THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507050056
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: My Turn
SOURCE: Jack Dorsey
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Guantanamo Bay Naval Station has become a bachelors' pad.
It wasn't designed that way. But with the tens of thousands of Cuban and Haitian migrants who were being housed there, 2,000 military dependents had to be sent back to the States 10 months ago.
Today few married couples are left on the Cuban-owned naval base, once revered as a paradise by sailors and Marines stationed there.
A visit to Gitmo last week - the fifth since May of last year when Caribbean politics began heating up - was the strangest of all.
Not only are there no kids, but also the men and women who are left seem somehow traumatized by the children's absence.
Even those who are unmarried miss the kids.
``Everything is so quiet,'' said Petty Officer 2nd Class Gordy Montgomery, 27, a bachelor who has been assigned to the base a year.
``There are no teachers, no kids, no nothing,'' Montgomery said.
``I have a couple of guys in my shop who are married, and they hate this place now. They said if the kids and wife were here they wouldn't mind staying. Every week we have people leaving. Everybody wants to leave. Nobody wants to be here.''
Seaman Trammel Smith, 19, assigned to Gitmo for the past five months, also is a bachelor. He, too, sees the pain on the married sailors' faces, especially after work when there is little to do.
``Morale is kind of low. Everybody wants the dependents back,'' said Smith. ``At least there's plenty of room on the jogging field. And there's no line for chow.''
First Class Petty Officer Catherine Phillmon, who has been on the island five months, compared Gitmo to the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which was her duty assignment last year.
``I love it here,'' she said, adding that Gitmo is still a paradise compared to Diego Garcia, which has always prohibited families because of its remoteness and lack of facilities.
Cmdr. Carl Albury, the base executive officer, is fully aware of the boredom during off-duty hours and has been encouraging base personnel to take advantage of organized programs, including sports and college courses.
Albury teaches history at night on the base.
It's an alternative to what idle time might produce otherwise.
For example, there was a brawl in a base bar earlier this summer between some Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel that resulted in some injuries.
That was not what the military had in mind when it called for joint operations, Albury told them in a base newspaper column.
What the folks at Gitmo need right now is to stay busy, he said.
What they also need is for the kids to return.
This was never meant to be a Diego Garcia.
The migrants, which numbered 45,000 at their peak, have dropped to 5,000 today, said Capt. James F. ``Bookie'' Boland, the base commander. Even those are leaving at the rate of 500 a week. All will be gone by February or March.
Boland said to give him four months after the last migrants leave so he can store the tent cities, get the base back in order and ready the place for the families.
Navy leaders have not said so definitely, but just maybe the kids can return next June.
Meanwhile, maybe, instead of a USO show this holiday season, the Navy could send a troupe of kids to make the sailors and Marines smile again. by CNB