I am currently engaged in a study on the history of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In the original treaty for the base, the land was granted the United States for the construction of a "naval station". I know that since then, Guantanamo has been upgraded to being a Naval Base. Does anyone know, as of 1903 (when the cuba-us treaty was signed) what the difference between a naval station and a naval base was? What is the difference today?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

quote:

Originally posted by ironandmind:
I am currently engaged in a study on the history of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In the original treaty for the base, the land was granted the United States for the construction of a "naval station". I know that since then, Guantanamo has been upgraded to being a Naval Base. Does anyone know, as of 1903 (when the cuba-us treaty was signed) what the difference between a naval station and a naval base was? What is the difference today?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I don't know where you are getting your info but the official name to this day is U.S. Naval Station,Guantanamo Bay.

This Is An Official US Navy Website | U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay

BoatsBM1

To answer the bigger picture question I always thought that the difference was that a "naval station" had ships and a "Navy base" did not.

Heres another question along this same line.

Although most of us up until at least 1970 referred to it as NOB, Norfolk.

1. It actually ceased to be a NOB when?

2. What is the difference between an NOB and a NS? (I really don't know)

NOB Norfolk was renamed NS Norfolk in 1953. NAS Norfolk was decommed in 1999 and became part of NS Norfolk. I know we called it NOB for many years after that - but like other things once a term is used and accepted it is very hard to stop using it. Look at the term "quarterly marks". That term was still in use many years after quarterly marks went away, in some cases by sailors who were not even born when the term no longer had official meaning.

There is a definition of a Naval Base available on the net, supposedly sponsored by DOD. It is a facility that has direct support of fleet units. This makes no sense, since NS Norfolk certainly supports fleet units.

quote:

Originally posted by whyworry:
NOB Norfolk was renamed NS Norfolk in 1953. NAS Norfolk was decommed in 1999 and became part of NS Norfolk. I know we called it NOB for many years after that - but like other things once a term is used and accepted it is very hard to stop using it. Look at the term "quarterly marks". That term was still in use many years after quarterly marks went away, in some cases by sailors who were not even born when the term no longer had official meaning.

There is a definition of a Naval Base available on the net, supposedly sponsored by DOD. It is a facility that has direct support of fleet units. This makes no sense, since NS Norfolk certainly supports fleet units.

The problem with certain sections of the DoD website is that you have civilians putting data into it that don't have the faintest idea of what is correct or not.
They tend to take the easy way out when entering data.
Example;
On the site they refer to all branches enlisted personnel as having some type of "rank".That term only applies to the enlisted personnel of the Marines, Army and Air Force, not the Navy or Coast Guard.
Instead of making two charts to correctly show the correct info it was easier to make one chart and include all within that chart,ie.,three services vs two services.
I have *****ed to them a number of times about just that one item, to no avail.
As some on this site can attest to this is a pet peeve on mine.

There are other data on that site that intermingles various service info with one another that is not a correct as it applies in the manner they state.

What I am saying is that sometimes you have to know what is correct,according to the history and the various rules and regulations of the various services, and take some of DoD's data with a grain of salt.

And of course as you have stated, some terms live on well past their accepted usage.

BoatsBM1

Excellent posts one and all. Good reading and informative.
We could start a whole nother forum about civilian MIS-information about the Military.
A subject about which 99% of the civilian world is totally UN-qualified to expound on.

So, would a U.S. Navy Shipyard, say Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,or the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard be a Base, Station or Shipyard? Or are they not officially considered a USN "facility", for lack of a better term.

These have long been unofficially referred to as "Navy Yards" Based on the previous definition, I guess they wouldn't be classified as a station, not serving any fleet units.

Naval Shipyards were/are officially titled shipyards in all official documents.

Naval Bases are named such because they are assigned support of fleet units, Naval Stations are not. I cannot explain the anomaly with NS Norfolk.

Like rank, rate, rating, etc., many terms are improperly exchanged based on common usage.