Lighthouse Keeper

Lit, fueled, and maintained navigation lights and fog signals — often in soul-crushing isolation on offshore rocks, with families if they had them.

The Story

When the Lighthouse Service was absorbed into the USCG in 1939, keepers got to choose: stay civilian under the Coast Guard, or accept a military rank. Many older keepers stayed civilian — so the US military spent the next 50+ years employing civilian lighthouse keepers in uniform-adjacent roles while the lights slowly went automatic around them.