James D. Charlet is a freelance writer and an authority on the US Life-Saving Service on North Carolina’s iconic Outer Banks, contributes to local and national media with articles on Outer Banks and nautical history. Charlet taught North Carolina history for twenty-four years and authored a state-adopted textbook on the subject. He has worked with the Wright Brothers National Memorial, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, was Lead Interpreter at Roanoke Island Festival Park (celebrating the Roanoke Voyages), and – most importantly – has been involved with the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site & Museum for twenty-one years and was the site manager of the Historic Site for ten years, retiring from there in 2015. Charlet is a regular contributor to Island Free Press, Coastal Review Online, My Outer Banks Home and has a feature article in the 2019 Outer Banks Magazine and the cover story of the Outer Banks Magazine 2023. In his spare time, James has leads tours, educational programs, and speaking engagements and live presentations as “Keeper James.” His most prestigious presentation venues include Featured Speaker at Our State Magazines’ “Best of Our State” at the Pinehurst Resort in January of 2023; Old Baldy Lighthouse, Bald Head Island; Ocracoke Festival and “Day at the Docks,” Hatteras Village; Anniversary of the RMS Titanic sinking speaker at the National Park Service Hatteras Weather Bureau; and invited to speak at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse for the summer of 2023. Two of his presentations were videoed and are now on the National Park Service, Cape Hatteras National Seashore website.