Big Grand Cay, Bahamas Past History | |
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Type of Activity | Communications Support Trips |
Location | |
Location | Bahama Islands |
Date of Activity | Various |
Coordinates | 27°15′27.8″N 78°23′40.7″W |
Bahamas Big Grand Cay
President Nixon stayed on Big Grand Cay (aka Grand Cay), Mr. Abplanalp's private 125-acre island in the Bahamas, complete with a house that Mr. Abplanalp had refurbished for the Presidents use, and for relaxation a 55-foot yacht the Sea Lion was always available for their use. President Nixon would cruise the waters in the Sea Lion a sportfishing boat that was sculpted by the talented, skilled, and prideful builders who worked for Whiticar Boatworks under the direction of the late master builder Curt Whiticar. When it first splashed in 1963, it bore the classic lines of a Whiticar — elegant, sleek, and unmistakable.
The Sea Lion was built of wood originally and designed to handle the sharp choppy seas off Florida and the Bahamas as it pursued sailfish, blue marlin, mahi mahi, tuna and wahoo. Inventor and engineer Robert Abplanalp of New Jersey owned the Sea Lion for many years and owned the island of Walker's Cay in the Bahamas as well as Grand Cay. President Nixon always stayed on Grand Cay.
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| The Sea Lion near Grand Cay |
The "Big House on Grand Cay is a 4 bedroom and 5
bathroom vacation home with saltwater swimming pool, expansive decks
overlooking tropical beaches, a deep water dock,
Besides the Main House there was also two guest ocean villas. The lead USSS agent, Military Aide and President’s Doctor stayed in one villa, and if David and Julie Eisenhower or Ed and Trisha Cox came out, they would stay in the other villa on the beach, the caretaker’s quarters, sea plane ramp, helicopter landing pad, and various other storage and utility structures.
The main feature was the setting of being on a beautiful, isolated island with a great beach. It was rare for the First Lady to accompany the President, it was normally President Nixon, Bebe Rebozo, and Bob Abplanalp in the Main House.
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The
Main House, Boat Dock and USSS CP on Grand Cay |
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| Main House Living Room |
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| Main House Dining Room |
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| Game Room in Main House |
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| Support Staff Bunk House |
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| VIP Beach House Grand Cay |
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| Looking at the Big House from the boat dock |
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| Grand Cay Island (Guest villa behind main residence on other side of the island) |
About 5 minutes into the
flight, we saw the door fly open and break off the trailer. Soon after, the new
"Bay Window" broke loose and dropped in the drink. That allowed the
side to start caving in, and within another 10 miles, the only thing left was
the axle hanging in the sling.
The
pilot headed out to the deep ocean and dropped the load. Cost of the trailer,
the fabrication, purchasing in DC and driving to Florida, meetings, and all the
effort must have cost a fortune! The USSS, WHCA, and the USAF all had a big
argument on the budget for this fiasco. I cannot tell you what the outcome was
of these discussions.
The
trip to Grand Cay was about a
25min. boat ride southeast of Walkers Cay, however in bad weather it was not
safe to travel the 7 miles back to Walkers Cay. One such incident, where the
weather conditions were actually bad. I found myself on Grand Cay with a
Commcenter tech and we requested to be picked up. We waited quite some time and
thought the hotel had forgotten us, but a little later that evening we heard a
vessel arriving at the dock. To our
surprise they sent the Sea Lion to pick us up and not the 13 ft whaler.
We
were given instructions on the route between the various coral rocks and 7 mile
trip to Grand Cay via a small 13 ft Boston Whaler, 2-3 of us headed out for a
maintenance trip was very common, but the Commcenter had to go solo with TTY
message delivery during Presidential visits. It was a major short coming because
the Commcenter was located at Walkers Cay, and the President located across
open water about 7 miles and sometime as much as 45 minutes away. There were plans
that we could just call the Military Aide and request a helicopter for URGENT
deliveries, but the few times we tested that we were forced to use our dedicated
13 ft Whaler.
Whenever
the Commcenter was summoned by the Military Aid during a visit to come pick up
an outgoing message from the President, Dr. Kissinger, or any other Senior
Staff member. Once a message was received the WHCA Comm Center tech had to take
the boat ride to Grand Cay Because of rough water, it took them over 50 minutes
to arrive. They went into the living room of the "Big House" as we call
it, and here were the President, Mr Abplanalp, Bebe Rebozo, and Dr. Kissinger
sitting around a pool table all in swimming suits, and probably feeling no
pain, had a lot of top shelf alcohol available. They were given a 7 pages of
yellow legal pad written with a sharpie, arrows and paragraph numbers, and
corrections, and then a couple additional pages from other documents.
It took another 50 minutes to return to Walkers Cay,
and then we had to type the message for transmission to Key Biscayne who would
resend to the Situation Room. From the original call until this message cleared
Walkers Cay was close to 4 hours total, it was a very long message, and
important, going to General Westmoreland. When the WH Situation Room received
the message, they didn't have any warning, and need to verify with the Military
Aide that it was real.
The Military Aid and the President were out on the beach at Grand Cay, and took another 30 minutes to get them connected. wait and see if there was a response and then return to Walkers Cay, type the message on tape, send to Key Biscayne, and then they relayed it to the White House, who then made distribution and sent it worldwide via the AUTODIN network. Author to recipient times when you add the boat trip, typing times, and relay times were awfully slow.
On Monday morning, they
wanted to "hang the messenger" rather that address the real reason
for the delay, the message contained immediate bombing instructions which
arrived very late to implement on the suggested schedule. Still never did fix
the moving of the Commcenter from Walkers Cay to Grand Cay which should have
been done from day one, but WHMO had some maximum numbers for support folks on
Grand Cay, weather, fire crew, Navy divers, and WHCA.
When President Nixon
would travel to Grand Cay, WHCA frequently transmitted messages to all levels
of the Staff. The President issued the order for the Tet Offensive effort in
Viet Nam while at Grand Cay in the Bahamas. There were also many messages
giving guidance for Watergate issues, once again, all on Post-It notes attached
to a TTY message reply with the simple initials "RN" somewhere on the
page.
The Commcenter would sometimes
have to transmit long TTY messages multiple times, and then piece together to
get all the garble out. Nothing worse than having the last page have a few
characters missing! At 100 wpm, a very slow process. I can remember also when
it was 60 wpm.
The
President was actually staying on the island the day of the Watergate break-in,
but there had been no communication until the President called upon his return
to his Key Biscayne home on Sunday morning June 18,1972, and even then, they
did not discuss the breaking news of the weekend. (Watergate break-in was
Saturday, June 17)
The Attorney General John
Mitchell eventually went to jail, once it was discovered he was one of the ring
leaders of the entire operation.
Today, I am not sure with cellphones, emails, instant messages how Watergate would have unfolded. Seeing lots of messages in the Commcenter, and the 3M Post-It notes that were attached and sent back are very difficult to track once the reader pulls the Post-It off the document.
In 1973 we expanded the radio system I remember building and installing a new system between Walkers Cay and Grand Cay. The final leg of the was a GRC 103 UHF radio system, with a TD 660 multiplexer providing 24 voice circuits between Walkers Cay and terminating on Grand Cay.
Telephones were installed in the Main residence and both villas, as well as the bunkhouse on the island. The Secret Service CP/WHCA radio room also had phones installed and FM Radio Consoles on Baker and Charlie frequencies.
26 May 73 to Grand Cay to support President Nixon during Visit
The President was visiting his close friend Bob Abplanalp on Grand Cay. I was assigned as the only radioman on the island during the President’s visit. It was also during a midnight shift change of Secret Service Agents when Army One crashed in the ocean while landing There were fifteen survivors, agents, and crew, they were all on the underside of the chopper which had flipped over when it crashed tragically one Secret Service Agent drowned.
This was the last time I was on Grand Cay!
The “Big House” survived
the hurricanes and remains on the hill, and it remains intact, the house has
been remodeled, but the outside still looks run down, with outside mildew, and
bad need of repairs to the steps and path leading to the main entrance. The
1970’s paneling in the game room has all been replaced, and the pool off the
patio has been restored.
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| The Big House on Grand Cay |
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| The pool at the Big House |
The old two hexagonal
homes where the USSS and Military Aides stayed are still there and they have built
additional cabins.
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| A restored and remodeled
VIP villa |
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| VIP villas beach entrance shower |
Several new contemporary-style
villas have been built on the far side of the island to accommodate Guests.
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| One of the islands private beaches |
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| The recreation hall, and dormitory |
Great hotel like rooms, four to a room for lower level workers, then some two person rooms, and four larger single rooms for supervisors. There was a first class Mess Hall style kitchen to serve 80 people. and don’t forget the pool and gym, as well as the tennis, pickleball and basketball courts.
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