Upsetting the Guards

"We're not going anywhere anytime soon," declares Navy Commander Jeffrey M. Johnston in newspaper reports. He states that he "gets upset" when people equate the closing of the detention center with a shutdown of this 45-square- mile base. The United States maintained this base long before the first detainees arrived in January 2002, he says. Johnston, Guantanamo's public works officer who requisitions the $4,085 annual payments to Cuba to "lease" the base, describes the military as a perfect tenant. "We don't bother the landlord. We don't (complain) when things go wrong. We pay our rent on time," Johnston says. "It's like an Eisenhower-era town: You can leave your door unlocked, no one uses bike locks, and you even have the Communist enemy to stare down," Johnston says. In the past year, a Taco Bell and an Irish pub have opened. There is also a Subway. The US military has considered "in a very, very preliminary way" basing Marines at Guantanamo for rapid deployment elsewhere, says Navy Captain Mark Leary, Guantanamo's commanding officer. Even if "democratic change" comes to Cuba, the navy would probably still want to stay here, he says. "I think there's a good reason we've been here for 110 years. I don't think we would abandon this place."