Bermuda: A Bargain Base for Navy

For 50 years America has been leasing one-tenth of all the land in Bermuda for one British pound a year or $1.57 at the current rate of exchange.

The United States got the bargain because of Adolf Hitler.

A 100-year lease was agreed upon in 1940 when Great Britain was at war with Germany but the United States had not yet entered the war.

“America gave Britain 50 old Navy destroyers. In return the United States was granted long-term leases in British colonies for military bases in Bermuda, Barbados, Antigua, Eleuthera, Grand Turk, Trinidad and Tobago,” explained Capt. Joseph F. Phelan, 45, commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Station Bermuda.

During World War II, there were major bases on all these Caribbean islands, but, since then, all, except this one in Bermuda, have been shut down.

America keeps two large Navy facilities in Bermuda, a fleet refueling depot at the west end and an air base next to the international airport on the east end of the island chain.

The prime mission of U.S. Naval Air Station Bermuda is tracking Soviet submarines and Eastern Bloc nation military and commercial activity in the Atlantic.

Anti-sub and ship patrols are conducted by crews flying Lockheed PC-3 Orion surveillance planes loaded with highly sophisticated electronic equipment.

Phelan, a 1966 graduate of the Naval Academy, was stationed here in 1979 and 1980 as a pilot with one of the PC-3 Orion squadrons. On his desk, he keeps a photograph taken of a PC-3 he flew a wing tip away from a Soviet plane also on patrol over the Atlantic.

“Bermuda is an important forward defense base for America,” Phelan said. “The Soviets have 300 submarines deployed worldwide, many of them in the Atlantic. The Orions keep track of the subs and Eastern Bloc shipping.”

“A dozen men fly each plane on long patrol missions that range as far as 1,500 miles out and back, lasting as long as eight to 12 hours. The planes are equipped with 360-degree forward and aft radar, infrared detection equipment to monitor merchant and warship movements,” he added.

Now the surveillance teams have another assignment. “It’s a new ballgame out here, thanks to President Bush’s stepped-up war against drugs,” said Cmdr. Steve Hilley, 41.

“Planes from our squadron are flying patrols throughout the Caribbean looking for and photographing evidence of transportation of drugs at sea. We are providing any and all intelligence of this activity to the Drug Enforcement Agency.”

Bermuda with a population of 57,000 is the oldest self-governing colony in the British Commonwealth. It was first settled by Virginia-bound colonists shipwrecked here in 1609.

The fish-hook-shaped country, 22 miles long, two miles wide, consists of a chain of seven main islands connected by bridges. There are also 143 tiny isles.

It’s a favorite mecca for East Coast honeymooners and vacationers who stay at resorts on Bermuda’s fabled pink sand beaches.

“There’s a long tradition of good will and mutual respect between the U.S. Navy and the people of Bermuda,” noted Capt. Phelan, in charge of all Navy activities here.

“Our annual payroll alone is in excess of $28 million, combining this sum with the base’s normal operating budget of $32 million gives you some feel for the tremendous impact by the Navy on the local economy.”

There are 1,872 Navy men and women based in Bermuda plus 776 Navy dependents and 835 civilian workers attached to the air station and refueling depot. Two hundred of the civilians are Bermudans.

Civilians are employed in public works and as schoolteachers. The Navy operates a kindergarten-through-12th-grade school for the 350 American children of Navy and civilian base personnel.

The Navy also runs the Bermuda International Airport on St. David’s Island where all the U.S., Canadian and European airlines land.

Thirty-three U.S. Navy air traffic controllers staff the Bermuda airport tower 24 hours a day. Last year there were more than 38,000 landings and takeoffs.

And the U.S. Navy cares for one of Bermuda’s busiest bridges--the three-quarter-mile-long Longbird Causeway.

Phelan requested to be reassigned here. “My wife, Trish, and my four children love Bermuda as I do. Bermudans are friendly and hospitable. This is a great place to raise a family,” said the 6-foot-2 commanding officer .

Few Americans know about the Navy’s role in Bermuda. But for Bermudans the U.S. Navy is as much a part of the landscape as blue lizards, land crabs and whistling tree frogs.