Patriotism Runs in the Family
Like Mother, Like Daughter:
A Small Boat Tradition

It starts with a mayday call: a small vessel with three people on board is adrift and on fire. The Coast Guard answers the call, sending a boat crew from a small boat station to rescue the three, extinguish the fire and tow the boat to safety.

When 19-year-old Whitney McCarther joined the military in 2004, she knew that she was about to carry on the more than 200-year tradition of lifesaving service for which the Coast Guard is known. But she also knew she was carrying on a family tradition–one of service to the nation that she shared with the women of her family. Like her mother and two of her aunts 20 years before her, Whitney enlisted and was assigned to a small boat station to begin her Coast Guard career.

	SN Carol (Stinson) McCarther Photo courtesy of LCDR Carol McCarther, USCG (Ret.).
	SN Delana (Stinson) Webster Photo courtesy of LCDR Carol McCarther, USCG (Ret.).
	SN Sylatheia (Stinson) Victor Photo courtesy of LCDR Carol McCarther, USCG (Ret.).

Just as Coast Guard service has been a tradition for this North Carolina family, following in the footsteps of its women is proving to be as well. This tight-knit family of seven children was no stranger to military service–five out of the seven followed their father, a retired Army E-8, into military service and three of them were women. In early 1983, Whitney’s mom, Carol (Stinson) McCarther and mom’s younger sister Sylatheia (Stinson) Victor, also known as “Slate,” had seen their older sister Delana (Stinson) Webster join the Coast Guard the year before. The pair decided that they too wanted the opportunities and security that military life offered their sister and they enlisted on the “buddy system”–a program that allowed them to go through boot camp together at the Coast Guard’s training center in Cape May, NJ. After that, the sisters, again, found themselves following in the footsteps of Delana. Carol and Slate both received orders to serve at Coast Guard small boat stations like their sister who was serving at Coast Guard Station New London, CT. Carol reported to Station Jones Beach, NY, and Slate went to Station Little Creek, VA.

Without even knowing it, the Stinson women were making history. “I’m very proud that my sisters and I all served our country and were the first-ever, African-American sisters to serve on active duty in the Coast Guard at the same time,” Carol says. “I’m glad that we had the opportunity to all serve as non-rated personnel at these stations. It was something we had in common, something we could share.”

Of the Stinson sisters, only Carol completed a 20-year career and retired in 2005 as a lieutenant commander; but the three sisters will always be “Coast Guard women,” Carol says. This unshakable bond of service is something that helped Carol through her long career. “They’ve always been so proud of me–they were some of my biggest supporters,” she says.

What the Stinson sisters didn’t know back in the 1980s was that their legacy of small-boat service would end up spanning more than 20 years. Whitney, who is now a seaman, followed in her mother and aunts’ footsteps in 2004; and her first assignment was–of course–a small boat station.

When Whitney came home in the 11th grade and told her mother “I want to do what you do,” Carol encouraged her to explore her options, including the Coast Guard and college–Whitney chose to follow her mother.

“My career was nearly over and I told my daughter that this was going to be her experience,” Carol says. “I said to her, ‘You will create your own footprint on the Coast Guard and the world.’”

	SN Whitney McCarther Photo courtesy of LCDR Carol McCarther, USCG (Ret.).

And Whitney has done just that. Now a seaman at Coast Guard Station Curtis Bay, MD, Whitney says that her mom was a great inspiration. “I’ve always looked up to my mom. I’ve seen her do it all: raising four kids, taking care of the household, getting a degree and being in the Coast Guard. I knew I could do it too and I hope to leave the same mark.”

Just like her mom, Whitney is proving to be a great multi-tasker. While she completes her boarding-crew qualifications at the station and stands duty, she is also working toward becoming a yeoman—another thing she has in common with her mom. Carol served as a second class yeoman, a Coast Guard’s administrative specialist, before attending officer candidate school and receiving her commission. Although she looks forward to pinning on her third class petty officer “crows” in the near future, Whitney’s not sure where her Coast Guard career will go after that. She is considering applying for OSC after she finishes her degree from Penn Foster College this summer.

Just as Whitney knows her family tradition is special, she also thinks that the bond she shares with her mom is equally special. “We already had a strong bond, but when I joined the Coast Guard, it seemed to make it even stronger,” Whitney says.

	McCarther family at LCDR McCarther's retirement ceremony, Bollling AFB, DC, May 20, 2005.Photo courtesy of LCDR Carol McCarther, USCG (Ret.).

Although distance cannot break the special mother-daughter bond they share, the two rarely had the opportunity to be in uniform at the same time during the year that their service overlapped. So, nothing could have pleased Carol more than to have Whitney by her side when she said goodbye to the Coast Guard after 22 years. She not only attended Carol’s retirement ceremony in 2005, Whitney took part in a special flag ceremony, as Carol’s two Coast Guard sisters Delana and Slate and Carol’s husband Morris, a former Coast Guardsman, and a host of family and friends looked on.

Today, while Whitney finishes her time at Station Curtis Bay, she and her husband, Army veteran Randall Newkirk who is himself considering a Coast Guard career, are raising their one-year-old son Quenton and his three-year-old son Latrell in Maryland. As for her mom, Carol is enjoying her retirement both personally and professionally. In addition to being a mom to Whitney’s younger siblings, Erika, Tayler and Vincenz, she is also serving as the director of alumni relations and recruitment at the School of Health Sciences at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.

This extraordinary mother and daughter each began a Coast Guard career on a small boat crew, but they also share another special bond today–membership in the Women’s Memorial. Carol, a charter member since 1998, recently registered Whitney with the Memorial as a special gift to her daughter.

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Like Mother, Like Daughter: A Small Boat Tradition

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