Jeremiah Thomson, accompanied Talbert for moral support and assistance since Kaitlyn was pregnant and unable to make the trip. After completing the multiple-day procedure of donating bone marrow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Talbert recovered quickly and returned to his normal routine. Because the transfusion recipient resided in France, Talbert will never know his identity due to French law governing bone marrow donor and recipient contact. However, he was ecstatic upon receiving one brief update: the recipient of his donation had survived and was doing well. Talbert was moved by the experience, and recommends it to other Coast Guardsmen. “To me, it’s just what we are supposed to do as people,” he said. As a father of two and one more coming, Talbert added that somebody you save could be “a father, a husband, you know, their kids get to grow up with their father because you took 12 days out of your life to do something like this.” To learn more about bone marrow donations, visit bethematch.org. . The U.S. Coast Guard Lighthouse at Naval Station Guantanamo: Two reservists continue the preservation of Coast Guard history Submitted by Aux. Dr. Edwin Nieves of the Fifth Coast Guard District Auxiliary, and Petty Officers 1st Class Sean Kinane and John Flores of Port Security Unit 301 The interest of U.S. Naval Forces in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, began before the Spanish-American War. Adm. Alfred T. Mahan, an advocate of projecting American sea power, looked at strategic locations for bases in the Caribbean to secure access to industrial raw materials and markets in the area. The large natural bay leading to the town of Guantanamo caught his eye in 1890 as an all-weather location for a coaling and naval station near the Windward passage. In June 1898, a few years after the publication of his book “Sea Power,” the USS Marblehead arrived off the entrance of the bay. Intent on flanking the Spanish forces in Santiago, the commanding officer, Cmdr. Bowman McCalla disembarked with a battalion of Marines to the east of the bay and established a makeshift camp on the highest point near the shore overlooking the bay. The Marines would reinforce the camp on what they now called “McCallas’ Hill.” Eventually, the U.S. Navy would stand up a coaling and naval station on the bay at the end of the Spanish-American War. A lighthouse was needed to signal the approach to the entrance to the bay. A metal lighthouse was transported in sections and erected on the vicinity of McCallas’ Hill, now popularly called “Windward Point.” In 1901, Capt. Lucien Young, Captain of the Port of Havana, visited the lighthouse at Guantanamo Bay and gave the following report of its condition: “Guantanamo light-house is situated on Punta de Barlovento, the western point of the entrance, with a tower 23.1 meters above the sea, of the fourth order, [with] a fixed red light, visible 14 miles and is in good condition.” Initially managed by the Navy, like all lighthouses in the Caribbean, it passed under the control of the Department of Commerce and Labor, U.S. Lighthouse Service 3rd District in 1903. The following year, funds were appropriated for aids to navigation, a lighthouse depot, and keeper’s quarters improvements. The light was deactivated 1955, but a solar light was added in the late-1980s. According to the Lighthouse Digest, even though the Coast Guard turned the lighthouse over to the Navy, Coast Guardsmen continued to live in the keeper’s quarters. A Coast Guard liaison 30 RESERVIST . . Issue 2 • 2021
