the soldier with those creatures which may someday be living right alongside him. Assigned the mission of keeping alive the art of jungle warfare, the center normally trains 2,000 officers and enlisted men each year, equipping them with the skills they must have to live and fight in the jungle. Here trainees acquire experience by such activities as building a rush raft, taking it across the Chagres River, historic waterway of Panama, once known as the Rio Lagartos or River of Alligators. Like other United States military schools in the Caribbean command, the center offers regular classes for Latin American students. It is prepared to give its entire course of instruction in either English or Spanish as the occasion requires. The intensive 210 hour program of instruction is designed to prepare individuals in small units physically and mentally for operations in any jungle area of the world. They are being equipped to become the hard core of the counter-insurgent forces who are becoming an increasingly important element of the free world's military strength. The greatest obstacle the individual soldier encounters in this type of warfare is fear of his surroundings. Self-confidence inspired by learning and experience dispels his fear of the jungle and enables him to enlist it as an effective combat ally. In the jungle warfare training center is still another unusual institution, the United States Army Caribbean School at Fort Gullick. Here all instruction is given in Spanish. Through its work with officers and enlisted students from all parts of Latin America, the Gullick School provides instruction in military organization, tactics, materiale and doctrine. Curriculum of the school is based on that of regular United States Army schools. The lesson plans and other instructional material obtained from those sources are adapted to local means and needs and then translated into the Spanish language for presentation to Latin American students. Engineering students learn the operation of heavy engineer equipment. They acquire skills which have not only military usefulness but which are equally applicable to such important civil activities as road building. A course in radio communications. From Spanish speaking US Army instructors, Latin American cadets receive orientation, instruction and actual experience with the 81 millimeter mortar. Here in one of the courses offered by the school students learn the proper procedure for apprehending potentially dangerous occupants of an automobile. Judo, another favorite subject in the military police course. Criot control with cadets and instructors of the school doing a good job of imitating a hostile mob and other cadets doing an equally good job of breaking it up. Thanks to the United States Army Caribbean School at Fort Gullick. There exists throughout the Americas a better coordinated mutual defense force as well as many strong bonds of friendship between individuals. Today more than 10,000 Latin American graduates of the school proudly bear its motto. Uno para todos y todos para uno. One for all and all for one. The same motto might be applied to the men and women of the Inter-American Geodetic Survey whose headquarters are also here in the canal zone. From its canal zone headquarters the Inter-American Geodetic Survey supervises and supports mapping projects in 15 Latin American countries. The agency's area of operation covers some 6,500,000 square miles and extends more than 6,000 miles from its most northerly to its most southerly point. There's is the extraordinary task of providing adequate map coverage for the areas of Mexico, Central and South America as well as the islands of the Caribbean. This is a cooperative effort of the United States and the 15 participating Latin American countries. At the IAGS Cartographic School in the canal zone students from every country are instructed in uniform map making procedures and techniques. Thus citizens of the collaborating countries do the bulk of the actual field work in their own countries with IAGS specialists supervising and directing the program. The IAGS as an army organization is well aware that maps, accurate maps, are essential to joint planning of hemispheric defense. Many other benefits however flow from its work. Various IAGS missions in capital cities throughout Latin America are contributing greatly to the knowledge of our hemisphere necessary for scientific and commercial purposes. And because technicians of the host country work side by side with their North American counterparts in each mission there is created a constantly growing base of mutual understanding and goodwill. As symbolized by this sculptured map of Colombia modern maps are the basic requirement for the development of a nation's natural resources without which expansion of a nation's economy is virtually impossible. Some of the surveys always adventurous and frequently dangerous conducted by these dedicated technicians have brought to light glaring inaccuracies on existing maps. Uncharted mountain ranges, major streams and high peaks which might menace air traffic have been located and properly charted for the first time. Several planned sections of the inter-American highway have been relocated as a result of their work at a saving of many hundreds of thousands of dollars. The collaborative IAGS program is daily increasing the development of natural resources throughout the hemisphere and in so doing provides an ever greater opportunity for friendly economic relations among the Americas. The Caribbean Air Command School for Latin America at Albrook Air Force Base on the Pacific side of the canal zone is still another Caribbean command inter-American installation. It is the only school of its kind in the Air Force. These are Latin American cadets on a Saturday morning review. The School for Latin America provides instruction in Spanish for such subjects as jungle survival for the downed airmen as well as instruction in aircraft specialties for both commissioned and enlisted students of the Air Forces of the Latin American countries. Like its army counterpart at Fort Gullick on the other side of the canal zone, the Caribbean Air Command School for Latin America contributes to a better organized mutual defense force throughout our hemisphere such as the complexity of modern warfare and the speed with which it changes that preparation for mutual defense requires a continuous program of study and retraining for all components of our armed forces, ground, air and naval. The naval component of the United States Caribbean Command is provided by the commandant of the 15th Naval District. Here a party of official guests representing the government of Panama prepares for a short cruise aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Seawolf. The role of the United States Navy in mutual hemispheric defense is of course a large one. In the course of their military duties and responsibilities, the members of the command become informal person-to-person ambassadors for their respective countries. From remote South American mountains to the deep waters of the Pacific on the coast of Panama, from the familiar replica of the Statue of Liberty which stands in the canal zone, to the great monument to Balboa in the heart of modern Panama City, Americans of all the Americas are joined together in a continuing effort to evolve and to preserve in all its infinite variety a way of life that is uniquely their own. Solidarity is the constant readiness of the Americas to defend their way of life. This ideal exemplifies the true mission of the United States Unified Caribbean Command, combining the forces of several American nations in a joint land, sea and air defense against a simulated attack on a friendly country. Operation Solidarity was both a symbol of determination and part of the means by which the American states maintain themselves in a state of mutual readiness. In addition to their value as training exercises, such operations serve as reminders to would-be aggressors of the reception which awaits them in any free nation of the Western Hemisphere. Canal Zone, the day following completion of Operation Solidarity and a military review in honor of the participating units from Colombia, Peru and the United States. Lieutenant General Andrew P. O'Mara, Commander-in-Chief of the Caribbean Command, addresses members of the participating units congratulating them on a job well done. Operation Solidarity is neither the first nor the last occasion which will see men of many nations coordinating their efforts in a program to assure their readiness to repel an aggression. Because they are ready, aggression is less likely to occur as General O'Mara presents decorations and certificates of achievement to commanders of the units involved. All present are reminded once again that in this hemisphere are many Americas and that from Antarctica to the Arctic Circle, they are united in the will to preserve their mutual independence. Official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center. Presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this state.