Roosevelt Roads Operating Area

There actually is no Roosevelt Roads Operating Area. It is called the "Puerto Rican Operating Area" and is centered around the Virgin Pass and Vieques which, due to violent Puerto Rican protests is now shut down. Vieques Island was the site of the former Vieques Naval Training Range, which was primarily used to train surface combatants for Naval Surface Fire Support. This training consisted of shooting live rounds at specified targets located inside the Vieques range, which was located between 9–13 miles from the nearest populated zone. However, with the violent protests and subsequent closing of the range, there was no longer any reason for Naval and Marine Corps forces to deploy to the Caribbean and the closing of Vieques' support base, U.S. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, occurred on March 31, 2004. As a consequence, thousands of military, federal and contractor jobs were lost on both Vieques Island, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well as the U.S. Navy's more than $300 million in yearly economic impact.