Guantanamo Bay — outside the wire

[thedrifter]

Guantanamo Bay — outside the wire


By Emily Brown, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, July 5, 2008

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — At night, the 17.4 miles of fence line between Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and the communist-ruled Republic of Cuba is a twinkling string of lights in the distance.

Pretty, but a reminder that the 7,265 residents of this base are in one of the military’s most unique living situations: an isolated edge of an island they can never explore due to fundamental differences with their host — the Republic of Cuba.

And then there is what Guantanamo Bay is best known for: detaining terrorist suspects after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"When people think of Gitmo, they think of detainees," said Kathy Einhorn, principal of W.T. Sampson Elementary and High School at Guantanamo Bay. "But there’s a whole community here and they’ve been here a long time."

"GTMO" is America’s oldest continuously functioning overseas base, and its only military base on communist soil. The station provides logistical support to the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard operating in the Caribbean and battles drug trafficking and offers protection for those attempting to sail in un-seaworthy vessels.

"Strategically it’s of huge importance because we are the last naval station in this Caribbean theater," said Cmdr. Sylvester Moore, executive officer of the base. "Because of Guantanamo Bay, our U.S. government, our U.S. military, doesn’t have to ask permission to use this base and the resources it provides.

"This base can be a perfect jumping-off point" for exercises in the theater, he said.

Guantanamo Bay is on the southeast end of Cuba, the opposite side of the island from Havana. It is 520 miles south of Miami. Jamaica is 90 miles to the south, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is 180 miles southeast.

Most of the living and working space of the 45-square-mile base hugs the bay. The rest of the base is either hilly, rugged terrain covered in cacti and palm trees, or salt and mud flats not suitable for building.

The base is centered on the bay, with the east side being more developed. The northeast corner of the base hosts the only gate into Cuba, a gate none of the residents have used since 1959, when communist revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government and the U.S. government banned servicemembers from entering Cuban territory. The general population on the base can’t even see the gate or get near it due to a roadblock.

Along the ocean are the detainee camps. They are separated physically and visually from the main town by rugged mountains and a gate secured by Joint Task Force personnel.

"This base isn’t all about the [detainee] camps," said Kaylee Williams, 18. "There are different commands that make this base go. It’s not all about the military members. There are families here, too."

The west side of the bay has the airport, the migrant camp for foreign nationals the Coast Guard may pick up in the ocean, and a few living quarters. The east and west sides of the base are connected by a ferry.

The base population ebbs and flows. In 1985, at the height of fleet training, there were about 6,500 people on base. By 2001 the number was down to 2,700. Because of the detainee camps, the population has grown to 7,200. But what the community stresses to outsiders, whether it’s teens via the social-networking sites on the Internet or executives in official briefings, is that this base is much more than detention facilities.

"Gitmo would be here even if the detainees were not," said Katherine Steele, the school’s guidance counselor.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Guantanamo: How did we get here?
By Emily Brown, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, July 5, 2008



An agreement was signed in February 1903 by Cuban President Estrada Palma and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt leasing certain land and water areas in Guantanamo Bay for coaling (fueling) and a naval station at a cost of $2,000 in gold. In 1934 the agreement was revisited and a treaty signed, giving America a perpetual lease that will only be terminated if the U.S. abandons the area, or by mutual agreement between the two countries.

To uphold the treaty, the United States maintains a continuous naval presence, fueling capabilities, the shipping channel and the fence line and makes the annual rent payment, now equivalent to about $4,000.

Servicemembers used to move freely through the gate to visit nearby Caimanera and Guantanamo City. Many Cubans worked for the U.S. government at the naval station.

The relationship between Cuba and the U.S. changed in 1959, when Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrew the Cuban government. The U.S. prohibited its servicemembers from going into Cuban territory. Cubans who currently worked on base were allowed to keep their jobs, but Castro ordered that no new hires were allowed to work for the United States.

Now the Northeast Gate is closed to U.S. servicemembers and is used by three Cubans and a handful of high-ranking military officials.

The Cubans are picked up on the U.S. side and driven to their jobs, which are largely symbolic. The trio pick up retirement pension checks from the U.S. government to former Cuban employees.

And monthly, Commanding Officer Capt. Mark Leary and leading officials from the Cuban military meet at the gate in a "very formal, very scripted" meeting, said Executive Officer Cmdr. Sylvester Moore. "It’s just to have a line of communication," he said.

Moore said they will warn the Cubans of any construction near the fence line or exercises that would otherwise seem suspicious. If officials need to communicate between meetings, they do so through e-mail, he said.

"They do the same very religiously for us," Moore said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sense of community makes it feel like home


By Emily Brown, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, July 5, 2008

Isolation is something residents of Guantanamo Bay have to come to terms with. They are, after all, limited to about 45 square miles of land with a bay, mud flats and jagged hills taking up most of it.

The Republic of Cuba is their neighbor to the north — a place few Americans under the age of 60 have seen. To the south is the Caribbean Sea.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is a 3½-hour plane ride away. Flights, often on a noisy prop plane, leave regularly but are reserved well in advance and fill up fast. Most come with a waiting list.

And yet, "isolation" doesn’t come up in many conversations, but the word "community" does.

A Friday night dance recital sponsored by the Morale, Welfare and Recreation department packed the Windjammer, an activities and dining building.

"Last night, you could tell it’s more than just parents there," said Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Gerry Tembrock, 45, three months into a six-month unaccompanied tour.

There is plenty of security, with Marines guarding the fence line, police patrolling the base and the Joint Task Force mission supervising terror detainees. That and the geographical confines create a feeling of safety not usually found in the States, said Taylor Edwards, a reading specialist at the elementary school who raised two sons at Gitmo.

No one locks car doors or sometimes even their homes.

When Edwards came to the naval station in 1996 there were no cell phones, no ATMs and the base had its original 1960s gas station, she said. She’d let her sons walk to the movie amphitheater and know they were safe.

"I never thought about where my boys were," she said. "They were on the island. It’s like a small family, a small community. You can have a [parent-teacher] conference in the grocery store."

Before the JTF came there were more families on base than single people and everyone knew everyone else, said Craig Basel, director of MWR.

"It was really a little town. Kind of an Andy Griffith-Mayberry thing," Basel said.

Cmdr. Sylvester Moore, the executive officer, said the public support on base he’s witnessed in a year and a half is "just awesome."

Distractions are limited, he said, as are some resources.

"We recognize that we’re all in this together, so that creates the mind set for community."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Photos

http://www.stripes.com/08/may08/GTMO/

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Guantanamo: After the prisoners are gone <br />
<br />
<br />
By Andrew O. Selsky, The Associated Press <br />
Mideast edition, Saturday, July 5, 2008 <br />
<br />
(Day 2 of a three-day Stripes series on Guantanamo Bay Naval Base)...

[thedrifter]

At Guantanamo, a DODDS school unlike any other
Isolated setting is good and bad for students

By Emily Brown, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, July 6, 2008

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — There is no vandalism or theft. Bullies and gangs don’t exist. Class sizes are small. There were two scuffles in the 2007-2008 school year that probably don’t qualify as fights.

Going to school at W.T. Sampson High School and Elementary School in Guantanamo Bay has its perks.

But then there are the social side effects to being a kid on an isolated U.S. naval station.

Options are limited, so dating can be difficult. Playing sports means going up against adult intramural teams. And there are no college fairs, so searching for higher education is a personal endeavor.

"The challenge is, you’re on the island and don’t see the pressures of the outside world," said Katherine Steele, Sampson’s guidance counselor. "I don’t know if it’s a strength or a weakness, but it’s a reality."

Taking the good with the bad, Major Torley, 17, is glad to be at W.T. Sampson High School. He spent his ninth- and 10th-grade years in a much larger school in Beaufort, S.C., but has otherwise always lived at Guantanamo Bay. Academically, this setting works for him.

"It’s so personal," said Torley, a junior. "If you don’t know something you can’t just sit in the back of the class."

The school’s principal, Kathy Einhorn, said students leave backpacks in the hallway when they go to lunch. When she arrived on base she thought "this is like going back to the 1950s," she said.

Living and raising a family in Guantanamo Bay is great, she said, but what happens when her students leave the island?

"It worries me because it’s not the same anywhere else," Einhorn said.

The school tries to get students off island as much as possible, Einhorn said. The sports and activities can change year to year. This year the school offered basketball, tennis, softball and soccer for both girls and boys.

Some athletic teams were able to travel to Florida or Puerto Rico to compete in the past, but that has ended as most athletic programs prefer to play teams within their own athletic conferences, Einhorn said.

Now, students compete against Morale, Welfare and Recreation teams that are often full of active-duty personnel.

"There’s no football because we can’t put our kids up against the military," Einhorn said.

Academic-based extracurricular activities provide the best way to get students interacting with other students in the states, she said.

The National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society students traveled to a conference in Atlanta.

Most trips last at least a week due to the flight schedule, Einhorn said.

"We’re looking at getting as many of our kids involved as possible so we’re not sending the same kids off the island," she said.

Unlike other Department of Defense Dependent Schools across the world, Sampson cannot integrate projects with schools off base because the U.S. does not associate with communist Cuba. But being linked into the governing body for all military schools means students at Sampson have regimented requirements for graduation and an online learning system that offers specialty classes.

In the last few years, graduated seniors have left for Penn State, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, the University of Florida and Florida State and Eastern Tennessee State University.

"There are still ways to overcome the lack of resources based on our size," guidance counselor Katherine Steele said. "I know curriculum-wise they are prepared. They can’t fall between the cracks."

Ellie