Protesters yell at the military outside gates

 BY PAUL BRINKLEY-ROGERS

 VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- The Navy and the Marine Corps on Tuesday allowed
 only tightly controlled glimpses of this week's massive amphibious assault
 against imaginary enemy targets on Vieques as a small band of protesters yelled
 insults at military personnel through a barbed-wire fence.

 So much was at stake regarding staging the controversial training that the military
 marked turtle nests on the beach with signs to warn the 2,200 battle-equipped
 Marines to stay clear and officers escorting two dozen Puerto Rico-based news
 people made a point of declaring that armored vehicles were staying on
 established dirt roads and were not wreaking environmental havoc by plowing
 through the thorny jungle.

 Two thirds of Vieques, a 12-mile long island off Puerto Rico's picturesque east
 coast, has been controlled by the Navy and used for military training exercises
 since World War II. The war games, like this week's exercise, are part of a much
 larger operation being staged in the Atlantic from Oct. 9-29. They often include
 bombardment by warships, air attacks, artillery strikes and Marine Corps
 amphibious invasions all at the same time.

 But this week's invasion of Vieques, built around a scenario in which U.S. forces
 storm ashore to restore the authority of the fictitious Gordon Island government
 and neutralize revolutionaries, is taking place under unusual circumstances.

 Various Puerto Rican political and environmental groups have demanded an end
 to the Navy presence for decades, but the demands intensified after a civilian
 guard was killed in April 1999 by a bomb dropped by a Navy pilot who mistook the
 victim's guardhouse for a target.

 The incident resulted in the government of Puerto Rico and the Clinton
 administration signing an agreement that allowed the Navy to continue using its
 Camp Garcia facility on Vieques until 2003, but only under severe restrictions.

 The Navy had to agree to limit the training to 90 days a year. Instead of dropping
 real bombs and firing live shells, the Navy had to agree to use dummy rounds
 made of concrete -- something that robs young Marines of the reality of warfare,
 some commanders have been complaining this week.

 The Navy, chafing at these conditions and determined to try to hang onto its
 base, has hired a public relations firm to improve its image.

 In a sense it is racing against the clock because the 9,300 people living on the
 one-third of the island that is not controlled by the military will vote in a
 referendum in the next 14 months on whether the base should close.

 Two polls done by the Navy this year show that the population is opposed to the
 Navy staying. But Navy Lt. Jeff Gordon, public affairs officer for the U.S. Naval
 Forces Southern Command, said ``We are making progress'' in the fight to win
 hearts and minds. He said this includes allowing civilian use of a pier ideal for
 ferry boats and helping improve the island's only clinic, which is run by Puerto
 Rico's government.

 Tuesday's action materialized the day after a minor rock-hurling incident near the
 same gates to Camp Garcia where demonstrators shouted at military vehicles
 Tuesday. Police chased the three men who threw rocks at a Navy bus and
 questioned one of them but made no arrests. There was no damage, and no one
 was hurt.

 In May, more than 200 protesters were arrested after they invaded the Navy's
 training areas.