THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240530
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY GERMANOTTA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Coast Guard and Navy ships ringing Cuba seem to be stopping the steady flow of refugees before they can reach the United States, according to the officer in charge of the operation.
``The read is, we have had very, very few leakers,'' Coast Guard Vice Adm. James M. Loy said Tuesday.
As commander of the Atlantic Area and U.S. Maritime Defense Zone, Loy administers the Cuban refugee interdiction program ordered last week by President Clinton.
The Coast Guard reported rescuing 2,548 Cubans at sea on Monday and another 1,757 by 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Except for a few who needed immediate medical attention, the refugees were to be transported to tent cities on the U.S.-leased Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Loy stopped in Portsmouth on Tuesday for a change-of-command ceremony aboard the Bear. The 270-foot medium-endurance cutter is based at the Coast Guard Support Center in Churchland and is scheduled to leave later this week for Cuban patrol duty.
Loy was to fly to the Caribbean after the ceremony to get a first-hand look at the situation.
He said there are 20 Coast Guard vessels on patrol off Cuba now, along with at least seven Navy ships. It's a tiered operation, Loy said, with smaller utility and patrol boats sailing just off the Cuban coast, backed up by larger craft in the Florida Straits.
Loy said he has also ordered more Coast Guard help, calling on cutters from as far away as Long Beach, Calif., to join the operation. The Navy is also stepping up its efforts, Loy said, and there will soon be some 30 ships scouring the area. Two left from Norfolk on Tuesday, the dock-landing ship Ashland and the oiler Leroy Grumman.
In addition, he said, the Coast Guard and Navy have 30 aircraft flying over the region, helping locate refugees and their flimsy rafts. Essentially, he said, the mission is finding and saving people at sea.
``Nobody does this better than the U.S. Coast Guard,'' Loy said. ``We're the very best search-and-rescue organization in the world.''
Under the current plan, the Coast Guard is picking up the Cuban refugees and transferring them to Navy ships which then ferry the Cubans to the naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
So far, the operation has progressed smoothly, Loy said.
He has firsthand experience with such operations. In 1980, Loy commanded a Coast Guard cutter on the front lines of the Cuban exodus from Mariel. More than 125,000 refugees made their way to the United States as part of the Freedom Flotilla.
In 1980, he said, most of the Cubans were aboard real vessels. Now, Loy noted, most are on unsafe homemade rafts.
The 90-mile trip takes refugees through shark-infested waters and one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world, Loy said.
When the Coast Guard picks up refugees, it burns or sinks their vessels, Loy said.
``A raft out there is what we call a target of interest,'' Loy said. ``The last thing we want to do is waste time going back to that raft.''
So far, the weather has been favorable, Loy said, but this is hurricane season, and storms can come up very quickly in the region.
``We were very fortunate that the last storm that came our way passed safely off to the northeast,'' he said.
Loy said he has asked his staff to be ready for at least a month of high-intensity operations. In 1980, the Coast Guard's Cuban mission lasted five months and cost so much the service nearly ran out of money.
Loy said he will be ``carefully watching the added expenses'' this time.
Loy praised the cooperation of his military partners in the mission, calling it a ``truly wonderful joint operation'' involving Coast Guard, Marine and Navy personnel.
He also complimented the Cuban-American community for working with the Coast Guard. In 1980, a flood of boats left Florida to pick up Cuban relatives in Mariel.
This time, Loy said, ``the southbound vessel is virtually nonexistent.''
And the refugees are different as well, he said.
In 1980, Castro ``was emitting his sick, lame and lazy,'' loading them into boats for the United States, Loy said. The Coast Guard dutifully picked them up and brought them to America, where some still remain in prisons.
This time, Loy said, it's a flood of desperate people anxious for change.
Those who have been questioned seem to be willing to go to any country where they have a chance to succeed, Loy said.
``There's a great pent-up frustration with Cuba, period,'' he said. by CNB