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By Tom Hays, Associated Press Writer. Tue Apr 30, 7:34 AM
ET. Yahoo!
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Lance Cpl. David Anderson can handle the
truth.
To paraphrase the Marine colonel played by Jack Nicholson in "A Few
Good Men," Anderson may eat breakfast a few hundred yards (meters) from
Cuban soldiers trained to kill him. But guarding Guantanamo Bay's fence line
isn't a fictionalized scene for Anderson.
"It's boring on some days, exciting on others," the 25-year-old
from San Antonio said on a break from patrolling the 17.4 mile (28-kilometer)
border separating this U.S. military base from Fidel Castro 's communist Cuba. "Putting
the rhetoric aside, we get along pretty well with the Cubans."
The fence once gave the base its identity as a potential Cold War flashpoint
on Cuba's eastern tip.
"You NEED me on that wall," the Nicholson character insists, in
the movie about a Marine who wants to transfer out of Guantanamo and who is
killed by fellow Marines.
But after a four-decade stare-down through barbed wire — and the
arrival of 300 captives of the war on terrorism — the urgency may be
waning.
Media attention has concentrated almost exclusively on the detention of the
suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who face an uncertain fate in an
uncertain conflict.
There is little uncertainty on the fence line.
The Cubans believe Guantanamo belongs to them. But whatever tensions once
existed have eased enough for monthly face-to-face meetings between the
commanders of the Marines and the Frontier Brigade soldiers who patrol the Cuban
side.
Last month, commanders discussed Cuban concerns about the potential for
tuberculosis to spread from the detainees to civilians. The Cubans were told the
risk was minimal.
The sit-downs are "designed to address any misunderstandings and keep
communications open," said Maj. James Bell, an Army spokesman.
Despite the dialogue, the military is serious about keeping heavily armed
Marines at the fence.
"You have to keep in mind that there's a communist country over there,"
said Lance Cpl. Ramiro Guillen, 29, a Marine from Houston. "That puts a
little bit of an edge on the job."
Outfitted with camouflage uniforms, M-16s and high-powered, night-vision
binoculars, Marines man wooden towers dotting the fence line around the clock.
Soldiers in Humvees mounted with .50-caliber machine guns also keep watch over
enemy territory.
Lone sentries work long shifts atop the towers, swooping vultures sometimes
their only company. They have been warned that getting caught falling asleep
could result in demotion, or worse.
To stay alert, some do push-ups and sit-ups, or down coffee and candy.
Commanders check up on them by radio or in person.
The duty can be like looking in a mirror: Cuban soldiers have their own
towers and patrols. They have been know to salute the Americans with obscene
gestures.
"There's no love there," said Pfc. Pedro Flores-Morales, a
19-year-old from Dallas. But the Marines are under strict orders not to respond
to any of the taunts, he added.
Besides, Marines believe their counterparts have other concerns.
"Some of the time, they're not watching us," Anderson said. "They're
watching for their own people trying to get out of there."
The sentries are close enough to the Cuban port town of Caimanera to know
that the residents' musical tastes lean toward Celine Dion , Britney Spears and
other pop sensations.
"I've heard Jennifer Lopez playing through the fence," Anderson
said.
The patrols sometimes are startled by the sound of explosions — land
mines on the other side apparently set off by intense heat or perhaps one of the
iguanas or cane rats that wander among the giant cacti in this semiarid terrain.
The blasts are a reminder that "this is a real world situation,"
said Staff Sgt. John McInerney, 26, from San Jose, California.
Flores-Morales fancies himself an old-school Cold War warrior, noting some
of America's sworn enemies predate Osama bin Laden , the Saudi exile whom the
United States blames for the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"We need to be here to stay in Castro's face," he said.
(th-pd/maf) | 
