Colombian Navy
The Colombian Navy, officially the Colombian National Navy, also known as the "Armada Nacional" or just the "Armada" in Spanish, is the naval branch of the military forces of Colombia.
The Navy is responsible for security and defence in the Colombian zones of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the extensive network of rivers inside the country, and a few small land areas under its direct jurisdiction.
The Colombian Navy has a strength of 35,086 personnel as of 2013 including approximately 22,000 in the Marine Infantry corps.
The acronym "ARC", is used both as the official ship prefix for all the Colombian Navy ships, as well as a common short name for the Navy itself.
Mission
As stated in its institutional site, the mission of the Colombian Navy is:“Contribute with the defense of the Nation through the effective use of flexible naval power in the maritime, river and land spaces under its responsibility, in order to fulfill the constitutional role and participate in the development of sea power and the protection of the interests of Colombians".
In order to accomplish its mission, the Colombian navy establishes four strategic objectives:
- Protection of the population and resources and consolidation of territorial control.
- Neutralization of illegal drug trafficking.
- Strategic deterrence.
- Maritime and riverine safety.
Its formal motto has been historically, "Plus Ultra" ; but more recently, and as part of a public media campaign in the 2000s, the additional slogan "Protecting the blue of our flag" became known and has been adopted institutionally as well, perhaps as a result of being a more relatable catchphrase to the public than the formal Latin motto.
Its former slogan was "Sailing our pride".
History
The history of the Colombian Navy is interesting.19th century and origins
The Colombian Navy celebrates its birthday on July 24, the anniversary of the Battle of Lake Maracaibo fought on July 24, 1823, which was the last large naval battle of the Spanish American wars of independence.During 1815, a Spanish army headed by Pablo Morillo besieged Cartagena, as the first step of its "Pacifying Expedition". The five-month siege was so harsh that earned the city its title of "Heroic". The small independent navy was impotent against the large fleet commanded by Morillo, but nevertheless managed some daring actions, in particular that of Luis Brión, who attempted to run the blockade with his corvette Dard with a load of guns and powder to the city before fleeing again to Haiti.
In 1816, Simón Bolívar attempted his first campaign, the Cayos expedition, sailing from Haiti with seven schooners and corvettes: Bolivar, Mariño, Piar, Constitución, Brión, Fénix, and Conejo. But this expedition fizzled out due to infighting amongst its generals shortly after the liberation of Margarita Island.
General Francisco de Paula Santander created the Naval School on June 28, 1822.
In 1824 the first – and only – eight cadet officers graduated from naval school. On March 3, 1826, the Ministry of the Navy was created, with Lino de Clemente as minister. By 1826, both from bought and captured vessels, the Colombian Navy had become a respectable force, commanding a relatively large number of ships, including a ship of the line, a frigate, six corvettes, five brigantines, 10 schooners, 13 gunboats, and many minor vessels.
But the fledgling government was strapped financially, and in a decree of December 7, 1826, Bolívar decommissioned the Naval school, abolished the Ministry of the Navy, and slashed the budget for all navy and marine affairs by more than half. The Navy would not recover from this blow for almost a hundred years. The incipient navy of 1825 saw its ships slowly sold, scrapped, or abandoned, and by the late 1830s there were no more than a handful of serviceable ships, mostly assigned to the Army.
Under President Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, a sizeable naval force was acquired during 1866, with the steamers of war Colombia, Cuaspud and Bolívar being purchased in England, and the Rayo acquired from America. Rayo was the largest, carrying four 9 inch guns, two smaller 30-pounders, and six torpedo launches, and was incorporated into the Colombian fleet after accusations she was due to be delivered to Chile or Peru for the war against Spain. It was not to last, congress decreed the ships of the navy should be sold on June 6, 1867. The Rayo was subsequently blown onto a reef September 12, 1867 and Cuaspud was wrecked on her delivery voyage just eleven days later. The Colombia was sold in 1868, and the Bolívar, last of Mosquera's men-of-war, sold in 1872.
During the rest of the 19th century, there was no formal navy to speak of. Some vessels and naval units were assigned to the Army, and throughout the civil wars of the 1880s, some transport vessels were hurriedly bought, and similarly disposed of, but no formal navy appeared.
On January 11, 1895, an important step was made in re-establishing the formal Colombian Navy when the three gunboats of the coastguard and the Magdalena were transferred from the Ministry of the Treasury to the Ministry of War.
Early 20th century
By 1907, when President Rafael Reyes Prieto created the Naval Academy, through decree 783 of July 6, 1907, only to be closed off yet again by his successor, Ramón González Valencia on December 28, 1909.The conflict with Peru in 1932 made the Colombian Navy reappear, this time to stay. New ships were acquired and the "Escuela de Grumetes" was founded in 1934 and the "Escuela de Cadetes" was founded in 1935. Nowadays both schools continue their work of instructing the Colombian men and women of the sea.
World War II
During World War II, Colombia initially declared its neutrality, but nevertheless leaned towards the Allied cause; between 1939 and 1941 nothing much changed either in political relations nor in the sea, as the war was seen as a mostly European issue. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 changed things somewhat and prompted Colombia to break diplomatic relations with the Axis countries, but not to formally declare war. By 1942 the Colombian Navy found itself performing regular patrols in the Caribbean Sea-something that was only occasionally done in the years previous to the war-due to German U-boats marauding the Panama Canal access routes, mostly hunting for American and British vessels entering or leaving the canal.These German hunting runs, despite the Colombian Navy patrols, eventually resulted in the sinking of three Colombian ships during 1942–43, under circumstances that were never fully cleared up. The three vessels were: Resolute, a 52-tonne schooner sunk on June 23, 1942, by ; Roamar, a 110-tonne schooner sunk on July 27, 1942, by and finally, Rubby, a 39-tonne schooner sunk on November 1, 1943, by the. Rubbys sinking led to Colombia formally declaring a 'belligerent status' against Germany and the other Axis powers on November 23, 1943 and as a result the Colombian Navy significantly stepped up its presence in the Caribbean after this date and throughout the rest of the war.
On March 29, 1944, as the tanker MC Cabimas was en route from Cartagena to Panama City escorted by the destroyer ARC Caldas, the latter under the command of Captain Federico Diago Díaz. Around 8:00 pm, Caldas detected the periscope of a U-boat and proceeded to engage it with cannon fire and depth charges. Later accounts identified this U-boat as. While badly shaken and perhaps damaged, U-154 managed to escape, and was sunk four months later in another engagement with and. For his quick reaction in defence of the national seas, Captain Diago Díaz was later decorated by the Colombian government.
Korean War
Colombia was signatory to the Declaration by United Nations in 1943, and one of the original 51 signatory countries to the creation of the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference. As such, when the Korean War erupted, and the UN Security Council issued S/RES/83 : Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea, Colombia was the only sovereign country in Latin America that offered support, by sending a frigate. This act, and the subsequent effort and sacrifice of the Colombian troops and sailors on the defense of South Korea have made the relationship between South Korea and Colombia much closer ever since. The Colombian forces deployed in Korea became known as the Colombian Battalion.Perhaps not surprisingly, there were multiple opinions in the US about accepting this help: On the one side, the State Department wanted to make sure the UN-sponsored operation had indeed the collaboration of multiple countries, the Treasury viewed it with disbelief and worried about the underlying extra cost that such 'help' would likely represent and might need to be paid by the US in the end, and the Defense Department wanted as much external help as possible, while also losing sleep about the logistics nightmare of integrating foreign units with little knowledge of its standards and even the language. Finally, the Colombian offer was accepted, and with Government Decree 3230 of October 23, 1950, Colombia's participation becomes formal and the Navy Ops Chief would receive orders to incorporate the Colombian frigate to the Order of Battle, under the 7th Fleet's Task Force 95. Eventually, Colombia provided three frigates that would rotate their service throughout 1951–1955.
The frigate ARC Almirante Padilla took to sea on November 1, 1950 under command of CC Julio Cesar Reyes Canal, stopping at San Diego, California, for fitting and then at Hawaii for operations training with the US Navy, finally reaching its destination at the Korean coast on May 14, 1951. Almirante Padilla performed operations with the escort groups GT95.5 and Blockade GT95.2, participated in the coastal bombardment at Wonsan and patrol runs at Wonsan, Seongjin and the islands of Cho-Do and Seok-Do; it finished its first tour on January 19, 1952.
The frigate ARC Capitán Tono, under command of CC Hernando Berón Victoria replaced Almirante Padilla in January, and performed patrol and coast operations also around Wonsan and Seongjin, and submarine patrol around the Sasebo naval base; it received the Republic of Korea Merit medal for its support to the naval operations in the area; it finished its first tour on November 12, 1952.
The frigate ARC Almirante Brión, under command of CC Carlos Prieto Silva formally relieved Capitán Tono in November 1952. However, it only arrived in the area by June 1953, as it had to be refitted in Japan due to some damages during its previous tour as USS Burlington. It performed patrols at the same areas as its sister ships and would finish its first tour on May 17, 1954.
All three frigates continued their service tours, until October 1955, and distinguished themselves in their duty along with other units from United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Thailand, amongst others.