Nation: The Good Life at Gitmo

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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.