After Herbert Collins, the last man assigned to Pea Island, locked the empty station on March 18, 1947, broader changes in American life and military service unfolded. Four weeks later Jackie Robinson crossed Major League Baseball's color line, and in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ended Jim Crow in public schools. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1965 helped improve conditions in civilian life, and barriers to full integration of the military began to crumble as the Coast Guard expanded into a global service with missions including search-and-rescue, law enforcement, marine inspection, environmental protection, humanitarian relief, and national defense. The Coast Guard Academy came to base admissions solely on achievement rather than political nominations or state quotas, and opportunity in uniform became limited only by ability, while service on the Outer Banks remained a proud tradition. The African-American Berry and Collins family accumulated more than 400 years of combined service, beginning with Joseph Hall Berry's enlistment as a substitute surfman at Pea Island under Richard Etheridge in 1897; seventy-seven years later, Berry's grandson, Lt. Commander Maxie Berry, Jr., became the first head of the Military Equal Opportunity Division in the Coast Guard Office of Civil Rights. By persevering through adversity, Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island lifesavers helped change the armed forces and the country for the better, and their legacy is vividly carried forward by the Sentinel-class Cutter Richard Etheridge (WPC-1102), whose motto is "In behalf of humanity" and whose diverse crew serves in national and international waters.