The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, March 8, 1995               TAG: 9503080508
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN AND JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITERS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   85 lines

NAVY MAY EMPTY GUANTANAMO PROPOSAL WOULD LEAVE REFUGEES BUT TRANSFER MILITARY FUNCTIONS

The Navy apparently is preparing to close its Atlantic Fleet training center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - a move that would recast the 90-year-old base as little more than a tent city for refugees from the island's communist government.

``We've got to decide soon'' about Guantanamo's future role, Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, chief of naval operations, told reporters Tuesday. The continuing presence of about 25,000 Cuban migrants at the base has hampered operations there, he acknowledged.

The service on Monday quietly sent word to Capitol Hill that it would transfer major Guantanamo functions to the naval base in Mayport, Fla. On Tuesday, officials said that the announcement was premature and that the change is only under consideration.

Still, several sources familiar with the Navy's planning described the shift as likely.

``The Navy says this is a streamlining move to make the training cycle more efficient,'' said one Norfolk-based officer. ``I just see it as the beginning of the end'' for the Cuba base.

Retired Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan, who as 2nd Fleet commander sent crews to Guantanamo for training, said the Navy may just be trading problems with the shift to Mayport: The Florida base is too small to replace what Guantanamo offers, he said.

This includes a gunnery range and - at nearby Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico - a missile range.

``You're out there where the sea space and air space are such that you don't have to worry about bagging a friendly aircraft'' with a stray shot, said Shanahan, who now heads the Center for Defense Information in Washington.

Cuba's isolation also helps sailors keep their minds on their lessons, a Norfolk-based naval officer said.

``The reason we went down there was to get the ships out of home ports and away from families, so that we could concentrate on training, training, training, and have no outside interference,'' the officer said.

Also expected to move to Mayport from Guantanamo are engineering training and ship-maintenance centers.

Except for a supply center, which provides visiting ships with fuel and food, the shift would leave little on the 45-square-mile base, roughly the size of Norfolk. The base has long been considered a political thorn in the side of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Training limitations may be a secondary concern in any move away from Guantanamo, said a former Atlantic Fleet commander.

The base always has been ``more strategic . . . than functional,'' said the former commander, retired Adm. Harry D. Train II of Norfolk. He described Guantanamo as ``a useful place to monitor activity in the Caribbean,'' particularly drug trafficking from Central and South America.

But since last summer, when President Clinton ordered that Cuban and Haitian refugees bound for the United States be intercepted and taken to tent cities at Guantanamo, the base has turned into a $20 million-per-month headache for the U.S. military.

More than 6,000 troops have been moved to the base to build and run the refugee centers, and several thousand Navy and Marine dependents who lived at Guantanamo have been evacuated.

Boorda and John H. Dalton, the secretary of the Navy, told senators Tuesday that the Pentagon is looking for a private contractor to take over management of the refugee camps. The Clinton administration refuses to admit most of the migrants to the United States and has been unable to persuade them to return home. ILLUSTRATION: Graphics

MOVING

The Navy apparently is planning to transfer major Guantanamo

functions to the naval base in Mayport, Fla., including the Atlantic

Fleet training center, and engineering training and maintenance

centers.

STAFF

ABOUT THE BASE AT GUANTANAMO

SOURCE: Public Affairs Office, Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES CUBA by CNB