The Senior Seaman of the Seventh

Story written by: PA1 Christopher Evanson

He has seen a lot. His keen mind and candid vocabulary reminisce about a simpler time when things from a modern perspective appear not so simple. He is Earl F. Wallace, 92, of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., a retired Coast Guardsmen to whom thousands of lives directly or indirectly owe a thank you.“I saw the Coast Guard guys always coming and going from the shore.” All of 17 years of age, Wallace saw a way out. “I put in an application...got it back and they said 1100 people were ahead of me,” he said. It was the Great Depression--there were no vacancies. Wallace sought his former boss for advice. He was a former Coast

Guardsman. “He told me to write a letter to congress,” said Wallace. Consequently, Wallace ventured to the

local post office to have the letter written

for him. “I only had an eight grade education, and I didn’t feel like writing a letter,” he said. However, what Wallace lacked in a formal education, he more than made up for it through his practical knowledge of the

sea. Ultimately, Congressman Schuyler Otis Bland responded to the letter. In a nutshell, remembers Wallace, “the letter said if I wanted in I was to go south.” Not long after the good news, Wallace completed his initial administrative paperwork and prepared to leave the Chesapeake Bay behind. “My uncle and my daddy got me on the bus,” he added. He departed the Eastern Shore with 25 dollars in his pocket. It was his first ever trip by himself.

Wallace reported aboard the Sullivan’s Island Lifeboat Station in South Carolina. He took his oath of enlistment April 1, 1935. He would be assigned there for a year and a half. “It was the only active lifeboat station in the region at the time.” Following the aftermath of the Great Depression, lifeboat stations were rising up like the tide, Wallace explains, but due to the Depression, there were no vacancies in the Coast Guard. “I remember the officer-in-charge wasn’t happy with my showing up,” said Wallace. “He had secured a spot at the station for a family member which somehow went to me.” The young recruit received an ultimatum from his new boss: “You have six months,” Wallace remembered. However, “I was bound and determined not to go back home,” he added. “We drilled everyday from 8-11, I studied the bluebook all day and all night and on watch,” he said. As a result, Wallace became very proficient, much to the surprise of his

demanding officer-in-charge. Wallace’s work ethic resulted in earning the title of surfman, one of the most coveted positions for a station member, both then and now. The station boasted nine surfmen in all, most of whom as Wallace so eloquently states, were “Carolina Boys.” “If it wasn’t for them Carolina Boys, we wouldn’t be here,” said Wallace. “They started it all.” Wallace was referring to the rich tradition of North Carolina life savers, known for their heroic lifesaving exploits in prehaps the most dangrous coastline in the country; an area referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Wallace rose through the enlisted ranks and eventually earned a commission. The man with an eighth grade education who couldn’t draft a letter suitable for a congressman to read eventually commanded his own ship of men for 18 months in the South Pacific during the height of World War II. Wallace operated in an era where Guardians were expected to meet challenges head on or get out. It was that simple. Jensen believes the Coast Guardsmen of yesteryear offers a leadership example for Guardians of today to mirror.

“Mr. Wallace was in the Coast Guard but it was a different Coast Guard,” said Jensen. “It was one where I believe they had a lot more autonomy and had to rely on themselves.” “I think about that a lot; I mean they

didn’t even have phones at the station back then. Now we have a need for instant communication, we sometimes don’t allow our junior members to make mistakes and develop as leaders based on

those mistakes,” said Jensen. Wallace followed his first tour with a stint at the Lake Worth Inlet, Fla., Lifeboat Station, and then commissioned a lifeboat station in West Palm Beach, Fla. In 1939, Wallace and six of his shipmates arrived at the newly built Coast Guard Station Ponce de Leon Inlet as plankowners.

Over the next 20 years, Wallace would rise through the enlisted ranks and eventually earn a commission. The

man with an eighth grade education who couldn’t draft a letter suitable for a congressman to read eventually

commanded his own ship of men for 18 months in the South Pacific during the height of World War II.

Upon his retirement, Wallace found a quaint home on the beautiful banks of Ponce Inlet where he has resided ever since. There have been many sun sets since his career concluded. Wallace chats on occasion with Senior Chief Jensen. They share laughs, reminisce about life and reinforce a bond created long ago on the shipwrecked islands of the Chesapeake Bay. As modernization looks to innovate the Coast Guard’s operational vision from its past, there is much to be gained by tapping into it.