GUANTANAMO, CUBA (WVEC) -- A woman born at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has returned for the first time in more than 70 years.
13News Now's Andre Senior is at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, looking into what life is like there now. While there, he learned that the Naval Hospital is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Among those in attendance was Diane Van Dien of Venice, Florida.
"My father was stationed here as a hospital corpsman," said Van Dien. She was born at the base's old hospital in 1940.
"In September of 1940, which makes it 76 years and 3 months now that I have been off island, and I am so thrilled to be back here," Dien said.
It was a life-long dream of Dien's to return to the base. Now she has been invited back, along with many others to recognize a place that has played a crucial role at Guantanamo Naval Base.
"My mom and dad had such wonderful memories. It was free then. You didn’t have to stay on base,' Dien recalls.
Though any notion of a return to those days remain a distant thought, the building that has treated the sick and mended the wounded for six decades remains strong.