Harbor reach to get new name

Late Rear Adm. Bennis to be honored

Bennis

MOUNT PLEASANT — The renaming of a section of Charleston Harbor in honor of the late Rear Adm. Richard E. Bennis Jr. will be celebrated Tuesday at Alhambra Hall in a ceremony that will include the Coast Guard Honor Guard and the Marine Corps Brass Quintet.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, U.S. Rep. Henry Brown and Mount Pleasant Mayor Harry Hallman will speak at the 11 a.m. ceremony honoring Bennis. Harbor tug boats will fire water cannons in his honor.

Bennis was commander of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office and captain of the Port of Charleston from 1991 to 1995. During that time, he oversaw safety issues that arose when the Yugoslavian freighter Kapitan Martinovic was stranded in the harbor for two years. The ship was blocked from leaving U.S. waters because of the fighting in Bosnia and Serbia, and it became a floating landmark off The Battery. After the community helped its nearly destitute crew, the ship finally was moved to Mobile, Ala.

Bennis played a key role in the dramatic water evacuation of New Yorkers on 9/11. Under his leadership, officers led a fleet of ferries, pleasure boats and any vessels they could commandeer to get panicked residents out of Manhattan. At the time, he was battling cancer. He supervised quickly, moving more than 500,000 people out of the city.

In mid-August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved renaming Shutes-Folly Reach as Bennis Reach on official navigational charts. The reach is part of the shipping channel between Castle Pinckney and Mount Pleasant. "It's like a highway in the water," Mount Pleasant Town Councilman Gary Santos said.

Santos said he got the idea for a grassroots effort to rename the reach in Bennis' honor from Coast Guard Capt. John Cameron, former captain of the port. Cameron said, "Admiral Bennis could walk into a room full of conflict and absorb everybody's concerns. Then, with just a few well-chosen words, he could bring resolution and harmony."

The General Assembly, the city of Charleston, Charleston County and Mount Pleasant Town Council supported the effort. "This is the first time in the history of the U.S. that a reach has been named for a person," Santos said.

After he retired from the Coast Guard in 2002, Bennis was named associate under secretary of transportation for maritime and land security at the Transportation Security Administration. Not long after Bennis' death in 2003, Santos said he initiated the process of renaming Shutes-Folly Reach in Bennis' honor.

"It's been a long process. He certainly deserves it," said Santos, who is port manager for Inchcape Shipping Services.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at pfindlay@postandcourier.com.