Outer Banks Activities for Veterans and Active Duty Military

By Teresa Otto on Jul. 01, 2022

The Outer Banks offers long stretches of uncrowded shoreline, plenty of ways to get outside, and seafood pulled fresh from local waters. It also holds a deep military past beginning with the Civil War. For visitors on leave, retired military travelers, and anyone drawn to military history, the Outer Banks makes a fitting place to explore.

Moving from North to South, here are the sites to know.

1. Monument to a Century of Flight

Set beside the visitor center in Kitty Hawk, the Monument to a Century of Flight honors Wilbur and Orville Wright’s landmark flight, along with the aviation achievements reached over the next 100 years. Taken together, those advances are astonishing, and the memorial points to human ingenuity, persistence, and bravery.

The honorees include Capt. Albert Berry, who became the first man to parachute from a plane in 1912; Igor Sikorsky, developer of the helicopter, first flown in 1939; the Tuskegee Airmen; and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS).

2. Wright Brothers National Memorial

For the place where powered, piloted flight first took off, visit Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. The Wright brothers selected Kill Devil Hills because of its tall dunes, dependable winds, and seclusion. Across the grounds, large stone markers identify the four flights they completed in 1903, each one longer than the last.

Inside the visitor center and museum, exhibits cover the Wright brothers’ obstacles and breakthroughs. The Paul E. Garber Shrine displays portraits of people who moved aviation forward, including Capt. Berry and Igor Sikorsky. This year’s inductee is General Benjamin O. Davis, a Tuskegee Airman who became the first African American pilot to fly solo in an Army Air Corps plane. His achievements helped end segregation in the Air Force. Entrance is free for active duty and retired military.

3. Battle of Roanoke Island Historic Marker

Union General Ambrose Burnside came ashore on Roanoke Island in 1862. The Confederate commander, facing greater numbers and being outmaneuvered, surrendered on Day 2. That victory gave the Union Forces control of North Carolina’s Roanoke Sound.

Even though the Battle of Roanoke Island ranked among the largest Civil War battles in North Carolina, physical traces of the battle are no longer visible. The marker is placed behind a white picket fence at the southeast corner of the intersection of Highway U.S. 64 and NC 345.

4. Monument to the Freedman’s Colony

After Union control was established on Roanoke Island, newly freed slaves created homes, schools, and churches. Men, women, and children fleeing slavery on the mainland also reached Roanoke Island. At its height, the Freedman’s Colony counted 1500 residents. Today, the Freedman’s Colony historic marker is located at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Few signs remain of the community, which dissolved after former estate owners received their land back in 1867.

5. Dare County Veterans Memorial

In downtown Manteo on Roanoke Island, the Dare County Veterans Memorial honors veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

6. Pea Island Cookhouse Museum

The Pea Island Cookhouse Museum in Manteo commemorates the only U.S. lifesaving station staffed by an all-Black crew. The museum shares the story of Richard Etheridge, the lifesaving station’s keeper. Etheridge was raised enslaved on Roanoke Island, served in the Civil War, and later recruited and trained local Black men for his lifesaving crew.

The crew is credited with many rescues, including saving everyone aboard the E.S. Newman schooner in the 1890s. Black men led and staffed the Pea Island Lifesaving Station until it was decommissioned in 1947. The museum contains photographs and memorabilia from the lifesaving station, along with artifacts from the E.S. Newman schooner. Next door in the Herbert M. Collins Boathouse, visitors can see a surfboat similar to one Collins used during rescues. Collins, the final keeper of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station, served 34 years in the U.S. Coast Guard.

7. Chicamacomico Life Saving Station

Chicamacomico Life Saving Station in Rodanthe, on Hatteras Island, was commissioned in 1871 after the North Carolina coast saw repeated losses of ships and lives. Because of dangerous currents and moving sand bars, the region became known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

The station was decommissioned in 1954. Fully restored today, the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station museum presents the lifesaving crews and their daring rescues. One of the best-known rescues came in 1918, when the crew rowed through flames to save 42 British sailors after their oil tanker exploded. Visitors can tour the building constructed in 1911, as well as the original station and outbuildings from 1874.

8. Buxton British Cemetery

Within Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Buxton British Cemetery holds the graves of two British sailors. They died when their ship, the HMT Bedfordshire, sank. During World War II, 65 German U-boats devastated ships and freighters off the Outer Banks coast, earning the area the name Torpedo Junction.

A plain white picket fence encloses the graves. Each year, members of the Royal Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and National Park Service honor the sailors during a memorial service.

9. Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum

In Hatteras Village, the arc-shaped Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum preserves a large collection of artifacts from shipwrecks. Exhibits range from Blackbeard’s piracy along the coast to the development of scuba diving.

The collection includes items recovered from U.S. warships and German U-boats. A map showing hundreds of shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast makes clear why Graveyard of the Atlantic fits the area so well. While visiting, ask which shipwrecks can be explored during an Outer Banks vacation.

Author

Teresa Otto is a freelance travel writer and photographer. She has had the good fortune to visit all seven continents. When she is not out seeing the world, she works as waitress and housekeeper for two rescued cats and a dog.