July 14, 1970
Page 24142
NAVY TARGET PRACTICE ON CULEBRA
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President; Culebra is a small island off Puerto Rico with a population of 743 American citizens. Like many of our other possessions, Culebra is a fishing community largely untouched by mainland America. But Culebra does have a distinction – it is a target for the U.S. Navy.
I ask unanimous consent that articles from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Armed Forces Journal be printed in the RECORD at the end of my remarks. These articles describe the kind of life Culebrans must live under the constant threat of Navy bombardment of their small island. I have sent a wire to the Secretary of the Navy asking for a report on the Navy’s justification for this activity. I cannot imagine a less questionable manner for the Armed Forces to show its respect for the people of an American territory.
There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From the Wall Street Journal, June 10, 1970]
CULEBRANS FIRE BACK: ISLANDERS SEEK TO END ROLE AS A NAVY TARGET – SHELLS FALL CLOSE TO GOVERNOR OF PUERTO RICO
RESIDENTS TO GET HEARING IN CONGRESS
(By Jerry Landauer) WASHINGTON. – For more years than they care to remember, 743 American citizens living on tiny, sun-washed Culebra in the Caribbean have endured all that the U.S. Navy can dish out.
Their island and nearby uninhabited cays between Puerto Rico and St. Thomas are being bombed, strafed, shelled and torpedoed almost every day. Houses shake, women sometimes huddle in fear to pray, and children shout: "Las bombas – vamanos!" (Bombs – lets get out of here!)
Ships and planes batter Culebra – a municipality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico – because part of the seven-mile-long island is a target range that the Navy deems indispensable. Officials acknowledge that probably no other civilian community bears so disproportionate a share of the defense burden, but they can’t promise the Culebrans relief; the Navy says no other equally suitable spot can be found to provide "realistic" training for Atlantic fleet gunners.
For years, fishermen and farmers accepted the Navy’s contention. Having sent 12 young men to war in Vietnam, the islanders patriotically endured 228 days of aerial rocket firing practice last year, 123 days of naval gunfire and 114 days of strafing by jets. Target practice lasted an average of three and a half hours, even on Sundays, and it seems to be intensifying. Through May 22, naval aircraft recorded 17,860 runs to the target this year; that’s a faster pace than last year’s total of 37,500.
What’s more, Culebra is so inviting that the Navy lets ships of friendly nations join in the shooting. In the past year the target area was raked by warships flying the flags of such countries as Venezuela, Great Britain, Brazil, West Germany, the Netherlands and even Trinidad-Tobago.
LIVING IN TERROR
All this action, according to Culebra’s municipal assembly, requires islanders to live in a "psychological state of confusion, anxiety, insecurity and terror, and we are in constant danger of losing our lives."
Indeed, the islanders are in revolt, and today they’re finally getting a hearing in Congress. The mayor, World War II veteran Ramon Feliciano, intends to tell a House Armed Services subcommittee that abuse of his people is making the Navy unwelcome. "The Navy must leave Culebra in peace," he insists.
What irks the islanders most right now is a Navy plan to convert 2,300 precious acres – nearly a third of the island – into a residence-free "safety zone." This land is needed, the Navy says, so that Walleye and Bulldog missiles can be fired at nearby cays with minimum danger to the population. But if this plan is executed, the Culebrans will be hemmed in; a peninsula to the northeast is already an "impact area" for shells.
"They now have us, the fishermen, corralled like animals," says 56-year-old Juan Rosano. Still, Culebrans might have accepted this further infringement on their freedom if the Navy had been more sensitive to citizen complaints. (Some officers think land speculators and left-wingers are chiefly responsible for the embarrassing agitation.) Instead, the service often appears to treat the people in a high-handed manner.
A minor but revealing example: On April 11, 1968, Anastacio Soto filed a claim for $197 to cover the loss of nine lobster traps he said were destroyed by ships on maneuver. The Navy countered on July 16 with a compromise offer of $67.50, which the poor but proud fisherman rejected; his claim for the full sum is still pending.
IGNORING THE SCHEDULE
To satisfy such small claims in full would cost far less than the ammunition poured in Culebra in a few minutes. Besides, fishermen haven’t received a cent for the loss of catch caused by naval maneuvers. (Fish killed by shells or ships sometimes pile up on shore.)
In the past, moreover, aggrieved islanders rarely filed damage claims, in part because Mayor Feliciano’s predecessor, who served from 1944 to 1960, seemed more friendly toward the Navy than toward them; he was, in fact, a retired Navy man. "I didn’t know where to go or that I have any rights," storekeeper Justino Quinone recalls. "The Navy officials were important and they did not speak Spanish."
Yet the handling of claims is a relatively minor factor in Culebra’s discontent. Far more important is the Navy’s apparent inability to observe the firing schedule it tacks up at the post office and at the air strip.
As recently as May 22 the Navy pulled what could have been a ghastly blunder. No gunfire was scheduled that day, and no warning flag was hoisted from the Navy observation post, so six children went swimming in Flamingo Bay. But at 3:30 p.m. mortar shells started falling, close not only to the swimmers but to a yacht occupied by Luis Ferre, governor of Puerto Rico.
The governor had just visited Culebra to find out why the Culebrans were clamoring – and to receive Navy assurances that unscheduled firings rarely occur.
"This incident changed the thinking of all of us," Gov. Ferre now says. "Every step must be taken to protect the life and tranquility of the people of Culebra."
Statements collected for the House subcommittee hearing by attorneys Richard D. Copaken and Thomas C. Jones Jr. of Covington & Burling, a Washington law firm giving free legal advice to the Culebrans, suggest that Gov. Ferre’s experience isn’t unique.
Fisherman Francisco Blancera says low-flying planes fired close to his boat last February, causing him to jettison fishing gear. Tomas Rivers was swimming when he sighted a warning from the Navy’s observation post; "Without giving us time to leave they began shooting mortars," he complains. Oncio Cibera says four jets dived at his fishing vessel last fall; "When the first one fired I started the motor to leave, but all four of them fired, one after the other."
Angered by such incidents, Mayor Feliciano composed an "ultimatum to the United States Navy" from "we, the people of the island of Culebra." Among other, things, it charges the Navy with hurling "live missiles and napalm on our birds and their nests," allegedly in violation of an order issued in 1909 by President Teddy Roosevelt, a conservationist.
Such prose is, of course, intended to tug at the sympathies of mainland Americans, in hopes of compelling the Navy to search anew for alternative firing ranges. And to make sure his message isn’t being missed, Mr. Feliciano even demands "space for interment of our dead," besides a hospital, homebuilding sites and recreation facilities. The Navy notes that no islander has ever been killed by gunnery exercises.
[From the Armed Forces Journal, May 1970]
CULEBRA: NAVY FOCUS ON CINCLANTS BULLS EYE IS WAY OFF TARGET, BUT MAY BE COMING INTO RANGE
(NOTE.-What matters is ...
(The Journal sometimes gets stories that we’d rather not print. In many ways, this is one of them.
(But we don’t make the news: We report it.
(Sometimes our reporting isn’t as accurate, we find out, as our readers rightfully expect. (For a good example, see this week’s Defense Forum.) Our research isn’t always as thorough as it should be for a journal which readers expect to lay out both sides of an important issue. From time to time, we realize too late that we’ve really not been as fair or as objective as an independent spokesman for the Services ought to be.
(But "Spokesman far the Services" doesn’t mean "mouthpiece for the brass."
(Our hearts are with the United States Navy, but not about Culebra. Not now. Our biases, our opinions have shifted from the Navy’s side to the Culebrans as we tracked down and checked out the story on these pages. In this case, we think our facts, our research, our candor will check out better than the Navy’s – at least until RAdm Norvell Ward, new Commander of the Caribbean Sea Frontier, finishes an analysis he seems quickly to have set in motion when the Culebran problem was brought personally to his attention last week.
(We have spent more money, more hours, more interviews checking out this story than any news the "new" Journal has printed in 2½ years. Because we were sort of hoping there really wasn’t anything of substance to report. That’s why this issue went to press three days late: The substance we had hoped would evaporate, didn’t. Its flavor, however, showed some prospect for improvement after The Journal visited Culebra last Friday and Saturday.
(This is not a news report. It’s a commentary, with our opinions. It’s candid, but we think it’s fair. We hope the Navy – in time – can think so, too.
(We chose, in many instances, not to print the names of Navy men who are quoted here, but whom we now believe to be wrong, or misinformed, or poorly advised. What bothers us is that they were the Navy "experts" on Culebra. But they were sincere and, we believe, wanted to be honest – if sometimes less than candid.
(What matters is not who said what, but what now should be done. With the Culebrans. By the Navy. For the country which both of them love. – The Editors.)
(By Ben Schemmer, Clare Lewis, and the Journal Staff)
CULEBRA ISLAND, May 22.- Like the mouse that roared, the tiny island of Culebra – owned in part by 743 Spanish-speaking, patriotic U.S. citizens who have representation but no vote in Congress – has appealed to the Governor of Puerto Rico and the House Armed Services Committee to help it win a battle with the United States Navy it has tried hard to avoid.
The Navy wants to expand gunnery and bombing operations on this docile, 7,000-acre Caribbean municipality used as CINCLANT’s bulls-eye. Culebrans have accepted their odd destiny with quiet humility for over 35 years, in some respects for almost 70. Now, they want the Navy to shoot at something else.
The Navy says that it has no choice: that it needs more targets and larger safety zones on Culebra for new air-to-ground missiles like Walleye, Standard ARM, Bulldog, and Hobo glide bombs.
But some of the very experts who stress this now admit they haven’t even read the studies telling what’s wrong with a host of other, uninhabited nearby island alternatives.
You probably read about Culebra in Life on 10 April. But Life cut into the onion no deeper than the peel, and facts available to the Journal suggests that the Navy – even though it sliced a lot longer – hasn’t gone much deeper. Hopefully, the Governor of Puerto Rico and the House Armed Services Committee will cut through to the middle.
Hearings on the Culebran issue will be held this week before a HASC Real Estate Subcommittee headed by Representative Charles Bennett (D-Fla). Since 1954 the Navy has wanted to buy the entire island, on which it already owns at least 2,683 acres. But on 31 December, Culebrans wrote to President Nixon objecting to Navy plans – never explained to them – to resettle Culebra’s 450 families on the nearby island of Vieques, which in part is another Navy bombardment target.
The quiet islanders began making noise when bombardment operations peaked, early this year – led by the Navy, but with ships of at least six (and some say over 20) other nations peppering away, too.
Since, the mouse that roared has lost a major court battle, won a partial but ironic victory from the Navy (see page 39), and today could be calibrated on a political/social bull’s-eye which the Navy apparently doesn’t see.
After stabbing at the onion for the last ten days, our impressions of the "Culebra problem" could fill a book. The Navy wouldn’t like it. Nor does The Journal. Here, in brief, is why:
INNUENDOS
We’ve heard more innuendos from the Navy than facts from either side. Navy spokesmen suggested, in The Journal’s preliminary inquiries, that the Culebra problem stemmed – to a large degree – from "confusion stimulated by greedy guys." What apparently were innuendos about Culebran landowners and other U.S. citizens hoping to develop small parcels of land or exercise development options jeopardized by the Navy’s Culebran plan just didn’t check out. In the case, for example, of a St. Louis-Washington University professor who has a limited option on property near the harbor of Dewey, but who has been outspoken on behalf of the Culebrans – and whose interests were subtly questioned by the Navy – The Journal has a sworn affidavit that he would give up his option, at cost, "to the end that goals of the people of Culebra may be realized."
Suspicions that expenses incurred by Culebra’s Mayor Ramon Feliciano, traveling on his islanders’ behalf, were paid by land promoters just aren’t true.
Slurs against a retired Methodist minister on Culebra, who’s added his voice to the mouse’s roar aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on – except to put the Navy’s problem in perspective.
A group of so-called "squatters" turned out to be Culebrans who have built houses on land the Navy moved them to, but for which they can’t get deeds.
SINCERITY ON BOTH SIDES
The Navy is sincere, but readers who talk with the Culebrans would probably find them even more so. The Culebran problem isn’t targets: its people – patriotic, warm, gracious, honest, candid Americans who aren’t accustomed to dealing with bureaucratic subtleties. They are not at war with the Navy. The only enemy the Culebrans have is indifference. But when you’re sitting on the bull’s-eye, it doesn’t matter whether its friend or foe who pulls the trigger.
The Culebrans earn their living from the land, and from the sea. They have only limited access to both, and the Navy proposes to make the limits even tighter. There is no school on the island; there is, as yet, no hospital. For both, the Culebrans must go to the Puerto Rican mainland.
Denial of that access becomes a major infringement on their very lives.
What the Culebrans have asked for – and for 35 years didn’t get, until about two weeks ago – was a "dialogue" with the Navy.
ILL-ADVISED EXPERTS
Some Navy Culebran "experts" are, in large part, ill-advised, misinformed, or blind. Asked"How do the Culebrans really feel?" one OpNav action officer, referred to The Journal by a higher authority, said bluntly: "The Culebrans want the Navy to stay." Asked about a very recent poll in which 304 out of 313 Culebran families voted to have the Navy leave, this officer said he had not heard of any such vote, but got his dope from a Culebran who "really had his pulse on the people." When The Journal later got the source’s name, he turned out to be custodian of the Navy’s Culebran range. Culebrans said they love this man, but that he is 70-some years old, and perhaps not attuned to his people today.
Navy spokesmen – guys on the front line on the Culebran issue – had few details on and little perception of alleged serious safety problems and near tragedies that vitally concern these U.S. citizens just miles away from CINCLANT’s bull’s-eye – even though most have at least been mentioned by the press. Notwithstanding Navy disclaimers on civilian accidents, it is reasonably clear that at least four serious injuries have resulted from Navy/Marine Corps operations on and near Culebra since the island first "joined" the Navy in 1901.
In 1914, Isaac Espinosa lost his right arm from a grenade or detonator he picked up on Culebra’s shore. In 1935, Alberto Pefia Garcia, a 15-year-old schoolboy, was killed when he playfully banged a USMC grenade with a hammer. That same year, in a different accident, Vincento Romero lost his right arm.
These accidents don’t quite track with carefully structured Navy statements that "no one has been killed or injured as a result of this training." Because the Navy statement technically refers to ship’s gunfire practice since 1936, after Marine Corps maneuvers were moved to Vieques. But no one The Journal was referred to had ever heard of young Sixto Colon, who lost his right eye in 1964 playing catch with an explosive toy which Culebrans say the Navy left on the island. And the Navy spokesmen didn’t mention the nine Navy men killed in April, 1946 when an aircraft dropped its ordnance on an observation post painted the same color as the target.
Navy spokesmen mention near accidents, such as the time the battleship New Jersey, late in the 40s or early in the 50s, lobbed shells on a cistern between the town of Dewey and the impact area. Or when the Missouri, about the same time, scored on the safety zone instead of the impact area. Or when "destroyers fired over the island." But no one The Journal has been referred to by the Navy seemed remotely aware of even more recent incidents in which:
The San Juan yacht La Vagabunda had smokepots dropped athwartships during five passes by an aircraft on a clear day while the vessel cruised amidst a flotilla of 14 others.
A bomb "or something" landed in Dewey Harbor just months ago, 400 yards from the house of Culebra’s only doctor.
"1,000-lb bombs" landed intact in six to 10 feet of water just off Culebra’s eastern shore.
(Each of these allegations was verified by The Journal through recorded eyewitness reports and/or on-the-ground surveys.)
ALTERNATIVES
There may not be any alternative to expanded operation on and near Culebra. CINCLANT does need targets, especially for new missiles with bigger "footprints." What bothers us is that the "experts" who rejected the alternatives apparently haven’t read the studies about them – that’s what two of the experts conceded.
The Journal doesn’t want to second-guess the Navy, but Puerto Rican Governor Luis Ferre told us on 22 May that "There is so much area nearby that has not been exhaustively studied." He mentioned such possibilities as:
Vieques – The Navy and Marine Corps already use the island’s eastern 2 ¾ miles for naval gunfire support/aerial close support targets, the next three miles inland for a Marine landing/maneuver area, and Vieques’ western end for an "inert" naval ammunition depot.
Question: Why not move the "ammunition depot" to Culebra, the Marine maneuver area to the western end of Vieques, and the new targets and expanded safety zones for Walleye, etc. to the freed area on Vieques’ eastern coasts? CINCLANT’s "expert" conceded he had "never thought about it." Yet SecNav’s office repeatedly deferred to this very officer on questions on the alternatives so "exhaustively studied." A CINCLANT spokesman later explained, however, that "its really not [this officer’s] job to answer these kind of questions," and referred The Journal back to Navy headquarters in Washington. Governor Ferre told The Journal Friday that the Culebra/Vieques switch could have substantial merit and that he’d probably discuss it with his "good friend Mel Laird."
Isla Palominos – At the very closest, by nautical charts The Journal looked at on the scene, this 165-foot-high island is at least 2¾ miles east of Puerto Rico, 1¾ miles from the nearest (and uninhabited) island, and it’s close (10 nm) to CINCLANT’s gunnery operations center at Roosevelt Roads.
Caya Lobos – A 40-foot-high island 2½ miles from the northeastern tip of Puerto Rico, which boasts of a luxurious hotel. The hotel has been empty for the past four to five years. (If the Navy needs more varied terrain than this "flat" island provides, barges of dirt could change it, we think, and dirt costs less than the rental on Culebra – even under the Navy’s 30 April $70,000-a-year easement.)
We don’t question Navy statements that, from a strictly military viewpoint, Culebra is "the most suitable" target complex. What’s at issue is whether or not others, more "suitable" from a political/social viewpoint, still could be militarily "acceptable."
WHAT IT BOILS DOWN TO
Navy spokesmen have been less than candid. What sounded like "substantial investments" turns out to be acquisition costs of $501 for Culebran land Culebrans can’t use. Injuries, incidents, and accidents alleged apparently haven’t been checked out.
The irony of the "Culebra problem" merits thought. A Supreme Court ruling of 1958– won by the American Communist Party – held that the right to travel "across frontiers in either direction and inside the frontiers as well" is a right guaranteed by the fifth amendment (emphasis added). It is incongruous that Culebrans don’t benefit from this ruling, while the American Communist Party does.
Culebra’s new "custodian," Admiral Ward, is the Navy’s former (and first) Safety Director – another irony, but perhaps a hopeful sign as well. An attorney writing Culebra’s appeal to the Supreme Court is a Director of the San Juan Navy League.
And the final irony may prove to be this: The whole Culebra problem hinges on the five-mile safety zone needed for Walleye and other new guided missiles. But Walleye apparently isn’t funded for production next year. And all the follow-on missiles (Condor, etc.), a Navy expert let slip, have safety-zone footprints so much larger that they "could not be tested at all on the Culebrita targets" about which the Navy has been so adamant.
The Navy may have legal as well as political and social problems with Congress over the Culebra issue. For one thing, the statute under which the new leasehold is being requested apparently requires the Navy to specify payment costs. The 30 April request says only that the new easement "exceeds $50,000." Second, a key CINCLANTFLT official told Washington attorneys representing the Culebrans – on a no-fee, "pro bono publico" (for the public good) basis – that Culebra is a "range." He said the area is not a "training camp." But Title 10, U.S.C. 2663(a) (1), from which the Navy request derives, provides condemnation power only for fortifications, coastal defenses, or military training camps. A fine point, perhaps – but it could be a crucial one for the Culebrans. And for the Navy as well.
As Governor Ferre told the Journal, "This is an issue everyone can still win," given time for the dialogue Culebrans have sought – given time for a really good whack at the onion. But if anyone loses, no one wins. And the Culebrans lose if the Navy wins too soon. Congress should give the Culebrans time for the Navy to catch up on its reading.
Presidential Executive orders signed in 1901 and 1902, and reaffirmed on 26 June 1903, reserved all public lands on Culebra and adjacent cays for use of the U.S. Government, under Navy jurisdiction. Air space over the island and water three miles around it were restricted to exclusive use of the military by Presidential Executive Order 8684, signed 14 February 1941.
One effect of these Executive Orders is that private planes and ships must arrange for special Navy permission to approach or leave the island – one of 76 municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Life magazine wrote on 10 April: "To all intents and purposes, the 700 [sic] islanders are prisoners on their own land."
On 5 December of last year, RAdm Alfred R. Matter, then Commander Caribbean Sea Frontier, wrote a Puerto Rican land developer – who wanted to build vacation condominiums on 225 acres on Culebra’s eastern tip – an unfortunate letter which described vividly what the Executive Orders mean to U.S. citizens on the island:
"Culebra Island is a keystone in the Atlantic Fleet weapons range, which encompasses Naval Station, Roosevelt Roads, nearby Vieques Island, and thousands of square miles of ocean area. This large complex is expanding and operations are becoming increasingly intensive, frequently being conducted through seven days of the week. As such use increases, inhabitants of nearby areas such as your property will be subjected to the noise of supersonic booms, gunfire, rocket fire, and heavy air traffic."
Culebrans since have lost two legal battles to replace the "supersonic booms; gunfire, rocket fire, and heavy air traffic" with the more tranquil environment for which their neighbors on the U.S. Virgin Islands just 10 miles to the east are envied. On 11 March, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston upheld an earlier District Court decision and reaffirmed the Navy’s legal Culebra and its nearby cays and rocks.
Two days later, on 13 March, Culebrans voted in a town meeting to ask the Navy to withdraw from their island. What turned these docile custodians of CINCLANT’s bull’s-eye into the mouse that roared, one citizen told The Journal, was the "new generation." "We have been peaceful and tolerant, but our lives have been in danger. I am the father of two sons and a daughter. Airplanes loaded with bombs pass over. Its as simple as that."
In past years, three Puerto Rican governors have resisted DOD overtures to buy the island outright, citing a provision of the Commonwealth’s Constitution that no municipality could be dissolved without approval by its own people in a referendum. On 26 March, the Puerto Rican Senate passed a unanimous resolution asking President Nixon to "re-examine the Navy’s activities in Culebra for the purpose of assuring the residents ... peace, order, free movement, and development of economic interests." Since, the Culebran issue has been widely publicized. Feature articles have appeared in the Miami Herald (2 April), the San Juan Star (4 April, 17 May), Life (10 April), and the New York Times (15 April).
President Nixon on 14 April directed Staff assistant Hugh W. Sloan, Jr. to write Mayor Feliciano, informing him that the Defense Department "is reviewing restrictions imposed.”
On 24 April, Culebrans won a partial victory, but a questionable destiny. RAdm Alfred R. Matter announced an alternative Navy plan at a press conference in San Juan. (The Navy never consulted with Mayor Feliciano or the citizens of Culebra in developing the plan, nor were they invited to the press conference at which it was announced.)
Instead of outright purchase of the entire island, the plan would return to the Culebrans 10 miles of beach and coastline, along with 680 acres of land near the town of Dewey (named for the naval hero) for use as homesites, recreational areas, and a medical dispensary. (Earlier, the Navy had refused to turn over two acres of unused land so that Culebrans could build a hospital for which the people – only half of whom have jobs – had already raised the money.)
But the Navy still proposed to lease, and later to buy by right of eminent domain, a new parcel of 2,350 acres covering the eastern one-third of Culebra. Since the western third of the island is an impact area and safety zone for naval ship-to-shore gunnery training, Culebran families centered in the town of Dewey felt they would be "strangled." Shells would still explode 2½ miles to their west, and bombing/missile runs would intensify 3½ miles to their east. The Navy told The Journal that the bombardment operations would climb from about 5,000 sorties in FY 69 to over 9,000 sorties this year.
Governor Luis. Ferre – who reportedly hadn’t set foot on Culebra since 1943 – greeted the revised Navy plan with enthusiasm. He said it would pave the way for the turnover to his Commonwealth of other Navy-owned land in Puerto Rico, at Ft. Buchanan and Isla Grande. (He did not say, but The Journal learned, that other Navy lands on the north central coast of Vieques might also be freed.) Governor Ferre said that the Navy’s new Culebran plan would "substantially improve the living conditions of residents on this island" and that it revealed a "new attitude" on the Navy’s part which would probably lead to better relations in the future between the Navy and residents of Culebra.
But on 15 May, the Puerto Rican Senate voted, with only one dissenting vote, to back the Culebran islanders in opposition to the Navy plan. (In the Puerto Rican Senate, Governor Ferres’ party is in the minority.) On 21 May, the Senate’s minority leader indicated that he would go to Washington to testify on behalf of the Culebrans. Although Governor Ferre has been careful not to take a strong public position, it is now clear that bipartisan, support is coming together throughout the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the Culebrans. Governor Ferre made it clear to The Journal on 22 May that he would give serious study to other alternatives and would get the Navy to work with him so that peace and calm could return to Culebra.
At Journal press time, however, the Navy proposal still stood. It was submitted to Congress 30 April as a routine, 1¾-page FY 70 real estate acquisition request. But the House Armed Services Committee will give the islanders a chance to make their feelings known early next week.
Their feelings are clear. Earlier this month, 304 families of 313 polled voted to back Mayor Feliciano’s request that the Navy leave Culebra. Unless the House Armed Services Committee specifically disapproves the Navy request, they could still lose: condemnation proceedings could begin the day after the mouse makes its roar heard in Congress.
"BOX OF THE DEAD" AN ALTERNATIVE TO CULEBRA?
One alternative to an expanded bombing range on Culebra which CINCLANTFLT may not have explored was mentioned to The Journal by Governor Luis Ferre and to others last week by Headquarters Caribbean Sea Frontier. Its an uninhabited island just two miles off Puerto Rico’s south central coast.
Its called Isle Caja de Muertos. Translated, that means Box of the Dead, or, literally, Coffin.
THE VIEW FROM THE ADMIRAL’S BRIDGE
A fast fuse now burning close to the powder may have a dim chance of turning instead into a candle of hope, if the Navy’s former Safety Director and new Commander Caribbean Sea Frontier, R. Adm. Norvell G. Ward, serves as an accurate "switch-board" to Washington. We hope he’ll tell the Navy that what’s really at stake on Culebra is people, not targets, Navy people, as well as Culebrans.
At an early breakfast in San Juan on 23 May, Admiral Ward told the Journal that: The Navy had no record, so far as he knew, of many of the recent civilian casualties and near-miss incidents, alleged (and, in the Journal’s opinion, too casually dismissed by the Department of the Navy).
Admiral Ward said, "Since becoming aware of the large number of alleged incidents wherein people of Culebra may have become endangered, I have asked the Missile Range Facility to report to me on all incidents they have recorded of misfires or wild shots on the bombing and gunfire support ranges."
He had not asked his staff to take a look at other possible target choices, but one senior officer there had indicated that there were other islands in the vicinity of Puerto Rico that might be alternatives. He told the Journal, "We have not studied them and do not have the necessary capability or expertise to make a meaningful study. It is the Fleet Commander who is knowledgeable of all the requirements both operationally and logistically and the needs for instrumentation ... I could conduct the study if provided the technical expertise, but would anticipate that CINCLANFLT would call upon those with the expertise to make any additional study, as I assume they did in the prior studies.”
He had "been in conversations both with Mr. Grimes [on Friday morning, 22 May] and with CINCLANTFLT headquarters and apprised them of the latest developments," suggesting that when they appear before the House Armed Services Subcommittee, "they should have all of the substantive facts at their fingertips, and be prepared to answer many probing [and, in the Journal’s opinion, embarrassing] questions. Otherwise, the results might not be as desired."
He would check out alleged near misses involving commercial and general aviation aircraft – for his personal information.
He felt that "Mayor Feliciano is very sincere in his efforts to prevent the Navy from acquiring the land deemed necessary for safety purposes if we are to continue using the range."
Allegations of "deals" between the Navy and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for reacquisition of land benefiting the mainlanders, at the expense of the Culebrans, could be put in a more constructive light. "The Navy does have a plan for land reverting to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as it is no longer required, in accordance with agreements made when it was turned over to the Navy after the Army withdrew from the island of Puerto Rico. The Navy has excessed parcels in the past two or three years which have reverted to the Commonwealth. Specifically, yes, the Navy has plans for changing the boundaries of its land on Vieques."
Asked how his command referred to the Culebran "problem," "issue," or whatever, Admiral Ward said: "People around here call it the Culebra problem. I assess it as a very serious issue, the outcome of which is uncertain, and one which is uncertain, and one which, if resolved by Congress in the Navy’s favor, will result in an intensification of the efforts by Mayor Feliciano to marshal public opinion behind his cause. I see it as a continuing and very difficult problem for us." How serious, in our view, depends on the kind of "switchboard" Admiral Ward turns out to be.
CALL TO "BIG MARY" – ANYTHING TO AVOID ARREST
If you want to go swimming off Culebra, call "Big Mary" first. Big Mary is the Navy observation post on the island’s northwest peninsula. Call on 122.8mc if you want to dive into the water from an airplane, or lay over or land on the island.
Its illegal – a federal offense – if you don’t, and the fine literally could be "$5,000 and/or imprisonment for a term not to exceed five years."
Luckily, the Journal found this out and got permission from Big Mary before going snorkeling with Culebran citizens to verify reports (which Navy first doubted) that "1,000-lb bombs",or big shells lie 10 or so feet down on the harbor bottom, near the island’s best beaches – next to the Navy "safety zone" – as well as in impact areas where Culebran fishermen drop anchor, with Big Mary’s permission.
The ordnance was indeed there, big and ominous. Maybe a 1,000-lb bomb, maybe not – but too big to carry back to the Navy.
By virtue of the 1941 Executive Order creating "Culebra Island Defensive Area" and the "Culebra Island Naval Air Space Reservation," the 10-mile-long island is totally enveloped by an artificial legal barrier comprising its entire territorial waters three miles from the island’s high-water mark, as well as the "air space over" it. Entry into these zones without prior okay from the military is prohibited.
The Journal asked RAdm Norvell G. Ward if it literally would be illegal to go bomb-snorkeling off Culebra without the prior okay of Big Mary. Admiral Ward affirmed the technical effect of the 1941 Executive Order. Asked for HIS permission to snorkel for bombs, Admiral Ward explained the Navy chain of command and asked the Journal to call Big Mary.
CULEBRA/SAN JUAN, 24 May. – The resident Navy seaman in charge of firing operations on Culebra admitted in writing today that he and three other Navymen fired six mortar rounds into a bay on Flamingo Beach where "bathers were ... earlier" – but that "when we "fired the mortar: rounds we did not look at the beach." By his description, "Three rounds were fired long and three were fired short." The shells landed within 200 yards of seven children and at least one adult, interviewed and photographed on the spot today by the Journal.
The Navy man also admitted that, at the time of the near tragedy, "The red flag was not raised" (over their observation post, which has a commanding view of the beach). The flag is a standard range signal to warn those in the area that firing operations are about to begin or are underway.
Two of the children and a 30-year-old Culebran woman signed a separate statement that: They had checked firing schedules posted throughout the town of Dewey before going swimming; "No firing was scheduled." (The Journal has the schedules: No firing was scheduled.)
Before swimming, and moments after seeing the rounds land, they had checked for the red flag on the OP above the beach; "We looked for a red flag – but saw only the United States flag."
Just one hour earlier, Journal publisher Ben Schemmer – flying into Culebra for a meeting there with Governor Luis Ferre – listened to the Navy OP call sign "Big Mary" advise his aircraft that "We have no operations today." Schemmer had requested permission to photograph Navy targets on Culebrita Island. Big Mary inquired, "Request why you want to take pictures of Culebrita." Told that Schemmer was an editor, Big Mary responded, "HMMMMmmm." "Wait," and then advised, "Request you remain clear of area near Twin Rocks." Targets on Twin Rocks, a federal bird sanctuary, are at least seven miles east of the beach toward which the mortar rounds were aimed.
RAdm N. G. Ward told the Journal in San Juan late today: "The incident reached my attention today and it is under active investigation to understand why it happened. There is no denial the incident occurred. The info I have is not clear and garbled."
The senior man on the island in charge of "Big Mary" – a Navy petty offices first class, said in his written statement, "I asked [the Navy range officer at Roosevelt Roads] if we could make these [mortar] firings.... He said go ahead." The same officer had been asked on Friday or Saturday, by Washington attorneys representing the Culebrans without fee, about the then-alleged mortar firings at Flamingo Beach last Friday, and reportedly said: "No, it’s impossible, it never happened. Every mortar round was under lock and key There were no operations scheduled and none were carried out. "
The Journal was told by several Culebrans that the Navy Seaman in charge of the Friday firings said at a town meeting on 14 March (the day before the Culebrans delivered their "ultimatum" for the Navy to leave their island): "Culebra could demonstrate as much as it wants, but with one shot the Navy could blow everybody off the island."
[From the Washington Post]
U.S. NAVY ALWAYS WINS
(By Nicholas von, Hoffman)
Since Sixto Colon Robinson was a young boy and sure of anything, he always knew one fact for certain: The United States Navy always wins.
Sixto Colon Robinson lives on an islet in the sun of Puerto Rico, named Culebra. Somewhat less than a thousand other people live on Culebra which would be as uneventful as its permanent summer climate if it were not for the American Navy, which has kept the place under almost unremitting bombardment for 10 years. Part of Culebra, the water around, it and the air above it is included in the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range.
When Sixto Colon Robinson was 13 years old and walking with playmates on their islet something happened that taught him the Navy always wins: "We found a long, black object. along with five poundsof gunpowder. We playfully started setting fire to small amounts of the gunpowder. When the last gunpowder was being burnt, the long, black object fell into the flames. The object exploded violently and fragments flew in every direction injuring all my friends. My entire body was covered with flying fragments. One of these fragments cut into the retina of my eye ... My mother never filed a claim against the Navy because she was told the Navy always won . . many Culebrans with potential suits against the Navy never file because there is a belief that the Navy never loses."
Culebra loses all the time. Things are so bad there, that Ramon Feliciano, the island’s mayor, sent the following ultimatum, as he called it, to the Navy a couple of months ago: "You have mined, bombed and torpedoed our fish and fishing areas. You have fire-rocketed and bombed napalm over our birds and their nests. Human and computer errors have misguided your missiles to our harbors and private lands, exposing us to death. Knowing of the presence of a civilian population in the center of the area where you carry on your maneuvers, you continue and plan the increase and intensification of these activities on and around the island of Culebra. The intensity, the frequency, and the type of maneuvers carried out by the Navy of the United States have created a situation that passes the limits of our human tolerance."
If the alcalde seems a bit overwrought read what John Kenneth, the Culebra school principal, says:
"We conduct our school classes daily in an environment wherein at any moment we can be the victims of a tragedy. Low flying aircraft, often at supersonic speeds, conduct mining maneuvers one mile southwest of the school, bombing and rocket practice 1½ miles west of the school, and heavy bombing with live bombs as heavy as 1,000 pounds 3¾ miles east of. the school. Naval gunnery is practiced year round on targets two miles north of the school. Navy torpedoing is carried out 4½ miles east of the school. The resulting noise is so intense that on many occasions it is impossible for the teachers to maintain the attention of the students in classes. We conduct classes in a constant atmosphere of fear for our lives, in school buildings tremble. You can see fear in the dangerously cracked by the vibrations caused by the explosions of ordnance." [sic]
Carmelo Feliciano, a teacher in the school, also testified before the House Armed Services Real Estate Subcommittee that, "When bombs and shells are exploding, the school buildings tremble. You can see fear in the children’s eyes. They sit in a peculiar way as if ready to run at a moment’s notice. During periods of heavy night bombing, students fall asleep in class. Bombing is carried out far past midnight every day and these kids are kept awake until early morning hours."
Senor Gonzalez, the island’s grocer, told the subcommittee, "For some time now, it has been increasingly difficult to get any kind of goods to Culebra. Navy restrictions on sea transportation allow only one boat through from mainland Puerto Rico. The space on this boat is limited, and the costs are high so that the people must pay more for what they buy. Eggs, milk, bread, meat and other basic foods are frequently out of stock.
The operator of the air taxi serving the island says that Navy regulations require him to make an approach in adverse winds that is often so dangerous he can’t land.
The economy of Culebra is ruined, according to Claro Feliciano who tries to make a living raising livestock:
“In our farm we raise almost exclusively Brahma cattle for beef. It is a very nervous breed of cattle but especially suited for the hot and dry climate of Culebra. The noise of the jets, the bombing and shelling continually provoke stampedes, and the cattle break fences and go for days without eating or watering properly. Because of this, our cattle do not put on enough weight and we lose money. The Navy does not compensate us for this.
"Navy personnel in Culebra are very rough on private landowners. They trespass on private property and build roads on private land without permission. The landowners are afraid of Navy officers because they threaten the landowners with taking them to court if they do not allow them to use their land. They are afraid of being dispossessed if they do not allow Navy men to do as they please. During the drought season the cattle owners suffer a great deal. The pastures dry up and the star shells fired by naval vessels set fire to dry pastures, reducing considerably the available forage for cattle. Again no compensation is paid. We live in constant danger of being killed.while working in our farms. There are many unexploded bombs and shells. A few bombs exploded in Francisco Feliciano’s farm about 30 feet from a house occupied by Diego Boano and his wife. The bombs killed a steer and damaged Boano’s home. No compensation was paid."
The Navy’s response to the killing of Diego Boano’s steer was a letter to the mayor from Capt: W. D. Dietz which said, "It has been determined that the shells which fell near the residence of Mr. Diego Boano did so as the result of either a mechanical error, a personnel error or possibly both, during the gunnery exercise which was being conducted at the time. I am very sorry that this incident occurred and you can rest assured that every precaution will be taken to prevent such incidents from recurring."
The fisherman, Anastasio Soto, said that, "The Navy ships destroy lobster traps and fishing nets which take a year to come apart and meanwhile they trap fish and lobsters. When this trapped and wasted catch dies and rots, the sea is contaminated, which further depletes the area of its sea life. The use of explosive kills off fish, lobsters and birds so that on one occasion approximately 15 tons of fish washed up on the beaches and were taken away by the truckload. Just last week, seven large lobsters and a giant green turtle crawled out on the beach to die. The full damage done is immensely greater since most of the wildlife killed would sink to the bottom or be carried away by strong currents."
The people of Culebra wouldn’t have any chance except that their case has been taken up free of charge by the powerful Washington law firm of Covington and Burling. They began poking around and discovered that in the opinion of competent naval officers Culebra was a highly unsatisfactory target range because real battlefield conditions couldn’t be simulated there; more astonishing, they learned it was being used for out-of-date rockets in order as one of them submitted to the subcommittee "merely to permit the Navy to reduce its inventory of an obsolete weapon."
The best, however, came from a conversation with Joseph A. Grimes Jr., special civilian assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. According to Covington and Burling’s representatives, Mr. Grimes vouchsafed that the vast silent majority of Culebrans were content to be blown to smithereens and that only a few land speculators were making a fuss.
It is the peculiar weakness of so many of our statesmen to believe that the people we bomb enjoy it. When we do it in Southeast Asia it is always said that Hindus, Buddhists and other such pagan rifraf simply don’t share our vaunted American regard for human life. Since the inhabitants of Culebra are American citizens, that observation isn’t directly transferrable, but still Culebrans are Puerto Ricans and Puerto Ricans, you know, aren’t really exactly white. They jabber a strange lingo and, although they do make acceptable mess boys to serve our so pasty white admirals, there is an undeniable resemblance to the slopes, zipperheads, and gookygeeks who really don’t care if we kill them off or not.
Yet the ugliest aspect of this affair is the niggling over a few bucks to pay for dead cows and broken lobster traps. An admiral or a special civilian assistant can honestly, though mistakenly, believe bombing Culebra serves that infinitely vanishing will-o’the-wisp called national security, but what’s the rationalization for not paying Anastasio Soto for destroying the tools of his livelihood? Maybe there’s nothing left in the till after paying out hundreds of millions on cost overruns.
Sixto Colon Robinson is right. The United States Navy always wins.
[From the Armed Forces Journal, June 3, 1970] .
CULEBRA, INTERMISSION: THE TARGET SHOOTS BACK; CULEBRANS TESTIFY AT HASC REAL ESTATE SUBCOMMITTEE HEARINGS
(By Clare Lewis and Bruce Cossaboom)
Hearings on the Navy’s plans for Culebra were scheduled to begin on Wednesday, 10 June, just as this issue went to press.
In a statement prepared for presentation before the House Armed Services Committees Real Estate Subcommittee, attorney Richard D. Copaken, counsel for the Municipality of Culebra, said his focus would be twofold:
"1. Is there an acceptable alternative for the Navy training mission now carried out on the Island of Culebra and its neighboring cays?
"2. To whom is the Navy proposal a matter of grave concern?”
In describing his early conversations with Joseph A. Grimes, Jr, Special Civilian Assistant to SecNav John Chafes, Copaken says, "I learned that the Navy assumed that only land speculators were dissatisfied with the present level and proposed level of Navy training operations on Culebra and its neighboring cays. Mr. Grimes conceded that his assumption that the vast majority of Culebrans were content with the Navy’s present operations and proposal was based on questionable sources of information that are second-hand at best. I explained to Mr. Grimes that Covington & Burling [Copaken’s law firm] had an identity of interest with the Navy in ascertaining whether the Navy assumptions were accurate because if they were, Covington & Burling would be obliged to withdraw." Copaken says, in his statement, that he urged Grimes to check out the situation for himself – to go to Culebra and talk with the islanders, adding that "Mr. Grimes refused to undertake this inquiry."
In an effort to determine the true sentiments of the majority of Culebrans, Copaken says, his firm sent Thomas C. Jones, Jr, another attorney, to the island.
Jones, in his statement, details the thoroughness with which he attempted to objectify his survey, beginning with his announcement to the crowd gathered at he airport upon his arrival that he "wanted to interview anyone interested in expressing his opinion about the general subject of the relationship between the United States Navy and the Island of Culebra."
In response to his invitation, Jones says, "A large crowd gathered outside the Town Hall and people lined up patiently to be interviewed."
Not satisfied with this approach, and fearing that he might be seeing "only the vocal persons," he extended his interviews to stopping persons at random on the street and interviewing them "in the nearest shady place," and began going house-to-house.
SEARCH FOR OBJECTIVITY
Jones’ surveying practices seem to present a model of objectivity: "I attempted in every manner I could conceive of to guarantee that the results of the survey would reflect an accurate and impartial impression of the attitudes of the people of Culebra. Indeed, because the results that I was obtaining showed virtually unanimous opposition to the Navy proposal, I searched out four of the Navy’s five, six, or seven employees (the number of Navy employees seems to vary between five and seven and even Admiral Ward was unable to give us the precise number) in order to see whether there was some hidden reservoir of support of the Navy that I had been unable to uncover myself. However, even the Navy employees admitted to me that there was virtually no one in Culebra who supported or would benefit from the Navy plan. Thus, I am personally convinced that if there is any error in the results of my survey it is an error which would tend to exaggerate the support for the Navy proposal rather than the opposition to it."
As a check on his findings, Jones says, he announced the results of his survey to an open town meeting of "approximately 150 Culebrans," explaining how the results had been obtained, and inviting comment and/or criticism. "Not a single complaint was voiced," he adds.
The lopsided results are, in Jones` words, "clear and unequivocal statistics." Of the Culebrans he interviewed, 95% opposed the Navy plan, and approximately 75% wanted the Navy to leave the island altogether.
"Thus," he concluded, "Mr. Grimes assertion was completely erroneous, as is any decision which relies on such an assumption."
Having established the Culebrans’ attitudes toward the Navy, Jones statement goes on to detail the effect on the islanders of the Navy’s attitudes toward the Culebrans.
"The sketch of the life of a Culebran shows a people who have been abused by the Navy is a particularly devastating and to me unexplainable sense," Jones says. "I refer to the fact that the Navy’s warning system with regard to its bombardment and shelling schedules has been absolutely unreliable. Every single fisherman with whom I spoke on this subject said that he had had to flee or turn back as a result ...of unannounced weapons activity. This inexcusable neglect has clearly added greatly to the anxiety and outright fear which is so apparent."
Culebra’s Mayor Ramon Feliciano has come to Washington to testify at the hearings, as the next step in his efforts to improve the quality of life for the Culebrans. According to a statement prepared in conjunction with his testimony before the Subcommittee, "The constant shelling and the occurrence of accidents which the Navy has denied instilled fear and desperation in the citizens to the extent of fearing for their lives and demanding that the Navy abandon Culebra and leave the Culebrans to live in peace."
WHITE HOUSE DISINTEREST?
Mayor Feliciano has been working toward that end for some time now. His private letter campaign to enlist Executive Branch support – if not direct intervention – on behalf of Culebra did not meet with much success, although he apparently escalated it from SecNav to the White House itself.
On 19 February, Frank P. Sanders, Assistant SecNav (I&L), replied to Feliciano "on behalf of President Nixon" that the position of the U.S. Government is that Executive Order No. 8684 "must remain in force" and that the pending court action made it "inappropriate to comment further at this time.
"Thank you for expressing your feelings on this subject to the President," Sanders told Feliciano.
Apparently Feliciano had the feeling he hadn’t gotten through. On 26 March, the White House received both a telegram and a letter.
On 14 April, another letter to Feliciano "on behalf of the President" arrived but this time from Hugh W. Sloan, Jr. Staff Assistant to the President.
Sloan reiterated the Navy position, essentially, and advised Feliciano that DOD "is reviewing the restrictions imposed by the naval operations to ensure that the civilian inhabitants are allowed a maximum freedom of movement, consistent with safety."
Sloan expressed regret that a personal appointment with the President requested by the Mayor could not be granted, but added, "thank you for corresponding with the President."
BIRD LIFE THREATENED?
As the Culebrans’ protests reached the U.S. mainland, the Department of Interior apparently began to wonder what effect all this Navy activity was having on its sanctuaries in the area.
Concerned by possible damage to nesting birds at national wildlife refuges on Culebra Island (but mainly on the adjacent small cays) the Department of Interior (Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife) sent the Chief of its Division of Wildlife Refuges, Robert Scott, and other staff members to Culebra last month to make an on-the-spot reconnaissance of Culebra Island and adjacent cays to determine means for providing greater protection for migratory birds.
Scott told the Journal that his trip produced no "specifics" about injuries or deaths that may have been suffered by bird life on the island, as a result of naval bombardments,
A Navy official indicated, however, that these small islands – never before considered to be prime targets – now face an uncertain future on this score.
They have had an uncertain past as well, according to Culebrans: In May 1968 the Navy launched a massive coordinated air strike against Twin Rocks, one of the bird refuges. "It sounded as if the world were coming to an end," said one of the Culebrans. Thousands of nesting marine birds were killed, said islanders who visited the refuge the next day.
Scott said no one had told him of this incident.
Scott explained that, as a result of his trip and Interior Department concern over the refuges – a concern not previously evidenced, apparently engendered by the current publicity – Interior and Navy have set about working out a "memo of agreement," a joint understanding for modifying and improving present wildlife management practices there.
Scott said nothing had been formalized on this, but it would probably involve having the Navy avoid using the refuges as targets during certain crucial nesting periods or targeting parts of the refuge which Interior had determined to be free of the nests.
Scott cites as a precedent for establishing peaceful Navy-Interior coexistence between bull’s-eye and nest eggs on the same island a joint management agreement that now prevails on "No Man’s Island" off the coast of Massachusetts.
This agreement maintains the goals of both agencies, Scott said, and he sees nothing "mutually exclusive" about having birds and bombs on the same islands.
Scott explained that in 1909 Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the cays off Culebra and other small outlying islands as national wildlife refuges "superimposed on a prior right" of Naval use.
The only concern on Culebra itself, Scott told the Journal, is for a colony of nesting sooty terns in the northwest impact area. Scott said the refuges themselves are located on the offshore islands, but that the "exact status of the ownership of the offshore islands is not clear to us"
Scott said the Department’s realty people have been instructed to answer the question: “Who owns what?"
Scott said some of the islands are known not to be public property at all, but leased. North Cay, for example, one of the larger offshore islands, was reportedly leased by the Navy from a single individual owner.
There are no wildlife refuges on it, the Navy said, "just someone running some goats."
LAND VALUES VS. HUMAN VALUES
Attorney Thomas Jones apparently has no doubt that at least a portion of the problem is land value. But his investigations have led him to conclude that it is not the "speculators" the Navy points its finger at who are the culprits, but rather the Navy itself. As he says in his statement:
"There is no mystery in the strong opposition of the people of Culebra to the Navy plan. The plan is widely believed to be the penultimate step in the Navy’s desire to obtain the entire island; a high-ranking Puerto Rican government official told us that the Navy has wanted to resettle the Culebrans at least since 1960.
"This date corresponds to the time when the Navy began slowly to intensify its military training maneuvers. This intensification reached the point where last year – 1969 – the Culebra target system was in use day and night for an average of 9½ hours per day from Monday through Saturday and 3½ hours on Sunday. An even greater intensification is planned for this year. The effect of this intensification, naturally enough, has been to decrease the value of the land which the Navy will have to pay for if it acquires additional land.
"Thus, the sketch of a Culebran is the portrait of a man who feels that his present way of life is imminently threatened, a man who feels forced by his sense of self-preservation to cry out."
THE STAGE IS SET
The stage is set for the third – but possibly not the final – act in the Culebra story. Senator Edward M. Brooke (R-Mass), who has expressed concern over the Navy’s proposal for Culebra told the Journal that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John C. Stennis (D-Miss) has agreed to place a 30-day "hold" on any further Navy plan.
"There is a possibility that hearings may also be held in the Senate at a later date," Brooke told the Journal. The law requires a report to both committees on any proposed real estate action. How thoroughly the background of a given transaction should be explored is at the discretion of each committee. Sources close to SASC told The Journal there are no present plans to hold a Culebra hearing.
MORE HILL CONCERN?
Aside from the Armed Services Committee itself, at least one other member of the House has become involved in the Culebra matter: Representative James Symington (D-MO) received questions on Culebra from one of his constituents, a Mr. Daniel Kohl, relative to property interests there, but also expressing concern, Symington’s office told the Journal, about "a small group of people being exploited."
Feeling that "some important issues are involved," Symington requested – and received – information (based on plans as of 11 May) on the Navy’s plans for use of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range (see map, not printed in the RECORD).
Important issues are involved, and important questions being asked. Once again, Congress is faced with a matter of priorities – and it’s up to the Navy to explain why its priorities should come first. All the Culebrans want is their own island back.
IS CULEBRA STEVENSON’S "TREASURE ISLAND"?
"The Navy should have learned its lesson with Bikini," observed RAdm Colby G. Rucker to The Journal in an exclusive interview.
Admiral Rucker, who retired in 1949, should know. He observed Culebran affairs at first hand throughout his 30-year naval career, beginning with a landing there as a midshipman. And when he was in the Pentagon as planner for all overseas bases just after WWII, he handled both Culebran land claims (even then a problem) and the transfer of the Bikini islanders from their Pacific atoll to clear the way for the 1946 atomic bomb tests.
Admiral Rucker’s reference in linking the lesson of Bikini with Culebra was to the dissatisfaction of the Bikini islanders with any other islands but home – Bikini. "Every island we moved them to was objectively better than Bikini," said Rucker. "They had more coconut palms, more pigs, better fishing reefs, more taro patches ... but they still weren’t home to them and they were unhappy.
The Navy, when it proposed to move the Culebrans to another island, was preparing to make the same mistake, concluded Admiral Rucker.
Admiral Rucker, who spent many years of his career in the Caribbean (and who taught history and English at the Naval Academy), is steeped in the history, literature, and lore of that area.
He was amused that the Journal (23/26 May) had suggested that one alternative target for Navy use instead of Culebra might be Isla Caja de Muertos – Box of the Dead, or Coffin Island. This can also be translated as "Dead Men’s Chest," Rucker pointed out. He said this is the very island referred to in the old pirate song: "Fifteen men on dead men’s chest, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" The pirates evidently had marooned 15 captives on Isla Caja de Muertos.
But of greater literary interest is Admiral Rucker’s well documented thesis that Culebra is Robert Louis Stevenson’s "Treasure Island." The topography, hydrography, and sailing directions for entering the harbor all jibe perfectly, says Rucker.
When asked how he had connected Stevenson with Culebra, Rucker said the literary detective work wasn’t too difficult. To earn a living between books, Stevenson had worked for the Coastal Pilot, a publication of the Royal Navy’s Hydrographer. Stevenson had never been to Culebra, but he consulted Coastal Pilot for details to add realism to the seafaring portion of his books. "You could sail into many a Pacific harbor just by following the directions in the right Stevenson book," added Rucker.
Admiral Rucker stressed his conviction that the Navy hasn’t always been as heavy-handed and unfeeling in its dealings with the Culebrans as more recent events appear to indicate. In fact, as he describes them, earlier Navy dealings with the Culebrans could have been taken as a model for the positive aspects of what has come to be known as "Civic Action" and "winning the hearts and minds" of the people.
Bluejackets from the fleet dug the first canal across the narrow neck of the peninsula which shelters the town of Dewey. This saved a five-mile trip for ships boats and also for Culebran craft sailing to the fishing grounds or to mainland Puerto Rico.
Well water on Culebra is brackish (Culebrans save rainwater for drinking), and the resulting forage is a high, tough wiregrass. The Navy introduced a special breed of brahma cattle capable of subsisting on brackish water and wiregrass.
Mail from ships anchored off Culebra for gunnery practice was routed through the Dewey post office. The increase in volume was so great that Dewey qualified as a first class post office – which meant a larger salary for the postmaster and additional employment for Culebrans.
Doctors and corpsmen from the ships in the area went ashore to hold sick call for Culebrans and more serious cases were brought back to the ships for treatment.
Shortly after WWII the dynamic lady mayor of Dewey had a dispensary built – but, as it turned out, it was on Navy land. Rucker, in Washington, obtained an easement which enabled the dispensary to remain where it was.
BROOKE-NIHART. CULEBRA – ACT II: HOUSE PANEL RESCHEDULES HEARINGS – NAVY STILL ADAMANT ON NEED FOR TARGETS
(By Ben Schemmer and Bruce Cossaboom)
The Navy apparently intends to turn a deaf ear to the mouse that roared: the tiny Puerto Rican island of Culebra.
Navy officials this week told Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Washington, Jorge Cordova, they have no intention of abandoning their missile target range activities on the island, despite recent shore-shelling incidents and misfires on the island.
Cordova, who sits as a non-voting member of the House Armed Services Committee, met this week with Assistant Secretary of the Navy (I&L) Frank Sanders and SecNav Civilian Special Assistant (on Culebra) Joseph A. Grimes, Jr.
Cordova told Sanders of his conviction (and that of the island’s political leaders) that the Navy should cease use of Culebra as a target area – much less expand it, as the Navy now proposes in an action pending before the House Armed Services Real Estate Subcommittee.
Cordova told the Journal he was informed the Navy "could not accede" to this request. The Navy is now investigating the firing incidents (Journal, 23/26 May) and told Cordova that, after studying its findings, it would try to insure that there would be no repetition of the near misses.
Cordova had suggested to the Navy that it extend its investigation beyond the shelling incidents to the whole question of the use of the island. He said the Navy should find other uses for its property on the island, and consider abandoning it altogether as a target area.
The Navy says it needs Culebra as a target range and that the "incidents don’t change the picture," Cordova told the Journal.
Meanwhile, a Real Estate Subcommittee hearing on the Navy’s proposal to expand bombardment activities on the island – originally scheduled for 1 June but postponed after a public furor broke over the island – has been rescheduled for 10 June.
Two days after a 23/26 May Journal Commentary suggested that "Congress should give the Culebrans time for the Navy to catch up on its reading," Representative Charles E. Bennett (D-Fla) announced on 28 May that his panel would postpone hearings on the Navy’s 30 April request to lease – and later to buy – a new, 2,350-acre safety zone on the 7,000-acre island for Walleye and other guided missiles.
Bennett’s original postponement action apparently stemmed in part from news that mortar rounds fired without warning on 22 May toward a beach on which Culebran children were swimming – on a day when no firing operations were scheduled – caused the yacht on which Governor Luis Ferre was leaving the island to change course after its pilot heard the rounds.
Ironically, Ferre’s visit to Culebra was his first there since 1962 – and he had just been briefed by the Navy on ship-to-shore bombardment and aerial bombing exercises on and near the island. The incident happened within an hour or so after the Journal interviewed the governor on Culebra.
Ferre got his briefing from the Navy at the very observation post from which the mortar rounds were later fired. A Navy officer at Roosevelt Roads called them "marking rounds" without much explosive.
Bennett said, "Before conducting hearings on any new plans for the island, I want to first get a report from the Navy Inspector General, who has been asked to look into this most recent incident. I then plan to ask my Subcommittee to conduct its own investigation."
The Subcommittee staff declined to state whether Congressman Bennett or the Navy initiated action to postpone the hearings.
Governor Ferre told the Journal in Washington earlier this week that he does not expect to testify personally at the hearings. But he said, "Every measure must be taken to protect the lives and tranquillity of the Culebrans" and that he supports Jorge Cordova’s efforts. He said the Navy may be reexamining an alternative target area, the island of Desecheo, about 20 n.m. from Ramey AFB on Puerto Rico’s northwest corner.
(The Journal was in error last week when we said that Governor Ferre had suggested, when interviewed on Culebra 22 May, another possible alternative, an island called "Box of the Dead," only six miles from his home town. That alternative was mentioned by a Navy official in the area. Governor Ferre did cite the other island target alternatives mentioned in the 23/26 May Issue.)
Ferre has been cautious in recent weeks, commending the Navy for its revised 24 April proposal to return to the Culebrans about 680 acres of land in and around the harbor of Dewey, but not endorsing Navy plans for a new 3,250-acre easement on the island’s eastern tip.
Bi-partisan support on behalf of the Culebrans, who now want the Navy to quit shooting at their island altogether, has been mounting.
Cordova announced on 28 May in San Juan that he would testify against Navy plans to continue, much less expand, range activities on the island. Heretofore, he has been relatively noncommittal on the issue.
Also in Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth’s Senate minority leader, number two man in Governor Ferre’s own party, on 26 May made public his position that the Navy should stop using Culebra as a target. The next day, the Senate’s majority leader announced that he, too, opposed the Navy’s continued use of the island.
DOT, WHITE HOUSE INTEREST?
The Journal also learned that at least three senior members of the White House staff have begun looking into the Culebran issue. So, apparently, has Senator Edward Brooke (R-Mass). Brooke’s interest reportedly stems from a conversation he had with Transportation Secretary (and former Massachusetts governor) John Volpe, shortly after Volpe read page proofs of the Journal’s 23/26 May Culebra Commentary while he was flying back to the U.S. on 25 May from a brief weekend respite on St. Thomas, 10 miles east of Culebra.
Governor Volpe told the Journal that he was unaware of but would look into allegations of near misses between commercial and general aviation aircraft flying into Culebra and St. Thomas and Navy aircraft engaged in bombing and gunnery operations on the range near Culebra (see photo caption, page 20 (not printed in Record).
Senator Sam Ervin’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights may also look into the Culebran problem. (Ervin is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.) Previous Supreme Court rulings indicate that restrictions imposed on the islander’s free access to and from their. island may violate their rights under the Fifth Amendment. The restrictions stem from a 1941 Executive Order (No. 8684) which prohibits anyone from entering or leaving the island, or the airspace above it, without explicit prior Navy permission. One such Supreme Court ruling cited similar restrictions imposed on U.S. Japanese citizens impounded on the west coast during WWII and said: "We allowed the government in time of war to exclude citizens from their homes and restrict their freedom of movement only on a showing of the greatest imminent danger to the public safety [But] the nation was then at war. No such condition presently exists."
A related report (Number 940) filed by the Committee on Naval Affairs, 2nd Session, 64th Congress, said that powers which Congress gave to the President under 18 U.S.C. of the authority cited for the 1941 Executive Order on Culebra – to establish defensive sea areas for purposes of national defense – "is valid only in times of actual or threatened war."
The President has exercised the expropriation powers under 18 U.S.C. 96 on some 26 different occasions, designating defensive sea areas in Chesapeake Bay (Executive Order #2898), in the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor area (#8970), and in New York Harbor (#8978). But all of these designations have since been expressly revoked. Currently, there are only about 10 such defensive sea areas still in effect; besides Culebra, the areas affected include Pearl Harbor, Guam, Honolulu, and Whittier, Alaska.
Some of the Constitutional issues in question include:
Whether the unusual restrictions imposed on the Culebrans – who are U.S. citizens with representation but no vote in Congress – represent a curtailment of their liberty of movement to such an extent as to be prohibited under the Fifth Amendment;
Whether enforcement of the 1941 Executive Order represents a taking of property without prior compensation and without the due process of law also spelled out in the Fifth Amendment; and
Whether Congress specifically intended under 18 U.S.C. 96 for the President to create permanent defensive sea frontiers which would remain in force even when a state of actual or threatened war no longer existed.
Culebrans have said they decided to ask the Navy to withdraw entirely from the island after bombardment operations were intensified earlier this year. But CINCLANTFLT spokesmen told the Journal that there has been negligible, if any, change in the pattern or intensity of operations over 1969. On Friday, 22 May, a blackboard on the Navy’s observation post on Culebra showed that to date this year, 17,680 target runs had been carried out, compared with a total of 37,500 in all of 1969. The same blackboard showed that in 1969 rockets were fired on 228 days, strafing was conducted 114 days, air-to-ground missiles were fired on 13 days, aerial mines were emplaced on 42 days, and naval gunfire practice was conducted on 123 days. The Navy states that it needs additional land on Culebra because operations will intensify in the future. When asked by the Journal why they remained quiet for so long about Navy bombardment operations on their island, several Culebrans stated that their previous mayors just "weren’t interested" in the issue.
Cordova, in Washington before his meeting with Navy officials, told the Journal that the Navy’s investigation came about as a result of the incidents, his request and those of others, and the Journal Commentary.
Cordova called the Journal publicity "more helpful" than anything else he could cite.