The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-03-05
HAROLD GLYNN is
NOW COMMANDER
HATTERAS GROUP
Cyrus Gray Transferred to
District Headquarters
in Norfolk
By Ben Dixon MacNeill

Buxton. - Command of the
Cape Hatteras Group of the us.
Coast Guard, embracing the life
boat stations at Oregon Inlet,
Chicamicomico, Little Kinnakeet
and Cape Hatteras, Roanoke
Marshes and Cape Hatteras lights
and the Loran Station on the
Point of the Cape, was assumed
this week by CWO Harold A.
Glynn who relieved CWO Cyrus
Gray, who is transferred to Nor
folk for duty as controller of
Search and Rescue at Fifth Dis
trict Headquarters.
Change of command was Off
cially made on the lawn of the
Lifeboat Station, with the entire
crew assembled and with the
lighthouse in the background and
at the same time, speaking for
the men of the group, BMC Ed
ward Midget, presented to the
retiring Group commander a
handsome rifle as token of their
appreciation of his "unvarying
fairness and his devotion to the
Service and the welfare of the
men under. his command"
AS good crewmen almost in
variably do, the men of the
Group knew of the pending
transfer before their commander
knew it and they knew as well
what he would rather have in the
way of a going present
than he knew himself. Mr.. Gray
was out in the middle of Oregon
Inlet helping the ferry get off
reef when orders came down
for his transfer, and the rifle
that he took away with him was
something that he had been
planning for years to buy.
Probably he would have, when
he got around to it, bought a less
expensive model. At any rate he
was profoundly moved when he
began to get the drift of what the
Chief was trying to get said anc
to comprehend that the package
really had rifle in it. Mr.. Gray
has commanded the Group since
December %, 1851. He succeeded
Commander George Harrison
Meekins upon his retirement
from the service.
Mr.. Gray is a native of Salvo
and in the family Bible his name
is set down as Little Cyrus Gray
Jr., but he dropped all but just
the Cyrus when he started hear
ing from a girl regularly. The
girl became Mrs. Gray-Mrs
Cyrus Gray. He has had a total
of % years in the service, most
of it on sea duty or at head
quarters in Norfolk. He reports
now back to the same job he had
when he came to Cape Hatteras
in 1851.
Mr.. Glynn was born in New
York At years ago and is the
first off-Islander ever to COM
mand the Group. But he is as
good as native, since he married
in Dare County. Mrs. Glynn
being the former Alb Etheridge,
daughter of Capt. and Mrs. w.
H. Etheridge of Manteo. For the
past several months they have
been making their home at the
Atkinson house on Roanoke
Island and their son and daugh-
ter are at school in Manteo.
They will continue to live ON
Roanoke Island for the present.
Like his predecessor in COM
mand Mr.. Glynn has been most
ly on sea duty since he joined
the service in New York %
years ago. He was in command
of the Grand Haven Group in
Michigan two years and was
transferred from there to be-
come executive officer of the
Coast Guard Base in Ports
mouth. He served for many
years aboard the cutter Men
dota. During the war he COM
manded a Navy tug in the South
west Pacific and saw service on
destroyer escorts in the command
of General Douglas Macarthur.
One of his crewmen here, BM1c
Dudley Burrus, served under his
command in the Pacific.