Goodbye to Roosey
31 MARCH 2004
GOODBYE TO ROOSEY
While serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the 1920s, Franklin Roosevelt asked for the establishment of a naval base on eastern Puerto Rico. He even suggested it be named after his cousin, former President Theodore Roosevelt. It was not until 1940, however, when German U-boats began menacing our allies’ shipping in the Caribbean, that prudence dictated the US Navy secure a presence on Puerto Rico. Thus in 1943, Naval Operations Base Roosevelt Roads was completed, the 8600-acre tract encompassed the old Army Fort Bundy, as well as a substantial portion of nearby Vieques Island. As a center for WWII patrols, it proved invaluable, but in the decade after the war activity at the base nearly ceased. Then Cold War tensions and technological advances brought the development of the guided missile. Suddenly the Puerto Rican base, in particular, the Vieques Island section, became attractive as a site for missile testing and weapons training. As a venue for integrated naval gunnery, aviation ordnance, and amphibious assault training, Vieques was unique in the Atlantic basin. Roosey Roads soon became the expected first port of call for battle groups deploying to the Atlantic.
The central portion of Vieques Island remained in civilian hands however, despite proposals in 1947 and again during the Kennedy Administration to relocate approximately 8000 Puerto Rican inhabitants to St. Croix. Ultimately this situation would prove the base’s undoing. For despite decades of safety, on 19 April 1999, two errant 500# bombs from a USMC fighter impacted close to an observation tower, killing civilian guard David Sanes Rodriguez and wounding four others. A public outcry ensued that eventually cited a broad range of perils from weapons accidents to environmental damage to toxicity from depleted Uranium rounds. Protesters, some of whom were noted politicians and Hollywood actors, repeatedly breached the perimeter, halting ongoing training. No amount of President Clinton’s intervention could slake the passions of the protesters, and in 2001 President George W. Bush decided the Navy would leave Vieques altogether. The western portion of the island was quickly surrendered, and on 1 May 2003 those remaining lands on eastern Vieques still under Navy control were transferred to the Department of the Interior.
In an era of constrained budgets and “right sizing,” the Roosevelt Roads base without Vieques was superfluous. On 30 September 2003 President Bush signed the 2004 Defense Appropriations Act that included provisions for the closure of Naval Station Roosevelt Roads. Only a small Naval Activity Puerto Rico remains to mark the Navy’s 60-year presence in the Caribbean.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 6 APR 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Associated Press. “Anti-Navy Protesters Detained on Vieques.” Washington Post, 2 October 2000, p. A2.
“Chronology of Vieques Fight against the Navy since April 1999.” AT: www.vieques-island.com/board/navy/chrono.html, 18 January 2004.
“Division of Territories and Island Possessions.” AT: www.vieques-island.com/board/navy/memostcroix.html, 18 January 2004.
“History of the Navy in Vieques.” AT: www.vieques-island.com/ board/navy, 18 January 2004.
James, Ian. (Associated Press). “Navy Base Closing Changes Landscape for Puerto Ricans.” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 11 January 2004, p. A-9.
“Kennedy, Muñoz Marin and Vieques.” AT: www.vieques-island.com/ board/navy/kennedy.html, 18 January 2004.
Oral History. CAPT Charles O. Barker, MC/USN, Executive Officer Naval Hospital Roosevelt Roads, August 2001-February 2004, 22 January 2004.
“Roosevelt Roads History and Facts.” AT: www.navstarr.navy.mil/ Homepage/roosevelt_roads_history_and_fact.htm, 18 January 2004.
“Vieques Cheers Navy Pullout.” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 1 May 2003, p. A-12.
Zuniga, Ricardo. “Navy Shuts Down its Main Puerto Rico Base.” Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 2 April 2004, p. A-3.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Serially designated the Atlantic Fleet Guided Missile Training Center, the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Center, then finally Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in 1957, the tenant Naval Hospital Roosevelt Roads decommissioned 13 February 2004 and locked her doors permanently 12 March. The Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administers the 3100-acre former Navy tract on eastern Vieques as a National Wildlife Refuge.