Submitted by James D. “Keeper James” Charlet
“Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces…Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect.”1
We generally think of the Army for this, since they were the largest part of the war. But, of course, it is to honor all of the U.S. military service members who are veterans: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines…and Coast Guard.
Dare County has a very impressive and significant Coast Guard presence currently and in the past. I have identified 88 US Coast Guard presences, past and present, on all of the NC Outer Banks.
Back to Dare County: many Dare residents may not know this, for example. The US Coast Guard has hundreds of bases. Only nineteen of the Motor Lifeboat Stations are labeled as “surf stations” since they routinely have unusually heavy surf. Only five of those nineteen are on the Atlantic coast. Two of those five are in Dare County: U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Motor Lifeboat Station (MLB) Hatteras Inlet and USCG MLB Station Oregon Inlet; they flank Hatteras Island.
Dare County also includes USCG Aids to Navigation (ANT) Station Wanchese. They alone are responsible for the thousands of channel markers, buoys, day beacons and lights, ranges, radio beacons, fog signals, marks, and our two lighthouses’ beacons. These buoys and others are scattered all over the waters touching Dare County including the Alligator River, the Albemarle Sound, the Croatan Sound, the Roanoke Sound, the vast Pamlico Sound, and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean. Ironically, most of us, visitors and residents alike, never see any of those vital aids to navigation that save time and lives.
The most obvious Coast Guard-related sites in Dare County today are the Bodie Island Lighthouse, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the two USCG MLB stations already listed and two USCG Auxiliary Flotillas 16-4 and 16-7. Then there are the remaining United States Life-Saving Service stations. These include the Black Pelican Restaurant, the Bodie Island 1878 Life-Saving and 1923 Coast Guard station at the entrance to the lighthouse, the 1898 Oregon Inlet LSS station, Little Kinnakeet and Chicamacomico. Dare County is currently facing the serious prospect of losing the majestic 1898 Oregon Inlet Life-Saving Station No. 16/U S Coast Guard Station No. 176 as it sits imposingly and singularly at the gateway to Hatteras Island.
Fortunately for Dare County, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Outer Banks Coast Guard History Preservation Group is actively working to save it, which will be an enormous benefit to Dare County. See their Facebook page of same name and new website www.OBXcoastguardHPG.com operational but still under construction.
So, how did this miraculous system start?
From an article by Mike Wagoner in the Carteret Times News: 2
“Much of the present-day Coast Guard’s highly regarded reputation as a humanitarian organization is the result of Kimball’s organizational skills and management abilities,” the Ocean City Life-Saving Museum curators commented. “Many of the routines that he established, such as constant drills with rescue equipment, are just as important today as they were more than a century ago.”
Writing for the Island Free Press of Hatteras, N.C., in 2022, James D. Charlet dubbed Kimball a “wizard,” suggesting Kimball’s birthday of Sept. 2 be observed as a national holiday.
Charlet is a well-known storyteller throughout the Northern Outer Banks. He was associated for many years with the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site and Museum at Rodanthe in Dare County. He dressed and acted the part of “Keeper James,” and has developed a vast knowledge base about the history of the Life-Saving Service.
“Today’s U.S. Coast Guard is revered for its consistency, uniformity and teamwork, but perhaps most of all, for its excellence and rapidity of response,” Charlet said. “The origin of all that goes back to one man and one time – the former General Superintendent Sumner Kimball.
“His impact on both organizations – the Life-Saving Service and the Coast Guard – would prove to be immeasurable. He made America vastly safer for maritime travel and…more secure.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Coast Guard Veterans: Dare County salutes (and greatly appreciates) you! Semper Paratus.
END NOTES
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day
2 https://wagnabbit.blogspot.com/search?q=Life-Saving+Service
Keeper James Presentations TM is a series of live programs presented by local historians, historical interpreters and performers Keeper JamesTM Charlet and Linda Molloy. Each program about the U.S. Life-Saving Service consists of vignettes of true, exciting, highly dramatic Outer Banks stories of ‘America’s Forgotten HeroesTM.’ For more information, see www.KeeperJames.com/programs.