page_title: Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Commandos assigned to the Dominican counterterrorism unit rehearse the proper way to exit a helicopter prior to conducting a live exercise on how to recover a downed pilot during a training event at San Isidro Air Base, Dominican Republic, March 3. The training was in preparation for Fused Response 2011, a combined U.S. and Dominican military exercise, taking place March 7 - 11 designed to increase the capacity to combat terrorism and illicit trafficking. (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Alex Licea, Special Operations Command South Public Affairs)
context_page_description: The Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic is the combined national military of the Dominican Republic. It consists of approximately 44,000 active duty personnel, approximately 60 percent of which are utilized mainly for non-military operations, including security providers for government-owned non-military facilities, toll security, forestry workers and other state enterprises, and personal security for ministers, congressmen, etc. The president is the commander in chief for the military and the Ministry of Defense is the chief managing body of the armed forces. The primary missions are to defend the nation and protect the territorial integrity of the country. The Dominican Republic's military is second in size to Cuba's in the Caribbean.
  The Army, twice as large as the other services combined with about 56,789 active duty personnel, consists of six infantry brigades, an air cavalry squadron and a combat service support brigade. The Air Force operates two main bases, one in southern region near Santo Domingo and one in the northern region of the country, the air force operates approximately 40 aircraft including helicopters.
context_section_description: The events that led to the United States military intervention of 1916, brought about the disappearance of any vestige of military structure in the Dominican Republic, setting the intervening forces a military government headed by Captain William Knapp, who make an interim police force called "Constabulary "equivalent to an" armed police force as a military unit "and he had the task of maintaining internal order and enforce the implementing provisions of the US government. This body, purely police function disappears in 1917, leading to the creation of a National Guard. As a result of this historic event of our recent past, the country inherited a hierarchical and organizational akin to the US Marine Corps structure, which served as a platform to the transformations that later gave rise to the armed forces we know today, made up of three components, terrestrial one, one naval and one air.
  This land component, now called the National Army, inherited by both its organizational structure of the National Guard organized by the US occupation forces, which operated from April 7, 1917 until June 1921, when it becomes Dominican National Police by Executive Order No. 631 of Rear Admiral Thomas Snowden, who was at that time the military governor of Santo Domingo. After the US military occupation in 1924, Horacio Vásquez wins the presidential elections of that same year. Among his first decisions, decrees the change of the Dominican National Police in National Brigade, a situation that continues until 17 May 1928, when new turn changes the name of the Army by Law No. 928, but basically inheriting a structure Police, who obeyed schemes imposition of public order demanded by the country at that time and not those of an army in their typical roles.
  Due to its characteristics and missions, organizational structure that demanded presence throughout the country, which was realized with the creation of posts and detachments in different parts of the country and the establishment in some provinces of company size units, many of which still Army retains today. Over the years and already existing National Police created by decree No. 1523 of March 2, 1936 of President Trujillo, many of these units, posts and detachments became part of it, perfectly adapted to its structure, since These were essentially created to play a policing role. So great was the influence that had the National Guard in Dominican society and very particularly in the rural population, which even today are many Dominicans who often referred to the Armed Forces and unique way to the Army as " The Guard ".
  Meanwhile, the Navy has remained since its inception attached to the principles that gave rise, assuming only two name changes since its inception, but gradually evolving the transformation of what was a body created for military purposes, capable of landing and ships with weapons to face possible naval invasions, to be a component mainly responsible for enforcing the provisions on navigation, trade and fishing, as well as international treaties
  The Dominican Air Force, meanwhile, emerges as an independent component in 1948, under the chairmanship of Generalissimo Rafael L. Trujillo Molina, with characteristics of innovation and modernism, which gave mobility, versatility and depth to the Armed Forces and the complement in the following years would become: a military capacity to project military power in the Caribbean environment. The situation of this air component has changed significantly after reaching its climax in the 50s, when it was one of the best air force equipped in the region, which was due to the strategic guidelines of a long-lived military dictatorship It made efforts to stay in power and he saw in this component one of its mainstays against any invasion or subversion against the dictatorship.
caption: Dominican Republic commandos in counter-terrorist and counter-illegal drug trade operations.
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