THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060598
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LAURA MECKLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
It was a century ago that seven men risked their lives to wade into a stormy ocean and save nine people on a sinking ship.
Those crewmen - all of them black - were not honored for their bravery until Tuesday, when the U.S. Coast Guard awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal to the Pea Island crew posthumously.
``As the surf intensified and the wind howled, they risked their lives as they waded and swam out to the wreck,'' Capt. Warren G. Schneeweis read from the citation. ``Again and again, the Pea Island Station crew went back through the raging sea, literally carrying all nine persons from certain death to the safety of the shore.''
The recognition might have never come had it not been for 15-year-old Kate Burkart of Washington, N.C., who read about the Pea Island crew being slighted because of their race and lobbied Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and President Clinton to do something about it.
``That someone would be denied something that was rightfully theirs because of the color of their skin is outrageous,'' said Burkart, who is white. ``It's shameful.''
Stephen Rochon, a Coast Guard commander stationed in Baltimore, had tried for several years to get recognition for Richard Etheridge and his crew: Benjamin Bowser, Lewis Wescott, Dornman Pugh, Theodore Meekins, Stanley Wise and William Irving.
``The day has finally arrived when we pay tribute to those daring men,'' Rochon said. ``It's a proud moment.''
Pea Island, located off North Carolina's Outer Banks, had the nation's only all-black lifesaving crew from 1880 until World War II. It was part of the U.S. Life Saving Service, the forerunner of the Coast Guard.
The crew participated in several dangerous rescues, but its most famous was on Oct. 11, 1896, when the crew - lashed together with ropes - swam into the ocean during a hurricane to save the nine people aboard the sinking E.S. Newman.
Descendants of the crew gathered at the Navy Memorial on Tuesday to relive the dramatic rescue and pay homage to the crew.
``It's a glorious day, isn't it?'' said a choked-up Coast Guard commander Dwight Meekins, whose grandfather, Theodore Meekins, was part of the Pea Island crew. ``We can be proud of these valiant men of color.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kate Burkart
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Kramek, second from left, honored
the all-black Pea Island lifesaving crew Tuesday. Also attending
were two grandsons of crew members: Coast Guard Cmdr. Dwight
Meekins, left, and Macon Leroy Roach Sr., right.
by CNB