VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) -- When U.S. Navy warships gather off the coast
                  of Vieques for training, Isabel Perez says she watches them with pride and hangs
                  an American flag from her balcony overlooking the sea.

                  The arrival of the ships is a ritual that has been part of life for decades on the small
                  Puerto Rican island of 9,400 people.

                  "When the Navy boats come, it's all boats out there," she says, motioning to
                  the turquoise sea. "I feel proud the Navy is on Vieques."

                  While Navy opponents press for an end to the military's use of the island's
                  eastern tip as a bombing range, Perez and others hope to arrange for the Navy
                  to stay. Last week, four Vieques residents traveled to Washington to present
                  pro-Navy petitions signed by 1,780 of the island's adults who want Vieques to
                  secede from Puerto Rico and become a separate U.S. territory.

                  Luis Sanchez, a pro-Navy activist who led the lobbying trip, says that the Navy
                  has broad support on the island and that many people see secession from Puerto
                  Rico as the best way to ensure financial backing from the U.S. government
                  through a continued Navy presence.

                  Sanchez, a civilian security guard for the Navy, worries that without the
                  bombing exercises, Vieques would lose precious jobs and federal funds.

                  About 200 Vieques residents work for the Navy in the area. Vieques' average
                  unemployment last year was 12.3 percent, as compared with 10.1 percent on the
                  main island of Puerto Rico.

                  "The future of this land depends on the Navy," Sanchez said. "The moment the
                  Navy goes away, the federal funds go too."

                  Anti-Navy sentiment flared in Puerto Rico in 1999, when two off-target bombs
                  killed a civilian guard on the bombing range. Protesters invaded the range,
                  preventing exercises for a year until U.S. marshals forcibly removed them last
                  May.

                  Since then, the Navy has been using only inert ammunition and has scaled back
                  the frequency of training, but it says live-fire exercises provide vital training for
                  U.S. troops.

                  U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who advocates the use of
                  live fire, welcomed the petitions presented by Sanchez.

                  "The people of Vieques should be provided with the opportunity for
                  self-determination," he said. "I will bring it forward in the Congress."

                  Vieques residents are to decide in a referendum on November 6 whether they
                  want the Navy to leave in 2003 or to remain and pay $50 million to be used for
                  economic development, housing and infrastructure.

                  While previous polls have suggested a majority of the people on Vieques want the
                  Navy to leave, both sides claim they'll win the referendum.

                  Opponents of the exercises, including Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon, have
                  cited health concerns, but Sanchez -- whose house overlooks Navy land -- says
                  he thinks there is no reason for concern. The Navy has vehemently denied that
                  its activities have caused any harm.

                  The Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques, and the bombing range is nearly 10 miles
                  (16 kilometers) from the civilian sector.

                  Some relatives of security guard David Sanes, who died in the accident in 1999,
                  say Sanes is unfairly being used by Navy opponents as a martyr.

                  "It was an accident," said Sanes' elder brother, Enrique Sanes Rodriguez, 59,
                  who now works repairing fences for the Navy.

                  Angel Cruz Sanes -- who also works as a security guard on Navy land -- says
                  his late cousin would never have wanted the Navy to leave.

                  "If he were alive, he would be 100 percent with us, because he liked his job, just
                  like we do."

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.