John Allen Midgett Jr. (August 25, 1876 – February 9, 1938) was a senior enlisted member of first the
United States Life-Saving Service, and later the
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
.
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Biography
Midgett grew up on
Cape Hatteras, on the outer banks of the
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
coast, and like his father and other family members, he enlisted in the Life–Saving Service in 1898.
Midgett remained in command of a life–saving station when the
United States Revenue Cutter Service merged with the Life–Saving Service to form the Coast Guard in 1915.
On August 16, 1918, Midgett was the keeper of the
Chicamacomico Lifeboat Station when he led his power surfboat crew on the celebrated rescue of the 42 crew members of the British tanker ''
Mirlo''.
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The UK Board of Trade awarded Midgett a silver cup in 1918, and he was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal six years later.
In 1992, the Coast Guard renamed the USCGC ''Midgett'' to the USCGC ''John Midgett''.[
Midgett was injured in an automobile accident in late 1937 and died on February 9, 1938.][
]
Legacy
According to the ''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pr ...
'' Midgett was friends with Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, and his funeral was attended by a number of congressmen.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Midgett, John Allen
1876 births
1938 deaths
United States Life-Saving Service personnel
United States Coast Guard enlisted