I crane my neck, watching two other kids race each other up the broad ropes dangling from the cavernous ceiling that shelters the pool. They climb high, then higher.
That’s high enough, Coach cautions.
One releases his grip and drops down into the pool with a magnificent splash. He surfaces, laughing.
Be careful, Coach warns.
This? We’d do this for P.E. back in Alaska, the boy chides.
• • •
I’m 12, at a summer clinic with the rest of Elizabeth City’s club swim team. We practice at the Coast Guard base’s indoor pool, where we spend hours running drills, punctuated by a snack break out on the sidewalk overlooking the hangars and the Pasquotank River. I want to wear the elite rescue fins propped up against the wall. They seem to be half my height, and Coach says absolutely not.
For me, this venue is slightly familiar. Years earlier, my first swim team practices were held here until the YMCA opened. For the “Coastie” kids, this space is very familiar: The base is where their parents work, and the pool was designed to resemble the facilities at other Coast Guard bases across the country. To them, the ropes are a universal amenity.
I love having Coast Guard kids on the swim team. Their splits are unmatched, and they possess endurance beyond their years. As a young person, it’s my favorite advantage of growing up in a Coast Guard town (no matter how self-serving).
• • •
Elizabeth City’s more than 800-acre Coast Guard base is home to six units, including the Aviation Logistics Center and the Aviation Technical Training Center. My first appreciation for the scale of its facilities came in 2005, when it was used as a filming location for The Guardian, and the whole town buzzed with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher sightings.
“But why here?” I recall asking my dad.
“We have one of the biggest Coast Guard bases in the continental United States,” he answered. “Why not?”
It’s not the biggest base, but it is one of the busiest, and the area it services is particularly vast, spanning as far as the Azores and the Caribbean, and even providing support for the International Ice Patrol, which tracks icebergs in the northern Atlantic and sub-Arctic oceans.
Air Station Elizabeth City Commanding Officer Catherine Carabine pilots the C-130J. photograph by Chris Rogers
“The Coast Guard helps people in their most challenging moments,” says Catherine Carabine, commanding officer of Air Station Elizabeth City. “On a daily basis, even at Thanksgiving and Christmas, you have a crew who is here and ready to launch at a moment’s notice.”
As we’re on the phone, the roaring sound of a C-130J comes through the receiver. “Hear that?” Carabine asks, interrupting herself. “I love that I get to be here every day and listen to that.” I envision the plane’s crew, cool and composed, returning from an ocean rescue.
Growing up in Elizabeth City, I was so accustomed to the routine whahp-whahp-whahp of choppers and the roar of Lockheed HC-130 planes that I didn’t even look up when these aircraft flew overhead. To me, the Coast Guard was omnipresent throughout town: USCG families lived on our street, went to our church, had kids on our swim team. We waited in line at the coffee shop next to petty officers and lieutenants in uniform.
Coast Guard rescue swimmers run search-and-rescue drills over Pasquotank River. photograph by Chris Rogers
This integration is unique to Elizabeth City, says retired Capt. William “Chip” Lewin. “You see this a lot more here than you do in bigger cities, where there are different community ‘pockets.’ ” The only other place he’s seen quite like this is Sitka, Alaska. In fact, with the base providing more than 3,000 jobs to the community between active-duty service members, civilian employees, and contractors, the community and base are almost fully integrated.
When Carabine moved to Elizabeth City in the summer of 2023 to assume Capt. Lewin’s position as the commanding officer of the air station, it was a homecoming of sorts for her husband, who’d been stationed at the base when they first started dating. “When we came back here from Washington, D.C., you could just see the sense of calmness that surrounded my husband,” she says. “We love how warm and welcoming the community is and seeing how this area supports Coast Guard families. At the end of the day, if my family is supported, I love the area.”
• • •
The pool I remember from childhood is no longer in use at the Coast Guard base, but the base is now home to the annual Coast Guard Marathon. This is fine with me, as I, too, traded in swimming for running over the years. In 2024, the full and half marathons and 5K — which are open to the public — brought in some 2,700 runners from around the globe to participate, making it one of the military’s largest public-facing events. The runners traverse downtown and rural Elizabeth City, including a once-in-a-lifetime dash around the airfield at the base. I happened to be in town visiting my parents the weekend of the race. I’m no marathoner, and I timed my daily run so that it in no way crossed paths with the athletes.
Race in the annual Coast Guard Marathon. photograph by MarathonFoto
Well, as in most small towns, whatever you plan to do, you’d better expect some company. My faulty calculations put me across the finish line behind the first- and second-place runners. People cheered! And although I waved my hands, saying “No-no-no, I’m not a runner!” cowbells, applause, and whistles still ushered me bashfully across.
I didn’t deserve the support, not the way the hundreds of runners around me did. But that’s just how the Coast Guard community is here. You don’t have to be the fastest swimmer — and you don’t have to be a marathoner — to feel like you’re part of the team.
Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City service members keep their aircraft in top shape. photograph by Chris Rogers
Click here to read more about the history of the Elizabeth City Coast Guard Base.
Elizabeth City visitors can shop at Roots Plant Company, owned by Navy veteran Molly Hoffmann. photograph by Chris Rogers
Click here to read more about businesses and attractions where you can celebrate and support veterans in Elizabeth City.
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