GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Joint Task Force Guantanamo is made up of service members from every military branch and a great many professions. Some of the service members stay within their career fields, such as public affairs, supply and intelligence specialists, but many find themselves doing things outside their job field. A good example is the guards who work inside the facilities that house JTF Guantanamo detainees.
The majority of those working outside their comfort zone are those from the Navy Expeditionary Guard Battalion, made up of sailors from every career field – but there are also many security-trained sailors who end up doing something new.
“The job we do here is very important,” said Navy Lt. Robert Collett, director of detainee programs. “The guards who are with the detainees daily, the ones who work as librarians and programs specialists, all play a part in fulfilling the mission.”
The special duty assignment of librarian is one that plays a greater role than many may think. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Barnes, aviation maintenance administrationman, a guard and librarian, says it’s definitely an interesting mission.
“I started out as a regular guard,” Barnes said. “After spending many months out on the blocks, I had the opportunity to come here and be a librarian. I didn’t know what to expect at first, but it’s a great job.”
As a librarian, Barnes directly contributes to JTF Guantanamo’s mission of humane care and custody of the detainees. Bringing literature to the detainees is certainly humane, and judging from the library’s popularity with the detainees, the service is appreciated.
Each detainee is allowed to have a certain number of books at a time, dependant upon his level of compliance, with the majority allowed the maximum: eight. Barnes estimates he and his fellow librarians give out 200 to 300 books a week.
“We distribute books to different camps on different days,” Barnes said. “A typical day starts off with us loading the books into the vehicle. We head out at our scheduled times and retrieve borrowed books and give out new ones.”
Barnes said after a while, he started to figure out which books were popular in which camps.
“Some like language books, some comics,” Barnes said. “In some camps, for instance, religious books are the most popular.”
Once all the old books are retrieved and the new ones are distributed, Barnes and his fellow librarians head back to the office. There they unload the books, take them back into the library, scan them into the database and put them back on the shelves.
The library has a great system in place, according to Barnes. A computer database catalogs all the library’s holdings. Once everything is put away, the librarians start preparing for their next run. Barnes says while he’s not out on the blocks full-time anymore, there’s definitely no lack of work in the library.