Michigan AtoN Team Services Maine Lights
By Sue Clark on May 3, 2008 in The Light Side 
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An interesting press release from the Coast Guard regarding lighthouses:
Commander Stu Merrill, the Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard’s Air Station Traverse City, along with his crew of Lieutenant Joan Snaith, Aviation Maintenance Technician First Class Joe McGuire and Aviation Electrical Technician Second Class Adam Morehouse, assisted members of the Coast Guard’s Aids to Navigation Team out of Portland, Maine to repair and perform preventive maintenance on lighthouses along the Maine Coast. From April 11-16, they serviced eight lighthouses from Monhegan Island south to Isle of Shoals ensuring the aids are ready for the busy summer season.
A short term reduction in the number of HH-60J rescue helicopters out of the Coast Guard’s Air Station on Cape Cod necessitated the request for the assistance from the Traverse City crew to help with the aids to navigation flight support. Merrill and crew were already scheduled to travel via commercial airline from their home base in Traverse City, Mich. to the Coast Guard Air Station in Atlantic City, N. J. to take custody of a replacement HH-65C for their own facility. So flying up the Eastern Seaboard after taking custody of the Atlantic City helicopter to complete the work on the Maine Coast made easy sense.
It isn’t often that an HH-65C from Traverse City, Mich. makes it all the way to the Maine Coast to provide flight support, but it is all part of the larger integrated Coast Guard support network.
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