THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010549
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Wednesday was a day and then some for the Shropshire family.
The family of five started the day with last-minute packing at 5:30 a.m. in their Guantanamo Bay home and ended it munching fruit in an air-conditioned hotel room 11 hours later.
In between were a ferry ride, a three-hour flight, a whirlwind of Navy processing, frenzied interviews with the media and plastic-wrapped sandwiches at the Navy base.
``To have to unexpectedly jump up, snatch up, pack up, relocate, evacuate, dislocate . . . it's difficult,'' said a weary-sounding Dana Shropshire, a hospital corpsman with the Navy.
Shropshire and her husband, Dennis, a chief petty officer, are both on active duty in Guantanamo Bay, and will return there in 10 days to finish a tour of duty that ends next June. In the meantime, their three children, Kia, 20, Danika, 13, and Desire, 9, will stay with relatives in Atlanta.
``Right now it's like a vacation,'' Dana Shropshire said. ``But it's going to sink in sooner or later that we have to go back without them. But we've done all the crying already. We have to accept it.''
But that doesn't mean they have to like it.
Dana's hand-painted T-shirt read: ``Navy Mom of American Refugees.'' Kia's shirt had this message: ``I am a dislocated, relocated, evacuated, unemployed Gitmo Resident.'' And little sister Danika had a shirt that said, ``Bill and Hillary, feed me.''
``We don't mean to be disrespectful,'' Dana Shropshire said about the shirts. ``We just don't like leaving a place we love.''
Dana Shropshire arrived in Norfolk about 1 p.m. Wednesday, then waited two hours for her husband and children to arrive on another flight.
Nine-year-old Desire clutched her white teddy bear as she came down the airplane ramp and ran gleefully into her mother's arms. Navy greeters showered the children with American flags, star-studded wands and sandwiches as a military band blared out ``Stars and Stripes Forever.''
``It looks like all of Norfolk and half the East Coast is here to help us deal with being back in the U.S.,'' Dana Shropshire said as her youngest child clung to her hand.
At a nearby hospitality center, the Navy gave Dennis Shropshire a key to a Navy Lodge room, cashed checks, made flight arrangements for the next day, and made sure the family's luggage was delivered to their hotel doorstep. Navy greeter Sara Lee led Dennis Shropshire through the whole process in less than 30 minutes.
``That is the fastest I have been through Navy processing in my whole Navy career,'' said Dana Shropshire, who has been in the Navy 15 years, to her husband's 16 years.
Wednesday's evacuation ended more than three years of family life in Guantanamo Bay for the Shropshires. They enjoyed the close-knit friendliness of the community and how children could play in the neighborhood without fear of crime. ``We loved it,'' Dana Shropshire said. So much so that she and her husband extended their tours of duty twice and were thinking about extending them again. The evacuation changed all that.
Although the Navy couple are used to the unexpected, they worry most about the impact of the rushed move on their children. Desire and Danika were getting ready to start school again next week. Kia had been attending college in Guantanamo Bay and was two semesters away from graduating. She also had to leave a job.
``It's hard starting over,'' Kia said. ``But it's a relief to get here. It's like we've been on a string wondering if we were going to leave for a week and a half. That's stress in itself. Everyone was stressed out. No one was eating, sleeping. It was like `OK, do we go or not?' ''
Still, Danika worries about how life in America is going to differ from the life she knew on the remote base. ``I'm scared I'll do something, say something wrong, and get shot,'' Danika said. ``On the news, that's all you hear about, getting shot.''
But Wednesday evening it was good just to be in an air-conditioned room far from the drone of airplanes and the glare of TV cameras.
``We're going to go out and get a big seafood dinner,'' Dana Shropshire said. ``We just want to rest and relax.'' MEMO: Staff writer Dale Eisman contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Dana Shropshire runs toward her 9-year old daughter, Desire, to give
her a hug after Desire's arrival from Cuba at Norfolk Naval Air
Station.
Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Navy greeters watch the arrival of the Boeing L1011 as it rolls up
to a Norfolk Naval Air Station hangar Wednesday. The plane carried
military families from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base who were forced to
leave by the heavy influx of Cuban refugees.
KEYWORDS: GUANTANAMO BAY CUBA EVACUATION by CNB