Remembering Coast Guard Hero Edgar Culbertson

by

Maritime

In the afternoon on April 30 every year, you will find me with four flowers on the North Pier of the Duluth Ship Canal.

Three of the flowers are for teenage brothers I never met and one is for my friend, U.S. Coast Guard Boatswain’s Mate First Class Edgar Culbertson. I place all four flowers beside a plaque bearing Ed’s name, fastened to the pier.

It’s hard to believe that this year marks 50 years since Ed lost his life there trying to save those boys.

I got to know Ed sometime in 1966, the year I returned home from my time on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the combat zone of Vietnam.

A lifelong Park Pointer (living on the sandbar of Minnesota Point), it was still quite the adjustment to go from the heat of Southeast Asia to the minus-20° February day that greeted me.

I don’t remember the exact date Ed and I met, but I know where it was and probably even the time of day – in the Sand Bar around 5 p.m.

Back then the Sand Bar (where Grandma’s Saloon and Grill in Canal Park is today) was the favorite hangout for Park Pointers, Navy veterans, local fishermen and any active duty Coastguardsmen old enough to drink. And the time to gather was just after the work whistle blew at 5 o’clock.

Ed was always smiling, willing to take a ribbing – and to give one out – as us Navy guys and those Coast Guard guys each bragged about how our branch of the military service was better.

Ed and I loved playing the electric shuffleboard in the bar. We were both the top players, so it was always a competition to see who would buy the next round. We were also pretty good on the pool tables in the back. We shot a lot of rounds and exchanged lots of sea stories about where we’d all served in different parts of the world.

I’d been home a little more than a year when a devil of an early spring storm kicked up. It was Sunday, April 30, 1967, and to the south of us in Minnesota many remember it as “Black Sunday.” The massive storm front spawned nine tornadoes and tennis ball-sized hail near the Minnesota-Iowa border. Lightning knocked out power and struck buildings and near-blizzard conditions created more hazards. Thirteen people were killed and more than 65 injured there.

Here in Duluth, we also felt the effects. The 34° temperature was relatively mild and the National Weather Service recorded less than a half-inch of precipitation with only a trace of snow. But the winds screeched through, causing damage, including large-scale power outages. The wind blew the chimney down on my house.

Waves on Lake Superior reportedly rose taller than 20 feet at times that night; the Lake had 36° water with winds gusting to 63 mph.

That evening, three high-spirited teenagers, the Halverson brothers – Eric, 17, and Arthur and Nathan, 16-year-old twins – decided after a church gathering to head to the waterfront by the Aerial Lift Bridge to marvel at the wind and waves. Others were already in their cars watching the show when the boys arrived.

Being young and confident, they wanted to get the full experience of the 20-foot waves crashing over the piers. Back then, there were no gates to block passage during times of high seas. What happened to these boys would change that.

Amid the fast-breaking waves, two of the boys made it all the way to the light tower at the end of the North Breakwater, getting above the waves. The third brother, just behind them, was swept off the pier. The others went back to try to save him, but soon all disappeared from view.

About 7:45 p.m., someone phoned the police for help. The police found a vehicle in the lot, tracked the license plate and called the owner. Their teenage sons were using the car, the police were told, and they had not returned home.

When the call came in at the Coast Guard Station, a crew of volunteers was mustered. BM1 Edgar Culbertson joined Boatswain Mate 2nd Class Richard R. Callahan and Fireman Ronald C. Prei to attempt to reach the lighthouse. The three tethered themselves together with a rope spaced 25 feet apart, believing that would secure them safely. Using only a hand lantern, they began to follow the same ever more precarious route from shore out to the North Pier Light. They struggled against the wind and waves to the end of the pier, but found no sign of the missing boys. Sadly, to this day the boys have never been found.

When Ed, in the lead, was near the lighthouse stairs, a huge wave slammed into them, knocking Ed over the side into the water against the pier. Richard and Ron could not pull him up. Richard’s wrist was broken by the taunt line; Ron untethered to try to reach Ed. By the time they reached the beach, Ed had drowned. He was 31.

Later that year, a bronze marker honoring the bravery of BM1 Edgar Culbertson was placed on the pier near the spot where he perished. In August that year, all three Coast Guardsmen were given the Coast Guard Medal, the service’s highest peacetime honor.

The plaque remained on the breakwater until the mid-1980s, when it was removed during a project to widen and reinforce the pier.

At that time, I was a captain at the Vista Fleet and president of the International Shipmasters Association Twin Ports Lodge #12.

After the improvements, I noticed that the plaque had not been replaced. A few phone calls did not find where it has been moved. Fearing that my friend and fellow sailor would be forgotten, I rallied fellow members in Lodge #12 to help me locate the plaque. We found it in storage and then appealed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to have it reinstalled on a concrete post on the new pier.

Another memorial also remembers the Halverson boys and Ed – the Three Brothers Chapel in the First United Methodist, or “Coppertop Church,” at the top of the hill in Duluth. Ed’s name has also been approved for inclusion on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 2007, the 40th anniversary of the tragedy, members of the ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out) group, all of whom are connected to the maritime industry, gathered at the plaque to remember Ed and the Halverson brothers. I had notified regional Coast Guard stations, but only one Coastguardsman attended. It’s not surprising; station crews change regularly and no one would know of Ed or his sacrifice.

Learning of our sparse turnout, Kevin Rofidal, an Edina, Minnesota, K-9 police officer and a Coast Guard Reservist with the Marine Safety Unit Duluth, decided to do something about that. He gathered details about the tragedy and planned a memorial service for April 30, 2009.

Kevin tracked down Ed’s son, Casey Culbertson, his daughter, Cristin Culbertson Alpert, and their families, as well as Ron Prei and his family. Richard had passed away years before.

Kevin knew who to call. Coasties came from Station Duluth – Capt. Kevin Wirth and most of the crew from the USCG Cutter Alder, Commanding Officer Mike Lebsack and his crew from the Marine Safety Unit, a band and a bagpiper, an Honor Guard and rifle squad. The boys’ mother, Betty Halverson, and other family members came. Shipmasters arrived from Lodge No. 12, members of our ROMEOs, as well as Highway Patrol and Duluth Police Officers. (That was most appropriate; as part of his duties, Ed was also a law enforcement officer in the Coast Guard.) The pier was also lined with other Duluthians.

At the end of the ceremony, a Coast Guard 47-foot lifeboat sailed under the Aerial Lift Bridge and rendered a salute.

For me, being there was for closure, and I hope for the Halverson family, for Ron Prei and for Ed’s children and their families, too. But even with closure, I still plan to remember, as long as I am able, my friend Ed and his bravery.

So this April 30, 2017, at noon, I will be at the pier along with anyone who can make it, to honor the memory of Ed and Eric, Nathan and Arthur.

We will never know what 50 years would have brought for them. That day, I can only bring them flowers and my commitment to remember.

Except for Navy time, Tom Mackay has lived on Park Point 72 years and worked and boated the waterfront all that time.