"Vince" wrote in message
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Spies get shot at all the time
Doesn't make it a "battlefield"
they were CIA flights

Vince

That's nitpicking. If two subs are playing hide and go seek during
"peacetime", or recce overflights are conducted over "non-hostile" territory
during "peacetime", it's still a battlefield. I don't believe the term
battlefield is formally defined in international laws of war...so most
people pragmatically assume it's a place where you could get shot at if you
do a certain thing.

When the US reinforced the Panama Canal Zone in 1988, there was no war. But
when the PDF tried little incursions, and we countered with combat patrols,
we certainly thought of the op area as a battlefield. I'm sure troops
stationed at the DMZ in Korea think of that area as one. And back in the day
when we did REINFORCEX's into Gitmo, it was quite difficult *not* to think
of the entire base as a battlefield...tower/fence guards die first, then the
minefields kill some Cubans (not anymore, though, not on the US side), then
an improvised base defence force delays the Cuban advance while evacuation
happens, while the artillery battery way down on Cable Beach shells away
frantically.

Considering where Cable Beach is
(http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=1...&t=h&z=17&om=1
.... you can clearly see the gun positions) in relation to the rest of Gitmo
(http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&...,0.316544&z=12
Cable Beach is on the promontory bottom centre) I often wondered exactly
what provision there was to evacuate *our* young asses once the Cubans had
overrun mainside, Leeward Point Field, and were overlooking and shelling and
mortaring McCalla field (which is actually a useable airstrip, because we
did so use it on occasion). I don't think there was a plan for that, to be
honest. :-)

AHS