On Assignment: Guantánamo Bay

By definition, working on a military base as a journalist is pretty weird. Same with prisons. And also Caribbean islands (in my experience). But add those three together and you've got a very short list of places that are truly strange and surreal. At the very top is Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the oldest continuously used overseas naval base of these United States, covering 45 sq. miles of desert and water in Fidel's giant backyard, home of the famous holding cell for our war on terror, and the location of my assignment this last week for ESPN the Magazine.

First the obvious question and answers. What in the hell does ESPN have to do with military prisons? Guantánamo Bay is a large base with a very small detainment camp, which I had no access to and was no part of my story. So it doesn't have anything to do with that. But the base itself, like every base, plays host to entertainers and athletes of every stripe for the troops to give them some relief from the stressful and confined work that they have signed on to complete. I was sent to Cuba to photograph a group of professional wakeboarders, one of which has a brother stationed in the Coast Guard at Guantánamo, who came down to put on some demos and spread the gospel of extreme water sports to some very excited fans.

The week before last I got a call from one of my editors at the magazine, who has previously sent me on some very fun and challenging shoots (Goodyear blimp crew, Metrodome transformation) which began with the question: "So John, how is your criminal record?" Once the location “Guantánamo Bay” was spoken a few seconds later I was already sold no matter what, even though it meant re-scheduling a small portrait job. Sure, I thought it was an interesting story about two brothers and a very cool young sport, but I was really just thinking how fucking cool it would be to get the opportunity to see Guantánamo Bay in person. How many people get to do that? Very few; so I immediately started spitting out my personal stats to get the required clearance forms filled out.

Getting to Cuba is not very easy these days. But getting to Guantánamo Bay is predictably an order of magnitude more difficult. There are only 2 large flights there and back each week, and to get there (even though I was already pretty close from my house in Miami) our group had to assemble in Jacksonville, FL, and fly out from the Naval Air Station. Our directions were to arrive to the base by 8 a.m. (0800) the day of the flight. So when we were still sitting on our thumbs at the crappy airport hotel 30 miles North of the base at 8:10, I was pretty nervous. Here is a good tip for other travelers in Jax: the taxis there are a complete joke, even when they are called 90 minutes ahead of time. By the time it did arrive, over an hour late, we were at serious jeopardy of missing Cuba altogether.

Thankfully our group (5 pro boarders, 4 media members, 2 marketing dudes) made it to the base and onto the plane, and we began to form our little tribe which immediately, due to clothes and hair styles, stuck out wildly and elicited questions from other passengers like, "what's the name of your guys' band?" The flight down was on a large commercial jet that just like every other one you've ever been on, including the vaguely horrible in-flight movie, but as we banked very hard in our descent (because of a Cuban air space issue) and landed on an empty runway on the edge of the sea, it started to become real just how different Gitmo is, and isn't.

Our days were filled with tours, meet and greets, and demos, shuttled in and out of the oppressive heat by our incredible go-to man Jaren. We saw all kinds of giant guns mounted on Humvees and viper boats on constant patrol and un-inviting layers of razor wire fencing interrupted by spartan observation towers. There was plenty of other, most of which I was not allowed to photograph (which I completely expected). But there was also a lot more same than most people know... McDonald's (Cuba’s only), cold beer, friendly bored people, rap music, beaches, recreation, cable television, bad jokes, relationships, decorative shot glasses in gift shops, etc. My editor joked about me enjoying my cot in the barracks, and that would have been just fine, but instead we were each put up in great little apartments that were truly a step-up from the La Quinta in Jacksonville. So the assignment was filled with this tension between "what the fuck" and "sweet, this is nice."

Nearly each day the boys did their thing on the water (incredible and not just a little challenging to shoot) or spent time surfing or snorkeling on several of the local beaches, and each night we retired to a different restaurant or galley, kicked back and got to meet a lot of troops ranging from privates to the General, most of which could not have been more welcoming and thankful to have us there. Though we only saw a small and well-managed corner of the community, our contact with everyone was extremely rewarding.

GTMO is a large place defined by a single small camp that has only recently been added, and may soon be gone again. For every Marine whose job it is to shackle and transport a detainee back and forth between their cells and an interrogation room, there are at least a dozen other Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and civilians who are primarily concerned with the state of the surfing or fishing that day. And all of them are pretty much just like you and I. I know it’s insanely obvious to even write those words, but having been there it's important to me to spell it out here. (Breaking News: Again life proves to be more complicated and rich than expected). Myself included, our whole group was extremely gratified to have the opportunity to connect with the soldiers out there.

Dispite my respect for those stationed at Gitmo, and in addition to the us vs. them tension, as a journalist there was this strange pull about photographing a very different story in a place known so well, and so poorly, by newspaper readers. I was happy to do it and at the same time a little sad that my ticket to Gitmo was via wakeboarding, a sport that until I got this assignment I had almost no clue about. My attitude is conceited and dumb, but its how I felt as our van slowly passed (there is nearly a base-wide speed limit of 25 m.p.h.) camps and checkpoints.

And at the same time the trip was really fantastic. The pros and other media members, including a writer for ESPN I worked with for the first, but hopefully not the last, time, were amazing to get to know and share laughs and a lot of sun with. We meshed in a special way over the week, creating a tribe with our own in-jokes, and on Saturday as we packed our bags we already had plans on how and when to come back for more days at Windmill Beach and nights at the Tiki Bar. It was one of those rare assignments that was as rewarding personally as it was professionally, and I am honored for the experience and connections made. To everyone: Alyssa, Tony, Matt, Jack, Keith, Mikey, Billy, Zane, Andrew, John, Justin, and all who helped us... thanks!

Photographically I feel that I shot pretty well, not to mention a friggin' ton (3000+ frames), and was able to figure out the sport better each time we went out for a demo. Though I once did dream of becoming a big-time action sports photographer (yep), it was a challenge to get back into those shoes (and reflexes) to try and track the explosive energy of the boarders ramping off the wake a dozen feet or more into the air. My biggest regret was that I didn't have an underwater housing to use, because there was a very cool opportunity to shoot the wakeboarders from a tube pulled by the boat, on a longer cord than the wakeboarder, that I would have loved to try.

The bigger difficulty of the assignment was ultimately trying to find the right context (considering our access) that showed we were in fact on a military base and not just somewhere like Costa Rica. Beyond my work for ESPN I hoped to bring back a sense of the community beyond the headlines, but as is often the case my time was too short and my job too specific. Maybe (and hopefully) next time.

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Comments (2)

sounds like a killer gig - all the right ingredients

challenging assignment, fun crew, exotic surroundings and cold beers

can't wait to see the pics hopefully ESPN will be able to give it some air

enjoyed your candor in the "dollars and sense" post

keep fighting the good fight

cheers

ah

Really interesting--thanks for the story.

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