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Thursday, March 28, 2024

U.S. Coast Guard ATON Personnel Honor Lighthouse Keepers

Crew members from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Abbie Burgess (WLM-553) and Aids to Navigation Team (ANT) Southwest Harbor, Maine, placed flowers and national ensigns at the gravesites of Abbie Burgess and Isaac Grant, two renowned lighthouse keepers, during a visit to Thomaston, Maine, in August.

Overcoming foul weather, flooded spaces and food shortages, Burgess was best known for keeping the Matinicus Light shining while caring for her ailing mother and younger siblings during a fierce winter storm in 1856. Her lighthouse keeper father had left the island to pick up supplies and was unable to make it back during the storm.

She later married Isaac Grant, the youngest son of the next Matinicus Lighthouse keeper, and later moved with him to Whitehead Lighthouse.

While serving as the Whitehead Lighthouse keeper, Grant earned the Silver Lifesaving Medal for rescuing two sailors from an overturned sailboat near the lighthouse.

The 90-foot-tall Matinicus Rock Lighthouse is located 18 miles offshore and the 41-foot-tall Whitehead Island Lighthouse is at the entrance to Penobscot Bay.

Today, both lighthouses are maintained by ANT Southwest Harbor, based out of Mount Desert Island, Maine. Several ANT Southwest Harbor members traveled many hours to visit the gravesites.

Chief Petty Officer Kevin P. Moynahan, officer-in-change of ANT Southwest Harbor, said maintaining lighthouses, including the two lighthouses where Burgess and Grant served, is hard and precise work.

“A lighthouse is never in a low maintenance needed location,” said Moynahan. “They are typically exposed to the harshest, corrosive and damp environments imaginable.”

The ANT maintains 293 ATON from the Marshall Point Lighthouse in St. George, Maine, to the St. Croix River on the Canadian Border. The team assists with 439 additional Aids to Navigation.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael P. Bollinger, the commanding officer of the 175-foot Coast Guard Cutter Abbie Burgess, said he was honored to recognize his cutter’s namesake.

“It was honestly humbling knowing the services that Abbie and Issac performed and the conditions they performed them in,” said Bollinger.

The crew of Abbie Burgess, the Rockland, Maine-based cutter, maintains 342 buoys that enable lobster boats, fishing vessels and sailboats to transit through local bays and harbor entrances. The buoy tender also services the ATON on the Penobscot River channel, the primary thoroughfare for home heating oil into Bangor, Maine, and points north.

Read more at Compass

U.S. Coast Guard ATON Personnel Honor Lighthouse Keepers Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Today
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.
Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Todayhttp://www.hstoday.us
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.

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