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When Harold McLean (l) and Stewart Edward (r) retired in 1973, they were the last of the United States Lighthouse civilian employees left in the U.S. Coast Guard on the Great Lakes. On the day of their retirement ceremony, Capt. Robert J. Bloxsom, commander of the Sault Ste. Marie Coast Guard Station in Michigan, ordered that the old U.S. Lighthouse Service flag (pennant) be flown for the entire day at the station. According to the Coast Guard at the time, previously this was the last Lighthouse Service flag ever to be flown at a Great Lakes Lighthouse after the Coast Guard took over the Lighthouse Service in 1939. For the historic event, McLean and Stewart took a few minutes to pose for this now historic photograph. Unfortunately, none of the reports of the time stated the name of the lighthouse where this flag had last been flown; however at that time the flag was in the personal collection of Harold McLean.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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