page_title: Military history of Puerto Rico
section_title: Gulf War and Operation Restore Hope
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of Puerto Rico / Post Cold War campaigns / Gulf War and Operation Restore Hope
caption_attribution_description: English: USMC Capt. Manuel Rivera
context_page_description: The recorded military history of Puerto Rico encompasses the period from the 16th century, when Spanish conquistadores battled native Taínos in the rebellion of 1511, to the present employment of Puerto Ricans in the United States Armed Forces in the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  Puerto Rico was part of the Spanish Empire for four centuries, during which the people of Puerto Rico defended themselves against invasions from the British, French, and Dutch. Puerto Ricans fought alongside General Bernardo de Gálvez during the American Revolutionary War in the battles of Baton Rouge, Mobile, Pensacola and St. Louis. During the mid-19th century, Puerto Ricans residing in the United States fought in the American Civil War.
  In the 1800s, the quest for Latin American independence from Spain spread to Puerto Rico, in the short-lived revolution known as the Grito de Lares and culminating with the Intentona de Yauco. The island was invaded by the United States during the Spanish–American War. After the war ended, Spain officially ceded the island to the United States under the terms established in the Treaty of Paris of 1898.
context_section_description: In 1990, 1,700 Puerto Rican National Guardsmen were among the 20,000 Hispanics deployed to the Persian Gulf in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as part of the Gulf War. Four Puerto Ricans lost their lives, including Captain Manuel Rivera, Jr. of the Marine Corps, a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx, who on January 22, 1991 became the first Marine, and therefore the first Hispanic, to be killed in Operation Desert Shield. Rivera was killed during a support mission over the Persian Gulf. On January 30, 1991, the U.S. House of Representatives paid tribute to Rivera.
  During this era Haydee Javier Kimmich, from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, was the highest-ranking Hispanic female in the Navy when she was promoted to the rank of captain (O-6). Kimmich was assigned as the Chief of Orthopedics at the Navy Medical Center in Bethesda and reorganized their Reservist Department during Operation Desert Storm. In 1998, she was selected as the woman of the year in Puerto Rico.
  Operation Restore Hope was an American military operation with the support of the United Nations that was formed to deliver humanitarian aid and restore order to the African nation of Somalia, then  suffering from severe famine, anarchy, and domination by a number of warlords following the collapse of Siad Barre's Marxist government and the outbreak of the Somali Civil War. On January 30, 1993, Private First Class Domingo Arroyo, Jr., a Marine from Puerto Rico, became the first of the 44 American soldiers killed during the operation. He was ambushed in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, by Somali warlords.
caption: Captain Manuel Rivera Jr., (USMC)
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