The Pea Island Life-Saving Service Station and its legacy are to be featured Thursday as part of ESPN’s Veterans Day special.
The ESPN Salute Service Veterans Day Sports Center Special will include a segment about Solomon Ashby III, a 4th-class cadet and defensive lineman with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy football team, the Pea Island Preservation Society Inc. announced. Ashby’s great-great-grandfather, George E. Pruden, was the fifth keeper of the Pea Island Life-Saving Service Station, where he served for most of his career before retiring in the late 1930s.
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The special is scheduled to air at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and re-air multiple times, including 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov.14, on ABC.
Recently ESPN visited the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum to gather information about the station and footage for the Veterans Day special. The special, narrated by Bill Rhoden, a writer-at-large for The Undefeated, will focus on the Coast Guard.
The special will provide an opportunity for millions of viewers to learn the inspiring story of U.S. Life-Saving Service Station Pea Island, later known as U.S. Coast Guard Station Pea Island. The lifesaving station was the first in the nation manned entirely by African Americans.
The Pea Island Preservation Society said the Coast Guard Academy football team will soon be sending a special Station No. 17 uniform jersey to the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum for display. The US Coast Guard Academy team committed to wearing the special uniform four times during its football season this year to honor the Pea Island station.
To learn more about the history of the Pea Island Life-Saving Service Station visit the Cookhouse Museum at 622 Sir Walter Raleigh St. in Manteo. The museum is currently open on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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