# DIEGO GARCIA????? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 25, 2000, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213 "2000-10-25T03:30:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/1 "2000-10-25T03:30:42Z")
My 20 year old Navy-newbie son just got his first marching orders. OK, maybe “swimming” orders, and they are to Diego Garcia. For those unfamiliar with the area, take out your globe, find the Indian Ocean, head straight to the equator. If your globe doesn’t have too big an equator band, you might be able to find it. It sits right on the equator, about 19 miles altogether. There is nothing there but military. It could be a lot worse, NO ONE is bombing it. He will be safe, except for sunburns. But it does mean we won’t see him for at least a year, which SUCKS. No where else on Earth is as mundane and pointless as Diego Garcia. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/2 "2000-10-25T03:37:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dragonlady \* > \*\*My 20 year old Navy-newbie son just got his first marching orders. OK, maybe “swimming” orders, and they are to Diego Garcia. > For those unfamiliar with the area, take out your globe, find the Indian Ocean, head straight to the equator. If your globe doesn’t have too big an equator band, you might be able to find it. It sits right on the equator, about 19 miles altogether. There is nothing there but military. > It could be a lot worse, NO ONE is bombing it. He will be safe, except for sunburns. But it does mean we won’t see him for at least a year, which SUCKS. > No where else on Earth is as mundane and pointless as Diego Garcia. \*\* Hey, I know where DG is! I had a navy friend stationed there years ago. He loved it. Great snorkling and stuff like that is to be had there. I have no idea of what his job on the island was, guano picker upper? ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/3 "2000-10-25T03:48:09Z")
As there is a large communications facility there, and as I once worked for Navy intelligence, I am quite familiar with the rock, although I’ve never had the…pleasure?..of meeting it in person. Your son will have a great time there, **dragonlady** , don’t worry 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/4 "2000-10-25T03:58:56Z")
My son is a CTO, which is crypto-something. That explains why he ended up there. One other guy from his class is going. My Ex got sent there for 3 months once, he hated it. Then again, Brad doesn’t have a wife and kids to stress out over. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/5 "2000-10-25T04:22:37Z")
Been there! I don’t remember much of it, tho, as I was quite drunk at the time. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/6 "2000-10-25T05:33:45Z")
\>\> I once worked for Navy intelligence Hmm… navy intelligence? let me guess… you gave up in despair? They needed more intelligence than you could supply? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/7 "2000-10-25T05:34:29Z")
Could be worse, he could have been shipped to Thule. It is closed now I believe though. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/8 "2000-10-25T05:47:15Z")
From [http://www.britannica.com](http://www.britannica.com) Diego Garcia: coral atoll, largest and southernmost member of the Chagos Archipelago, in the southern Indian Ocean. Occupying an area of about 17 square miles (44 square km), it consists of a V-shaped, sand-fringed cay, about 15 miles (24 km) in length and having a maximum width of about 7 miles; the lagoon is open at the north end. Discovered by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, it was for most of its history a dependency of Mauritius. In 1965 it was separated from Mauritius as part of the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory. The production of copra from coconut palms was the only economic activity until the early 1970s, when the last of the plantation workers and their families were moved to Mauritius to facilitate the development of U.S. military communications facilities established in accordance with a 1966 agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom … ---
**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/9 "2000-10-25T06:38:39Z")
I don’t intend to make anyone worried for their loved ones, but . . . isn’t Diego Garcia a major staging ground for US operations in the Middle East? I thought it played a prominent logistical role in the Gulf War. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/10 "2000-10-25T06:56:39Z")
I don’t think there are any ships homeported in Diego Garcia, so if he’s stationed there, he’s on shore duty, and thus not going to the Middle East. ---
**Author:** ![OrcaChow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@OrcaChow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OrcaChow)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/11 "2000-10-25T09:19:36Z")
In the Seventies I used to be stationed at Beale AFB, where the SR-71 Blackbird spyplanes were based. We used to send SRs and refueling tankers to Diego Garcia. Never went there myself, but DG was the sick-joke assignment. Everybody dreaded it. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/12 "2000-10-25T10:55:01Z")
When I was still on active duty, a friend of mine got orders to DG - he was really excited about it. I recall that he often spoke of the goats on the island… Not that I mean to imply anything. Seriously, hope your son takes advantage of every opportunity to travel while he’s there. The people who most enjoy remote duty are the ones who leap at every chance to get off the base and see the world. I was never stationed anywhere more exotic than Sicily, but it was a great jumping-off point for European travel… ---
**Author:** ![tatertot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@tatertot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tatertot)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/13 "2000-10-25T11:06:11Z")
Best wishes to your son, **Dragonlady**! And you’re right, he doesn’t have a wife and kids to stress over, so with the right attitude this could be the time of his life! Is there a possibility of him hopping a MAC flight home sometime? It’s worth looking into…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/14 "2000-10-25T12:49:58Z")
Hey, Straight Dope Staffer Monty is stationed there! … so it aint that remote, they have e-mail. Would you rather he were stationed in Abidjan? ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/15 "2000-10-25T12:59:26Z")
Hate to mention this, but… Diego Garcia has been a recent subject of controversy in the UK of late. DG was a UK colony, and, when the US decided to put their naval base there, the UK moved the native islanders to the Marshall Islands–against their will. In the last three months a group of the natives is demanding a return to DG. No news on what’s going to happen yet, but the UK Colonial Office has been mightily embarassed over the situation. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/16 "2000-10-25T14:26:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*Hmm… navy intelligence? let me guess… you gave up in despair? They needed more intelligence than you could supply? 🙂 \*\* Actually, my enlistment was up…but can I borrow one of those for the next time someone asks me why I got out? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/17 "2000-10-25T14:38:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sandyr \* > As there is a large communications facility there, and as I once worked for Navy intelligence, I am quite familiar with the rock, although I’ve never had the…pleasure?..of meeting it in person. I helped design one of the comm systems there, so I’m quite familiar with maps of the place, but fortunately I never had to make a site visit. I _did_ have to do a site survey of Thule, though–and not in the summer, either. It’s still very much an active base–you have to stay active or you’ll freeze. Thule is the bleakest damn place I’ve ever seen. DG has _got_ to be better! Isn’t DG’s average height above sea level about 4-6 inches? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/18 "2000-10-25T14:49:37Z")
Thule, Greenland, “Where there’s a woman behind every tree.” ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/19 "2000-10-25T15:12:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Slithy Tove \* > \*\*Thule, Greenland, “Where there’s a woman behind every tree.” \*\* They told his Dad the same thing about Keflavic, Iceland! Thanks everyone, I guess I’m just having a hard time letting him out of my sphere of control. I’m feeling better, now. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213/20 "2000-10-26T00:50:21Z")
Thanks Duke! Just when I thought he waas gonna be safe, you come up with a possible civil war, of sorts? Wonderful!! Just wanted to bump this up, since it’s SOO annoying to O’r’n’e’r’y Oscar, or whoever he is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego-garcia/38213.md?page=2)