Commentary: Veterans Day – an Outer Banks perspective
Veterans Day, (originally known as Armistice Day), is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11 to honor military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. According to Wikipedia, “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.”
We generally think of the Army for this, since they were the largest part of the war. But, of course, the day is to honor all of the U.S. military service members who are veterans: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines… and Coast Guard.
The Outer Banks has a very impressive and significant Coast Guard presence currently and in the past. Many Dare residents may not know the following, 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 new website www.OBXcoastguardHPG.com, which is operational but still under construction.)
Coast Guard Veterans: Dare County salutes (and greatly appreciates) you! Semper Paratus.
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.
