Location, Location, Location

The Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is located on the southern end of the island.  THe

base surrounds the Guantanamo Bay.  There are roughtly 45 square miles of land on the base.  The base is divided by the bay.  The western side is called the Leeward side; the eastern side is called the Windward side.  Flights come into the base on the Leeward side and visitors and residents take a ferry to the Windward side where most base facilities and all housing areas are located.  There is also a significant section of shoreline on the Caribbean Sea.  Some of the base beaches are located on the bay. Others, like the one pictured above are on the Caribbean.  Today I bought snorkeling gear and I plan to learn the ends and outs of this sport!  

My Home

This is my Cuba home! There are 14 neighborhoods on base as well as several apartment style housing units for single service men and women. The housing office has loaned me furniture until mine arrives (sometime in December). My car will be here on the barge on October 30th. They assign housing by rank. Teachers are assigned to either company grade or field grade housing depending on years of experience. I have a young family next door. They are very sweet. Annie will probably have all the babysitting business she can do!

Going to Church at GTMO

I finally have internet at home so I can start blogging all my adventures! I will try to catch up since I have several first impressions to share.

First Everyone here has been so welcoming. They made sure I had everything I would need at my house until my things get here. I am borrowing a very cool Jeep to get around the island. Many teachers are here without family, so they hang out together.

But for my first blog from GTMO I wanted to share with you my experience at church here. There is one main chapel. It is one of the oldest buildings on the base. It also served as GTMO’s first school. The base has several different services throughout the morning on Sunday: Catholic, Pentacost, LDS, Protestant, Gospel, etc…. There is a Catholic Priest on base, but all other services are provided by military chaplains.

I attended the protestant service and the sermon was given by the Joint Task Force Chaplain. He is a Navy Chaplain with many years in the service. His sermon was on overcoming hopelessness. He told a story from his many years with the Navy that makes you proud to be an American. I want to share it with you.

He was on a carrier when Hurricane Floyd (1999 ?) was bearing down on Florida. The Navy was sending the ships out to sea where the ships could better weather the storm. His ship was a day behind the rest of the fleet and had to sail through the edge of Floyd. There were 20 foot waves and very rough seas. They had just made it to calm waters when they recieved a message from the Coast Guard that a tug pulling a barge was sinking. There were 8 crew members on board. The carrier was the closest ship to the tug. It was 100 miles away. The carrier reversed course and sailed back into Hurricane Floyd to execute a rescue mission. The Carrier had two helicopters on board. As they sailed back into the storm the waves were 30-40 feet. At one point waves washed over the deck which sits 70 feet above sea level. There were hurricane force winds and torrential rains.

As they sailed back to the tug it had capsized. Five individuals had made it into a life raft. Three individuals had life preservers. I am sure that all eight individuals thought they were going to die. Ironically the individuals with the life preservers were found fairly quickly. Their vests had some type of signaling device that could be picked up by satellites and transmitted to the ship. A Helicopter was dispatched and they were able to lower men into the water and pull each man out of the water. Remember this was happening in the middle of a Class 4 Hurricane.

The five men in the raft did not have any type of transmitter. There was no way to electronically track these men. Knowing the odds of finding the raft were astronomical, the helicopter pilot flew back into the middle of the storm to search for the five remaining crew members. He estimated how far and in what direction he thought the raft would have drifted from the wreck. It was raining so hard at this point, the helicopter crew could not see out of their windshield. They could only see straight down. When the helicopter pilot arrived at the coordinates that he plotted, he had the crew look down and miraculously they were directly over the raft.

The pilot, crew and certainly the men in the raft thought it was an act of God. In the midst of hopelessness, God was able to use this event, these brave Americans to show his power and his mercy.

This is the type of story that makes me proud to support our military families. It makes me feel like I am doing my small part to help these brave men and women.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you some pictures of my new home.

History

Many people have asked me…. how do we have a base on Cuba when we don’t even have a diplomatic relationship with them?  Good question.  Guantanamo Bay is the oldest U.S. base outside the continental U.S.  It was established by treaty in 1903.  IN 1934 when the U.S. and Cuba still had a good diplomatic relationship, the treaty was re-negotiated giving the U.S. a perpetual lease on the property that can only be broken by a mutual agreement between the U.S. and Cuba.  In 1959 the government of Cuba was overthrown by Fidel Castro.  It became a communist state and continues under that political designation today.  The U.S. government maintains that because Castro’s government cashed one of the rent checks paid to it for the lease at Guantanamo Bay that the treaty is still in effect and legal.  To date Castro’s government has cashed only one of the rent checks paid by the U.S. since his takeover in 1959 and they claim it was by mistake.  

Official Government Travel

Annie and I have not one, but two passports now. The blue passport is our tourist passport and our red passport is for official travel only. We were only allowed to have our official passport once our “orders” were processed by HQ (That’s military talk for head quarters). We are definitely learning a new culture… military culture!

The Beginning of the Cuban Adventure

On July 31,2013,  I received a text message that my resume had been referred to Sampson ES/HS from the Department of Defense Education Activity.  I learned later that Sampson ES/HS is on the Naval station at Guantanamo Bay.  A couple of weeks later I found myself accepting a job offer at Sampson.  This blog will chronicle our adventures in Cuba.