THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310454
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, CUBA LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
George and Misty Rowland, high school sweethearts who married in June in tiny Glade, Va., had been together in their new apartment here for just three weeks when they got their first painful lesson on the realities of life in the military.
``It was just devastating,'' Misty, 19, said Tuesday afternoon, biting her lower lip and fighting tears. ``It was our first chance to be together.''
Now, as she prepares to evacuate the base with almost 2,500 other military dependents and civilians this week, Misty is just trying ``to make the best of the time we have.''
The first planeload of 300 dependents, ordered off the base as the military struggles to house and care for a flood of Cuban refugees, is to leave for Norfolk early this afternoon.
They'll be traveling light, limited to 70 pounds of luggage each plus car seats for small children. An assortment of dogs, cats and other pets will fly ahead, to be waiting at Norfolk Naval Base when the dependents arrive late this afternoon.
It is the first such evacuation since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when President John F. Kennedy cleared this American enclave in southeast Cuba in preparation for a possible Soviet or Cuban attack.
The threat never materialized and, in the 32 years since, thousands of Navy and Marine families have come to look on ``Gitmo,'' as they call it, as a safe, comfortable duty station.
``It's a small community. . . . Everybody knows everybody and it's nice,'' said Scherry MacCartney, 27, the wife of a Marine captain. ``I love it here.''
From the living room of their spacious ranch house on the base, the MacCartneys can look out directly on Guantanamo Bay. Married for five years, they started their family here; son Mitchell will turn 11 months old Tuesday, when he and Scherry are to fly out.
Until the last few weeks, when the Cuban and Haitain refugees arrived and more than 3,500 U.S. troops came in to take care of them, the MacCartneys never felt a need to lock their home or car.
Now John MacCartney takes such precautions and he said Tuesday that as much as he hates to see his wife and son leave, he knows they should go.
``Some people are frustrated that they're bringing the migrants on base,'' MacCartney said. ``It doesn't seem like a lot's being done for people who aren't migrants.''
Navy and Marine officials say they understand the frustrations and are trying to smooth out the dependents' departure. The rapid influx of migrants spurred the military to change its plans repeatedly last week so that just as families digested one set of rumors and orders, another more ominous set popped up.
Chief Petty Officer Doug Coulter, base public affairs officer, put out three extra editions of the base's weekly paper last week, but ``sometimes it's garbled information by the time it gets out.''
When the first rumors of an evacuation hit last week, Scherry MacCartney said, people went into shock: ``We were frustrated. We were angry.''
Now with the departures about to begin and more of the questions getting answered, people have calmed down, she said.
Her big concerns are her husband and the other troops staying behind, Scherry MacCartney said, along with the furniture and other household items she has gathered while building a life here.
Strangers will come in after she's gone to pack items for shipping to the family's next duty station. She's hoping only that the military will keep promises to do the work when her husband can be around to oversee it and make sure that things get safely into storage in Norfolk.
More immediately, she wants to know if ``there's going to be someone there to help me,'' when the plane lands in Norfolk today. ``Will the paperwork be done?'' and will the Navy have arranged a quick flight out - as promised - to her family in Detroit. ILLUSTRATION: Norfolk rehearses for Evacuation
Color staff photo by IAN MARTIN/
Beverly Johnson and Brady Howard were among the stand-ins who helped
Navy and Marine personnel prepare for today's arrival of the first
military dependents from Guantanamo Naval Station.
Staff graphic
CubaWatch Tuesday
Refugees Picked Up, as of 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Hampton Roads Ships
Rescue totals
Florida straits Weather
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE EVACUATION by CNB