THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510250057
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LOUKIA LOUKA
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
MEET Kevin Simmons.
His official title is Coast Guard second class machinery technician, but if you want to add a little breathtaking thrill to that title, call Simmons a lighthouse keeper. That's what he does.
Wherever Simmons goes during his workday, he is in sight of the Cape Henry Lighthouse. And because he lives with his wife, Mo-nique, in a tidy home close to the lighthouse, Simmons considers the black and white checkered tower a neighbor too.
Is that a weird feeling or what?
``It's neat. It really is,'' Simmons said. ``When I first got married, we lived in Buxton, and we could walk out on our deck and see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.''
Simmons, 27, cares for the Cape Henry Light, making sure the lighthouse is guiding sea travelers and that radio signals are working.
He also makes sure the lens is clean and takes care of other maintenance work to the lighthouse's interior and the surrounding grounds on the Coast Guard compound at Fort Story Army Base. Duties include raking gravel and picking up trash, changing light bulbs and hot swabbing the lighthouse base. Everything, he said, has to look presentable.
Simmons, whose father also served in the Coast Guard, has been with the Coast Guard just over four years. He has been the lighthouse keeper at Cape Henry since June.
Climbing 207 steps to the top evokes an ethereal feeling - and very much like a sauna.
``It always seems hotter up here because of the optical. It draws the heat,'' Simmons said.
On a recent Thursday, the Atlantic was filled with ships and pleasure boats. Helicopters buzzed through the sky. The resort strip clatter seemed too distant ever to be heard, and even the gray-blue ocean waves, so near, were silenced inside the cast iron beacon.
Things always are pretty quiet.
``It's the noisiest when they are doing PT (physical training) in the morning coming through here,'' Simmons said of life at Fort Story.
His days begin around 7 a.m., and most of them are eight-hour workdays, unless something comes up.
``If I get started on something and it takes me 10 to 12 hours, I try to complete it,'' Simmons said.
While all of that sounds pretty routine, lighthouses always have enjoyed a certain romantic aura, showing up in everything from windswept love scenes in the movies to greeting cards you would send a soul mate.
Lighthouses everywhere inspire words such as constant, dependable and unwavering. And mariners know where they stand with lighthouses - they're like a good friend.
Historically, the lighthouse caretaker has been the recipient of some of those romantic sentiments. Herb Entwistle, president of the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, said that before electricity, lighthouses had caretakers who faithfully climbed the stairs many times during the day and night, with lanterns filled with oil to keep the light burning.
In the age of automation, Simmons just has to make sure everything is working.
``Most everything has been automated, and they can tell what's happening by remote,'' Simmons said. ``If it goes down, I know I've got to get it up. It's there for a reason. Whatever else comes up, you just take it day by day.''
Like the time lightning struck. ``It took everything down, all our radios, the lighthouse,'' Simmons said. ``I hadn't been there that long'' when it happened.
The Cape Henry Lighthouse has been in operation since 1881. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Roger Gilley said the tower has a 1,000-watt lamp and a first-order Fresnel lens. Gilley, based in Portsmouth, is an engineering officer for Coast Guard Group Hampton Roads, which oversees care of the lighthouse.
He said that Cape Henry's distinctive checkered exterior acts as a daytime aid to help mariners navigate and that the crew of an oceangoing commercial vessel should be able to see the light up to 17 miles away, depending on the ship and weather conditions.
The Cape Henry Light replaced the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse, which was built in the 1790s and today serves as a popular tourist attraction and Hampton Roads landmark.
Still, some people end up at Simmons' door. Although special tours are arranged for schoolchildren, historical societies and other groups, the tower is not open to the public. ``Most of the time, they ask if this is the one open to the public, and I just send them over to the other one,'' he said.
Though his duties are somewhat secluded, and always for the protection of seafarers, Simmons has caught himself looking at the lighthouse and wondering about years gone by.
Recently, Simmons learned from family members that two of his ancestors worked to make sure sea vessels and their passengers safely reached their destination.
What would they think of Simmons carrying on the tradition?
``Hopefully they'd be proud of me. I never knew them, so I don't know how they were. They had to be good people to save lives of people they didn't know,'' Simmons said. MEMO: Loukia Louka is a freelance writer living in Virginia Beach. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Kevin Simmons, Coast Guard lighthouse keeper at Fort Story, is
carrying on a family tradition of aiding seafarers.
by CNB