 SAMS graduates first saw active service in December 1989 during Operation Just Cause in Panama . A core planning cell of seven SAMS graduates " crafted a well rehearsed and well executed plan that simultaneously struck some roughly 50 objectives in a single coordinated blow " . According to Colonel Kevin Benson , the tenth director of the school , " The Army and SAMS faced a test of battle and the new group of highly @-@ educated planners appeared to have passed the test with flying colors . " After its mission in Panama , the army 's leaders began to draw on SAMS to assist in additional ways . In the early 1990s , U.S. Army leaders called upon the school to help develop army doctrine . Lieutenant Colonel Thomas E. Mitchell , Colonel James McDonough ( the fifth SAMS director ) , and other members of the SAMS team helped revise the U.S. Army Doctrinal Manual 100 @-@ 5 Operations in 1990 – 1993 . 
