GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – "To you who have had to leave your homes at Guantanamo I send my deep regrets. I know you do so with sadness, for some of you leave behind your husband, others your father, and you who have been civilian employees are uprooted from your jobs as well as your homes. It is my most earnest hope that circumstances will permit your return. I send my warmest greetings and best wishes to you and those you leave behind." – John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, October, 1962
Frances Glasspoole's day started out much the same as it had the entire school year. A senior at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's William T. Sampson High School, she got ready for the day by having breakfast before jumping on the bus.
Once she got to school, however, the normalcy of daily life at here was shattered with the news to get back on the school bus and return home for evacuation from the island. The abrupt departure from the island, and the chaotic events of the day, were her last memories of the place she called home.
It's taken her 45 years to come back.
The day that took her from Cuba was Oct. 22, 1962. President John F. Kennedy, acting on intelligence reports of the movements of Cuban and Russian forces, ordered the quarantine of Cuba and the evacuation of all dependents and civilian employees. The days surrounding the evacuation would later become known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Reports indicated Russia was supplying Cuba with weapons and material that could pose a direct threat to the United States. Satellite photos showed missile sites under construction. This was during the height of the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia was an ever-present threat.
Glasspoole, who later in life changed her last name to Matlock, knew nothing of these events at the time. Dependents knew next to nothing about U.S. current events, she said; in fact, she knew more about Cuban affairs than events in her country.
"All we had was the base newspaper," Matlock said with a laugh, and that didn't include any mention of tensions between the U.S. and Cuba.
According to Naval Historical Center documents, approximately 1,700 noncombatants from the base's Windward side were loaded into four ships – USNS Upshur, USS Duxbury Bay, USS Hyades and USS Desoto County. Leeward side hospital patients and noncombatants were evacuated by air.
That's not quite true, Matlock said.
"We got to the docks and [the ships] were already full," she said. "Instead, my mother, brother and I were picked up in a cattle car, put on a C-130 that took us to Norfolk. It wasn't until we got there that we heard [President] Kennedy's famous address."
From there, they took a commercial flight to Hamilton, Mont., and never left for years, although most of her senior class of up to 26 students returned to the island a couple months later. She still keeps in touch with her Gitmo senior class through periodic reunions, but hasn't seen Cuba since that last day.
Her father, Harvey Glasspoole, a jet aircraft mechanic, remained on the island.
When discussion turns to the sights and sounds of Guantanamo Bay in 1962, much of the enthusiasm expected from a 17-year-old girl is displayed in the eyes and features of the 62-year-old.
Remembering landmarks and buildings at Guantanamo Bay came mainly in the form of recollections after visiting a particular site, she said.
"I was just a teenager at the time, I didn't remember anything," Matlock said when asked what has changed since the early 1960s. The memories she did have of the time are the same as any typical teenage girl, whether they grew up in 1962 or 2008 – boys.
"Our class had maybe six boys and there were thousands of Sailors; guess who lost out?" she said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes and a laugh. Back then, Sailors could take dependents out on dates as long as they had a signed note from the father granting permission.
Much has changed in the intervening years, Matlock said. In the '60s, for example, there were many more clubs catering to the thousands of active duty Sailors and Marines living on Naval Air Station Guantanamo Bay, the air station which previously existed on the current base's Leeward side, fewer buildings and more iguanas. Back then, McCalla Airfield, now enveloped by Joint Task Force Guantanamo's new Expeditionary Legal Complex, was an active runway.
Matlock and her friends could visit the Naval Station Corral or the base archery range. A commissary provided food, with a lot of browned-out fruits and vegetables, and there were several Lyceum theaters to watch movies. Kittery Beach was for families only, while nearby Windmill Beach was exclusive to active duty Sailors and Marines.
Pier Bravo was the disembarkation point for the approximately 3,000 Cubans who worked on the base at the time as part of an agreement with the Cuban government after the base gates were closed. They were never replaced over the years and today only three remain of that number.
Many things remain unchanged, however. In particular, she was able to visit the house she lived in while at Guantanamo Bay, in Kittery Beach housing. The only thing that's changed, she said, was the replacement of large screened windows with glass replacements to accommodate air conditioning units, which were installed well after she left.
While Matlock never returned to Cuba, she said a part of her has always remained here. After a 25-year career as an orthopedic nurse, she attended San Francisco State University and received a Bachelor's degree in anthropology and museum studies in 1995.
She is currently working with a writer friend to complete a memoir started by her mother on her personal experiences while living on the island. Matlock said her mother, who is now 88 years old, will not be able to finish her memoirs so she wants to finish it instead. With pictures provided by her father, Matlock expects the book to be published later this year.
Matlock left Guantanamo Bay for a second time July 15, 2008. This time, she isn't leaving with a cloud of worry to mar her departure, but with a raft of new memories that now sit side-by-side with the ones she already had of Cuba.
"This place has shaped me for the rest of my life," Matlock reflected of her time since that memorable day in 1962. This time around, hopefully, she leaves with a more sedate, proper sense of closure.