Comment from Grant:
Here are a couple of pictures from the infamous Gitmo beer halls I got from Bruno Codispoti. I thought you might want to put them on the website. They are from August 1958. About a month before the LT went to Gitmo, Castro, who was becoming something of a folk hero, kidnapped a bunch of sailors on their way back to the base from Gitmo City. Castro tried to hold them for ransom, but eventually released. I guess he realized what a pain in the ass drunken sailors could be. Anyway, Castro's popularity in the US began to decline after the incident, and Gitmo City was closed. We were among the first who couldn't get off the base.
The one picture of the three guys working on beers are, from the right, Dave Thomas, personnelman 3 from Forty Fort, Pa., current whereabouts unknown; Bruno Codispoit, ET3 from Brooklyn, now living in Virginia Beach, Va.; and Grant "Smitty" Smith, ET3, from Little Rock, Ark., now living in Scottsdale, Arizona.