The Good Life at Gitmo

Christopher Columbus anchored in the bay in 1494. Pirates and privateers used it in the 17th century as a hideout. U.S. forces landed there in 1898 to help the Cubans overthrow their Spanish rulers, and stayed for good. Guantanamo Bay, a pouch-shaped indentation in southeastern Cuba, is one of the world's great natural harbors and, even in an age of intercontinental missiles, strategically valuable. Last week the 45-sq.-mi. bay and the Navy base on its shores took on new significance when Jimmy Carter announced that the Marines would soon come ashore on maneuvers to demonstrate U.S. preparedness.

The U.S. controls Guantanamo Bay, or Gitmo as it is known to servicemen, under a perpetual lease negotiated with the Republic of Cuba in 1903. When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he demanded that the Americans leave, but the U.S. refused. In 1964 Cuba cut off water to the base; the U.S. soon constructed water-desalinization and electrical-power plants to make the base self-sufficient. In accordance with the treaty, the U.S. sends. Castro a token rent of $4,000 each year. But for 19 years Castro has let the checks pile up uncashed. Last week TIME Correspondent Don Sider made one of the rare visits to the isolated base permitted outsiders. His report:

Gitmo is home to 1,850 sailors, 420 Marines, 16 Coast Guardsmen, 1,713 civilian workers and their 1,800 dependents. They live in drab government housing that is clustered among quonset huts and shabby machine shops, making Gitmo look much like military bases on the mainland. Still, the fact that no one can go beyond the 17.6-mile chainlink fence that surrounds the base ensures that life at Guantanamo Bay is different. There is no direct contact with Cubans off the base. All communications with Havana must be routed through channels on the mainland. One exception is maintenance of the shipping channel, which is used by both U.S. warships and Soviet transports. Silt is now being cleared by a Cuban dredge, with a U.S. observer in attendance.

The base is much like a small American town plunked onto a tropical is land. Its 14 Little League teams play every day during the baseball season. The Gitmo Swingers get together every Thursday for a square dance. Six outdoor theaters show films nightly; they are old, but free. There are a daily tabloid newspaper, three radio stations and a TV station that broadcasts taped network shows -- days after they are seen on the mainland. Viewers watch football games of which they already know the outcome. The fishing is great: grouper, snapper and snook. So are the scuba diving and sailing.

The commercial hub is Sherman Avenue, where Harry's Hong Kong Tailor Shop is tucked alongside the base exchange. Gitmo has a zoo, but it has only a handful of animals: a pony and a burro and a few goats, rabbits, ducks and chickens. Because water is expensive, $7 per 1,000 gal, residents sprinkle their lawns with dirty wash water.

Despite the isolation, families are often reluctant to leave when their two-or three-year assignments are over. Many of them volunteer for another tour. So do the unmarried servicemen, which says something about the quality of the fishing and sailing since there are only 250 single servicewomen on the base. Navy Chief Jim Starr explains why his wife and two teenage daughters are delighted with Gitmo: "We haven't been together this long since 1959." The climate is particularly popular with many Americans. Says Nieta Morrison, wife of the base's executive officer: "I feel like I'm on a vacation." Agrees Base Commander Captain John H. Fetterman Jr.: "It's nice and sunny all the time." But, he adds, "we live in an arena where we have to be alert."

The perimeter fence is protected by a 723-acre minefield and guards carrying M16s. From time to time, everyone on the base, including women and children, practice evacuation exercises-- similar to fire drills on the mainland-- just in case of an emergency like the 1962 missile crisis. Even so, the Americans at Guantanamo Bay have taken the flap over the Soviet brigade on Cuba with remarkable calm. One reason is that they have never seen a Soviet soldier, and they see Cuban troops only through binoculars.

Next week there will be considerable excitement at Gitmo, when 1,800 Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., hit the beach by helicopter and boat. For four weeks they will live in barracks and tents, simulating siege conditions. When the maneuvers end, the most visible light will again be the one that burns over the tennis court, and Gitmo will return to its tropical ways.

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