Not-so-bold prediction: The military will cave.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — A pair of Nativity Scenes, one in the dining room for prison camp guards, are apparently causing a bit of a stir among a few troops at this remote outpost.
The Albuquerque, N.M., Military Religious Freedom Foundation told the Navy Times newspaper that unidentified service members stationed here want two Nativity scenes moved from the base dining rooms, called galleys, to the Guantánamo base chapel.
There was no immediate reaction to the article on Wednesday morning from spokesmen for the prison or the base, which has a school, a golf course and about 6,000 residents, a third of them civilian contract workers from Jamaica and the Philippines.
The rights organization led by Mikey Weinstein published a letter from the protesters on its website Wednesday. It said it was signed by 18 active-duty service members who were being afforded anonymity.
“Our local military family encompasses many faiths and beliefs to include Muslim, Jewish, Wiccan, Buddhist, Agnostic and other denominations,” the letter seeking the foundation’s assistance said.
The Gold Hill dining room is located on the main portion of the base, on a slight rise above the McDonald’s and commissary, not far from the base chapel complex, and serves troops, contractors, base visitors and students from the high-school for sailors’ children, cafeteria-style.
Update: As expected.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — The commander of this remote outpost said Wednesday night he would move two Nativity scenes from U.S. troops’ cafeterias to the base chapel, ending a daylong controversy kicked up by a few troops who protested to the Pentagon in secret.
“No one’s ever complained to me about it. We’ve been doing it for 10 years,” said Capt. J.R. Nettleton, commander of this Navy base, which has a school, a golf course and about 6,000 residents, a third of them civilian contract workers from Jamaica and the Philippines.
Still, he said, he took a look at the two créches in the dining rooms and concluded the more suitable place to put them was, as recommended, in the base chapel on a hilltop above the McDonald’s.
“The spirit of the Navy’s policy on this is, if it’s religious, it goes to the chapel,” Nettleton told the Miami Herald after a day of controversy. “It’s more appropriate there.”