THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280442
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
Some of the toys, left behind by the children, are finding their way into the base trash Dumpsters.
There are no American children to use them.
The playgrounds are empty. The school has been locked. The mini-mall and its parking lot appear deserted, except for pockets of sailors, airmen and Marines who dart in and out.
For a base once coveted as a garden spot in the Caribbean, where children could be raised without fear of crime and where families relished time together, ``Gitmo,'' as it is known, is changing.
The children and spouses were evacuated 10 months ago when up to 45,000 Haitian and Cuban refugees swarmed onto the base seeking political asylum.
This week, the base lost the Fleet Training Group, a main tenant that operated here for five decades, responsible for training the green crews of Atlantic Fleet ships.
Fifty-two years of training the fleet out of this fenced-off naval station on Communist soil officially ended Monday when Capt. Charles M. Tuck, its commander, ordered his pennant hauled down - and transferred to Mayport, Fla., where the Navy has decided the job can be done more efficiently.
The 120-member department is leaving with mixed feelings. Those who haven't seen their families reckently are happy about the forthcoming reunions; others are sad to be leaving what had been a great place to serve.
``Your situation here in Gitmo has been full of turmoil during this year,'' Rear Adm. Ernest E. Christensen, commander of the Atlantic Fleet Training Command, told those who remained for the final ceremony.
It was a year ``the likes of which few American communities are able to comprehend and few, if any, would have been able to survive,'' he said.
Among the men and women of the Fleet Training Group saying their goodbyes this week were a few offering to give away some of their possessions.
``Hay, you want my garden hose?'' asked one sailor heading for Mayport.
``Sure,'' replied a civilian who will be staying.
``Well, you can have it if you rewrite my orders and let me stay here,'' the sailor quipped.
Other sailors was delighted that they will fly out Friday.
``In just a few days I'll be back with my family,'' said Chief Petty Officer Dan Winstein, who brought his wife and five children here 2 1/2 years ago.
Ten months ago, when the refugee population was still climbing, Winstein was ordered to send them back to Texas.
``It's been rough,'' he said. ``The only thing that kept me going was church and work and a lot of phone calls. I've spent over $2,000 in phone calls since they left.''
Guantanamo Bay Naval Station's main mission - training the fleet - is gone.
The deep shoreline and crystal green bay had been perfect for navigation and sea and anchor training, members of the Fleet Training Group said.
``It was the best harbor for that. No other harbor like it,'' said Petty Officer 1st Class James Watson, one of the Fleet Training Group trainers in navigation and seamanship.
``You can get an inexperienced officer down here and, if he makes a mistake, no one cares. We're not afraid of him running aground. Well, almost.''
Christensen, an F-14 Tomcat pilot and former carrier commander, recalled the historic days when the bay was lined with the Great White Fleet early in this century and battleships were moored near its shores.
What the Cuban missile crisis of the early 1960s, hurricanes and Communist threats couldn't do - force the Navy out of Gitmo - American fiscal constraints may succeed in doing.
``We're in the age of the '90s, trying to find exact efficiencies,'' Christensen said of the Fleet Training Group move. ``It's a different world and different time, and Mayport is the right answer.''
Today Guantanamo Bay Naval Station has 2,000 military and 1,500 civilian members, plus a temporary force of 4,600 in the Joint Task Force, responsible for taking care of the remaining 5,000 refugees.
Last fall, more than 56,000 people were on this base: 45,000 Cuban and Haitian refugees, 2,800 base personnel and about 9,000 military members who formed the Joint Task Force.
The remaining refugees - about 5,000 Cubans and 300 Haitians - are leaving at the rate of 500 a week. They are going to Homestead, Fla., to be processed for entry into the U.S. All will be gone from Gitmo by February or March.
So, with the refugee problem nearly solved and Gitmo's main mission - training the fleet - now gone, what's left for the base?
Remain as a thorn in Fidel Castro's side, say most observers.
``We have always had the job of strategic presence and logistic support to the fleet,'' said Capt. James F. ``Bookie'' Boland, the naval station's commanding officer.
``Not all the ships that came down here would come here for fleet training, although the vast majority would. The other functions that will have to continue are perimeter security, the Marine barracks, air operations, port operations, supply and public works.
``If you buy into the strategic presence, then you have to maintain all those functions at some level to keep the base up and running.''
No clear decisions have been made for the base's future, Boland said. He believes, however, the base will continue with its strategic presence and become, at the very least, a logistics base for the Caribbean.
``There's a big debate over whether we need this base or not,'' he said. ``My personal feeling is that we won't be leaving this base anytime soon. Everyone is anticipating major changes in Cuba sometime in the future.
``I can't conceive of us pulling out of here with that prospect.''
When will the families return to Gitmo? Boland isn't sure.
``I'm optimistic,'' he said.
For Senior Chief Petty Officer Herb Woerndell, who recalls the scene at the base dump, the sooner the better.
``I have a little boy 4 years old,'' he said. ``Seeing all those toys in the dumpster the families have thrown away, and I know there is a little boy or girl who would love to have that toy back home in their yard where they belong.
``Seeing all these bicycles and the playgrounds that are abandoned, kind of hits home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Graphic
A HISTORY OF GUANTANAMO
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Map
KRT
U.S. NAVAL BASE, GUANTANAMO
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BASES BASE CLOSINGS U.S. NAVY by CNB