The mid-morning day was a pleasant, sunny and bright with the usual easterly breeze wafting off the Atlantic ocean cooling me while I waited on Ofstie flight line on Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. I patiently stood by waiting for air operation's environmental coordinator to join me for the weekly inspection of his facility.

The base operating service sub-contractors were busily mowing the large expanses of dark green grass areas between the concrete runways with the tractors and attached rotary mowers. Men with two-cycle internal combustion grass trimmers were working the edges of the concrete aprons of the runways and areas where the tractors with their implements could not reach.

A small wiry, well-tanned man was approaching. He was of Puerto Rican nationality, employee of the sub-contractor, and was trimming the edges of the nearby small storage facility with a portable two-cycle grass trimmer.

He was tanned from many hours laboring outdoors in the intense tropical marine sun. His skin was the color of well-cured antique mahogany furniture. As I was seeking shade within the shadow of the storage facility and at the same time in the way of the man with the grass trimmer, he turned the machine off and politely asked in Spanish for me to move away from that area. He did not want me to get hurt with any flying debris that jettisoned from the cutting, whipping action of the whirling nylon cords as he approached the area.

The man proceeded to trim the grass. After about five minutes he again shut off the grass trimmer. He approached and startled me with his open friendliness and frankness of speech when he said," It would be a bad thing if the base (NSRR) closes. "

I was amazed and surprised to hear this from a complete stranger seemingly from "out of the blue." I immediately knew what he meant. I knew his "honda", "where he was coming from." The full or partial closure of Naval Station Roosevelt Roads would mean reduced work or no work for him, loss wages, layoff and unemployment, a lower standard of living and maybe even misery.

But as I stood there contemplating how to respond to him, I regressed to where I came from, to what I was doing a year and a half ago, before accepting this DoD civilian position with the Navy. Why was I here in Puerto Rico, a thousand five hundred miles from the coast of the Isthmus of Panama, my home?

I am an "economic refugee." I, as well as thousands of US and Panamanian DoD civilians that worked for many years on the fourteen military bases in the Panama Canal area, stated that same phrase, "It would be a bad thing if the bases close."

Many years before and up to the final day of the completion of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1979 some twenty years later, the closure and exodus of the US military bases in Panama "was a bad thing." (We all thought and murmured and prayed that it wouldn‘t happen.). Maybe we didn’t say or think the same way, but the sad situation had the same gut meaning and feeling. We know what the "bad things" are when an important source of employment and way of life disappears.

"Yes, it would be a ‘bad thing’ for this base to close," I replied to this humble but proud man. And I continued to describe my personal experience relating the following information:

Read the local and international newspapers on the negative results of the egress of he US military. Read how the economy of Panama has suffered immensely. Unemployment is rampant. Many Panamanian private enterprises that once prospered by providing services for the US military and DoD civilian employees have long since reduced personnel and have shut down. And conversely employment for many locals has been eliminated and added to the statistically high unemployment rate.

The closure of the military bases has been drastic for the economy. Panama's public schools are beyond capacity from the exodus of students from parents who are no longer able to pay for private education due to the economic downturn and recession. The loss of international investment and confidence in Panama is well evident.

Search for the DoD employees, Panamanian tradesman, engineers, architects, domestic employees, "white and blue collared", and others formerly directly or indirectly tied to the benefits of US military presence in Panama. Where are they now? They are now underemployed, sub-employed or unemployed. If they were "lucky," they were granted visas to immigrate to the USA or elsewhere (where else?) to search for viable employment opportunities.

There are no generous US federal welfare programs operating in Panama that serve as a "safety net" for the unemployed and hungry. In Puerto Rico such amenities as "cupones" or "Plan Familia" or Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) to name a few are, of course, non-existent in Panama.

And in Panama, if you are 35 year and older you might as well dig your grave and jump in cover up with dirt and die. Employment opportunities? Ha! There are few employment opportunities for you even though you have plenty of experience. No way.

This, in a small country that graduates thousands of university students a year means that your own personal sacrifices, accumulated experience, knowledge and wisdom are not important when short-sighted multi-national and national companies hire (and abuse) a young, naïve newly high school or university graduates for the $1.00 or so the hourly wage to "do the same job."

I was fortunate and damn "lucky" to have possessed United States of America citizenship. I could leave. And I did. I would have rather stayed in Panama but after a year doing my best to "stay home," and "make a go at it" working the nascent tourism industry, I had to go.

I had to leave the place I called home for the last forty-three years of my life. I left behind my elderly mother who fortunately has another son to tend her needs. I had to uproot my young family from a well-established and productive life in Panama. The "gravy train" left and it "ain’t" coming back.

The Panamanian economy was and still is getting bad to worst. A common saying in Panama for anything that gets from bad to worse is, "Guatemala a Guatepeor". That’s stating how things are in Panama now, a direct result of Panama "sans" the US military presence.

"Yeah, I thought, it would be a ‘bad thing’ for this base to close," I lamented to the Puerto Rican man. He's worried what will happen to him, his pride in working hard and supporting his family if Naval Station Roosevelt Roads closes for good. What will happen to him and thousands of Puerto Ricans that depend on the US military presence for their livelihood? I know what will happen. And it "don‘t look good."

(Note: The views presented in this article are of the author and in no way, implicit or explicit, represent the opinions, views or policies of the United States of America government or any of its departments)

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