Chile’s Great Military Parade 2022 will have 8,000 troops

Nearly 8,000 Armed Forces members will participate next September 19 in the Great Military Parade 2022, a traditional ceremony commemorating the Chilean Army’s Glory Day.

According to the Emol website, the activity will occur in the Ellipse of the O’Higgins Park in Santiago, and personnel belonging to the Army, Navy, Air Force (FACh), Carabineros, and Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) will parade.

The event, which will begin at 10 AM, will be the first Great Military Parade led by President Gabriel Boric and the Minister of National Defense, Maya Fernández.

The activity will also mark the debut of General Javier Iturriaga as Commander in Chief of the Army after taking office on March 9 of this year and will be the last time that the Commander in Chief of the FACh, Air General Arturo Merino, who will leave command in November after four years in the institution, will participate.

The parade will again have an audience, unlike the 2021 edition, which did not have one due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this version, there will be no delegations from invited countries, and the character of the ceremony will be very austere.

A CENTENARY TRADITION

In 1915, President Ramón Barros Luco officially established September 19 to commemorate the Day of the Glories of the Chilean Army.

The military ceremony takes place in the ellipse of O’Higgins Park in Santiago. It is headed by the President of the Republic of Chile, the Minister of National Defense, and the Commander in Chief of the Army.

Since that year, the activity has only been canceled in 1924, 1973, and 2020.

In the Great Military Parade 2021, 6,510 Armed and Order Forces troops participated, 30% less than in the 2019 edition.

The parade counted with 3,074 members of the Army, 944 of the Navy, 860 of the FACh, 1,234 of the Carabineros, and 398 of the PDI, and was carried out with a strict protocol to safeguard the health and prevent contagions of coronavirus.

The Army was represented by the Escuela Militar del Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins, the Escuela de Suboficiales, the Escuela de Infantería, the Escuela de Telecomunicaciones and the Escuela de los Servicios de la División de Educación, and units of the II División Motorizada, III División de Montaña, Brigada de Operaciones Especiales (BOE) Lautaro, Brigada de Aviación de Ejército (Bave), and Regimiento de Escolta Presidencial N° 1 Granaderos.

The Chilean Navy participated with the Arturo Prat Naval School and the Naval Polytechnic Academy (Apolinav). The great absentee in this Great Military Parade was the Amphibious Expeditionary Brigade (BAE) of the Marine Infantry Corps (CIM).

The FACh was present with the Captain Manuel Avalos Prado Aviation School, the Specialties School Sergeant 1 Adolfo Menadier Rojas, and the Air Force Battalion integrated by personnel of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment and Special Forces Tactical School, two companies of Aviation Infantry of Groups N° 41 and N° 44 and an Aviation Commando Company.

The FACh air parade included five Gamebird GB1 aircraft from the High Acrobatic Squadron Halcones, a formation of 10 EnaerT-35 Pillán basic training aircraft, and a formation of 10 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50 and F-16 A/B MLU fighter aircraft from the Aviation Groups N° 3, 7 and 8 of the Iª and Vª Air Brigade.

With information from InfoDefensa