Commander of base sees a world of change

 



  GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- What a difference a terrorist 
detention center makes.

  It's gotten so busy around this once-sleepy Caribbean outpost 
that the man in charge may soon restore the stoplight that, 
until Navy downsizing in the 1990s, hung near the only McDonalds 
in all of Cuba.

  Between the armored vehicles ferrying Taliban and al Qaeda 
prisoners to Camp X-Ray and the international observers whizzing 
past, it may be time to dust off the only traffic signal that 
ever operated on the 45-square-mile base, says Navy Capt. Robert 
A. Buehn.

  ``It is in our museum, we still have it,'' he said. ``It was 
right at Sherman Avenue, just a little bit this side of the 
McDonalds.''

  Until a Marine general arrived two weeks ago to run the prison 
project, Buehn was the highest ranking officer here -- a cross 
between mayor, overseeing the schools, social clubs and 5K run 
on Martin Luther King Day, and Navy commander, in charge of this 
strategic air and sea refueling station.

  Now he's still head honcho of the base itself. But he's not 
directly responsible for the nascent offshore U.S. terror 
compound, which, depending on whether the Pentagon decides to 
stage military tribunals here, may one day make its nickname -- 
Gitmo -- as notorious as Devil's Island.

  ``When I came down here, Gitmo had been downsized quite a bit 
and we were just maintaining our mission of being a refueling 
port and an airfield. We were the equivalent of a sleepy little 
fishing village,'' he said in an interview.

  ``Now in two weeks we've had 1,200 people drop in on us. It's 
become like a boom town. And I can't speak for everybody on the 
base but I think most people are glad to be part of it, excited 
by it.''

  Born in Brevard County, Buehn is a Navy pilot whose rank of 
captain equals an Army colonel. He arrived here in 2000, and is 
now presiding over a transformation of this suburban-style base 
that, until its latest assignment, was a backwater of 2,400 
people -- 700 of them Navy and Marine members, the rest Jamaican 
and Filipino contract workers plus family members.

  Some might suspect it's a bit more dangerous now. But Buehn said 
the new mission has given residents -- both civilians and 
service members -- a sense of unity and purpose after the 
uncertainty of Sept. 11 left them sitting on the sidelines of 
the U.S. war on international terror. So much so, he said, that 
not a single family member or contractor has so far requested to 
leave here, the oldest U.S. base overseas, and the only one left 
in a communist country.

  And, he said, neither he nor Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, 
commander of the prison project, are considering the evacuation 
of sailors' wives and children, some of whom live not far from 
Camp X-Ray. With a heavy layer of Marine and Army security, 
their safety is not a concern, he said.

  Nor is there any worry over the infrastructure, which was 
stretched to the limit in 1994 and 1995 when the base became an 
encampment 55,000-plus Haitian and Cuban boat people -- and the 
commander sent civilians stateside to make room for the 8,000 
U.S. personnel who came to tend to the migrant project.

  Gitmo's history is a storied one. It was established in 1903, 
served as a World War II outpost against German U-Boats and has 
been an incessant irritant to Fidel Castro -- who tried to tear 
up a $2,000-a-year, 1934 lease agreement between Washington and 
Havana, to oust the American imperialists from the island.

  In fact, tensions got so hot in 1962 that the base slipped Navy 
wives and kids onto a cargo ship and evacuated them during the 
Cuban Missile Crisis. Fourteen months later, Castro cut off 
utilities to the base, compelling the U.S. Navy to install 
electricity and desalination plants.

  But Buehn said the Cubans have not raised any formal objections 
to the base's latest mission. Moreover, he labeled as ``a 
serious offer,'' a so-far spurned proposal by Havana to send 
medical teams here to support the prison camp project.

  ``I think it was a serious offer,'' he said of the overture, 
which some in Miami scorned as a publicity stunt. ``If we took 
them up on it, they would help. My understanding is that they 
have some capability in medical care in Cuba.''

  Geographically the base is split by the bay, and united by a 
ferry service. Most residents on the windward side -- among 
them, now, some 158 alleged terrorists flown in from 
Afghanistan. Leeward is left to the single functioning air 
strip, some Marines and overnight flight crews.

  Were Washington to decide to maintain Guantanamo as an offshore 
terrorist detention center, Buehn said, he would propose 
building a maximum security facility on leeward side.

  Meanwhile, Buehn is wondering what the latest mission will do to 
Gitmo's image.

  ``As base commander, I've given a lot of thought about what the 
name Guantanamo Bay may conjure up in someone's mind. And, of 
course, I want it to be good things,'' he said, not ``like 
Alcatraz or Devil's Island.''

  Yet, ``all in all we're glad to have an important mission and a 
place to work to fit in the war on terrorism. I think time will 
tell how the name will be associated.''



Copyright 2002 Miami Herald