RODANTHE, N.C. – The Coast Guard and Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station have invited the public to attend a free, filmed performance of the Breeches Buoy Drill at the station scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday.
The drill, which is normally performed weekly from June through August, will be performed for the first time in December, so the production company Dream Quest can film it for an upcoming History Channel documentary entitled "Rescue Men."
Chicamacomico performs the drill every Thursday during June, July and August. Active-duty Coast Guard volunteers compose two separate teams, one from the Coast Guard Motor Life Boat Station Oregon Inlet and the other the Coast Guard Motor Life Boat Station Hatteras Inlet.
This documentary is the story of the Pea Island Life-Savers who, at one time, were the only all-black Life-Saving Service crew in America. Like every other life-saving station in the country, they practiced the Beach Apparatus Drill with the Lyle gun and the breeches buoy every Monday and every Thursday, year-round.
Chicamacomico is the only place in the nation that conducts the full beach apparatus drill performed by Coast Guard personnel on a regular basis.
