I guess you were here when you were in the USAF. I have a friend who is retired from the USAF, he met his Dominican ex-wife while he was in Panama. Came here, loved the country and now is living here with his Dominican girlfriend.
When traveling to the tropics is always a good idea to be vaccinated against schistosomiasis AFAIK. I don't know much about this disease but I've found this link for you
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/caribean.htm >I would love to. I've wanted to go there for years. The Dominican Republic is one place I've never been to that I've always wanted to see. (well I did see it once for a very short time but it doesn't count - i wasn't a tourist and I usually forget about it) I have friends who have been there and they had to get shots for schistosomiasis (spelling? bugs in fresh water) before going. Is that still a problem? Are natives immune?
I'm a mixture of Albert Einstein and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The only trouble is that I got Einstein's body and Schwarzenegger's brain