Editing Armed Forces of Liberia (section)

===Doe regime (1980–1990)===
[[File:Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger - Samuel K. Doe.jpg|thumb|alt=President Samuel Doe walks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger during a visit to Washington DC in 1982|President [[Samuel Doe]] with United States Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] during a visit to Washington DC in 1982]]

The AFL became involved in politics when seventeen soldiers launched a coup on April 12, 1980. The group was made up of [[Master Sergeant]] [[Samuel Doe]], two [[staff sergeant]]s, four [[sergeants]], eight [[corporal]]s, and two [[Private (rank)|privates]].{{sfn|Adebajo|2002|p=24}} They found President Tolbert sleeping in his office in the Executive Mansion and there they killed him. While then-Sergeant [[Thomas Quiwonkpa]] led the plotters, it was the group led by Samuel Doe that found Tolbert in his office, and it was Doe, as the highest ranking of the group, who went on the radio the next day to announce the overthrow of the long-entrenched [[True Whig Party]] government.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=53}}

Doe became Head of State and co-chair of the new [[People's Redemption Council]] government. Quiwonkpa became commander of the army and the other co-chair of the PRC. (In the aftermath of the coup, the title of LNG Brigade commanding general was confusingly changed to commanding general of the AFL, reporting to the chief of staff, and it was this position that Quiwonkpa inherited.){{sfn|Ellis|2001||p=56}} Henry Dubar (who had helped recruit Doe personally years before) was promoted in one leap from captain to lieutenant general as chief of staff. From 1980 onward, Doe's systematic promotion of ethnic [[Krahn]] to sensitive posts in the government and military, began to drive deepening divisions within the AFL, among others with Quiwonkpa's [[Gio Tribe|Gio tribe]], and to hamper morale.{{sfn|Ellis|2001||p=56}}

<blockquote>"... Military discipline was an early casualty of the coup. The revolt had been an enlisted men's affair, and one of the first instructions broadcast over the radio had ordered soldiers not to obey their officers. Over four years later, according to observers, the reluctance of most officers to impose discipline had combined with the unwillingness of more than a few enlisted men to accept it."{{sfn|Nelson|1984|p=271}}</blockquote>

The launch of Doe's coup meant that Major William Jarbo, another soldier with political ambitions who was said to have excellent connections to U.S. security officials, had his takeover plans forestalled. He tried to escape abroad but was hunted down and killed by the new government.{{sfn|Ellis|2001||p=53}} The junta started to split in 1983, with Doe telling Quiwonkpa that he was planning to move Quiwonkpa from command of the army to a position as secretary-general of the [[People's Redemption Council]]. Unhappy with this proposed change, Quiwonkpa fled into exile in late 1983, along with his [[aide-de-camp]] [[Prince Johnson]].{{sfn|Ellis|2001||p=57–58}}
In 1984 the AFL included the Liberian National Guard (LNG) Brigade and related units (6,300 men), and the Liberian National Coast Guard (about 450 men).  The brigade, formed between 1964 and 1978, was based at the Barclay Training Center (BTC) in [[Monrovia]], and was composed of six [[infantry]] [[battalion]]s, a [[military engineer]] battalion (which circa 1974 under the command of Colonel Robert M. Blamo completed an airstrip at Belefania Town),<ref>'Looking at the LNG Brigade,' Armed Forces Day Brochure, 1973–74, [[Ministry of National Defense (Liberia)]], via [[University of Liberia]] Library</ref> a [[field artillery]] battalion (the First Field Artillery Battalion, reportedly at Camp Naama in [[Bong County]]) and a support battalion.{{sfn|Nelson|1984|p=270-272}}

Three of the infantry units—the First Infantry Battalion, stationed at Camp Schieffelin, the Second Infantry Battalion at Camp Todee in northern [[Montserrado County]], and the Sixth Infantry Battalion at [[Bomi Hills]]—were tactical elements designed to operate against hostile forces. The other battalions, the Third Infantry Battalion based at the Barclay Training Centre in Monrovia, the Fourth Infantry Battalion at [[Zwedru]] in [[Grand Gedeh County]], and the Fifth Infantry Battalion at [[Gbarnga]] in [[Bong County]] served mostly as providers of personnel for non-military duties. Soldiers in these units were used extensively as policemen, customs and immigration officials, and as tax collectors.{{sfn|Nelson|1984|p=270-272}}