Military expenditures in 1998–99 totaled $940 million or 9.6% of gross domestic product. In 2002, there were 2,796 active-duty military personnel stationed in Puerto Rico. Principal of the four US military installations in Puerto Rico are the Roosevelt Roads Naval Reservation, near Ceiba, and the Naval Security Station at Sabana Seca. Ft. Buchanan, an army base, is in Guaynabo. Use of Vieques for training maneuvers, including shelling and bombing, forced many of that island's residents to move; the US Navy withdrew its forces in May 2003. Aerial and naval target practice on Culebra by the US Navy was halted by protests and legal action. Defense spending decreased dramatically in 2002: US defense agencies spent $133.8 million on procurement contracts greater than $25,000 during the first nine months of 2002. During all of 2001, the same agencies spent $297.5 million on such contracts.
As of 1996, 129,000 veterans of US military service were living on the island. Puerto Ricans suffered 731 combat deaths in Korea and 270 in Vietnam.
Reserve and national guard personnel in Puerto Rico totaled 18,123 in 1996, with the army accounting for the vast majority (16,306).