Arturo Merino Benítez

[3] He was enrolled in the prestigious Escuela Militar del General Bernardo O'Higgins at Condes, Santiago at the age of 15 where he stood out as an exemplary cadet, being designated as a Brigadier Major before graduating in 1908 as an artillery second lieutenant.

In 1917 Arturo graduated as a Staff Officer from the Chilean War Academy, In the following year Argentine Luis Candelaria in April 1918 and Chilean Dagoberto Godoy (the first Chilean to cross the Andes Mountains) in December 1918 successfully crossed the Andes Mountains in their Bristol M1 C. Greatly impressed by these developments and the use of dirigibles, airships (notably Zeppelins) and aircraft, he delivered a landmark lecture at the Academia Guerra on "superiority of aviation over cavalry in long-distance exploration and in combat itself.

[5][6][7] Arturo's long career would oddly begin in 1908 with the Artillery Regiment No.4, Miraflores, in Traiguen town which has an ethnically German descent population.

In 1923 Arturo was appointed as a military attaché to the Chilean Embassy in Rio De Janeiro and subsequently promoted as Major.

This personal drive of his helped shaped popular political opinion and on March 21, 1930 it materialised as a decree for the creation of the Chilean Airforce (FACH) by the then President Carlos Ibanez Del Campo.