In the city of Alexandria, Va., when retired Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander John Yagerline starts yelling in the streets, it must be time for the news.

When the call comes, John Yagerline not only answers, he shouts! This former Coast Guardsman isn’t responding to a search and rescue case or showing any form of disrespect. He is merely doing his job as the new town crier for the city of Alexandria, Va. During 1999, Yagerline will be serving as master of ceremonies for Alexandria’s 250th birthday festivities and the 200th year since the death of George Washington (Dec. 14, 1799). When 80-year-old town crier Francis Taylor Slate, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, died in May 1998 after 22 years of "crying," the city’s Office of Historic Alexandria conducted an extensive search for his replacement. Yagerline was already volunteering as a docent (tour guide) at Old Town Alexandria Gadsby’s Tavern and had also served as a tour guide when the HM Bark Endeavor was in town. So when he heard the call, he answered — loudly! "I had to ask myself, how do I prepare for an audition to be a town crier?" said Yagerline. "So, I found a book on town criers published in England and also found more information on the internet."

Yagerline was among four finalists (two other men and a woman) who auditioned before Alexandria city officials and community organization representatives. They were rated in four categories: sustained volume, clarity, content and deportment. Yagerline says perhaps his extensive preparation (aka "Semper Paratus") helped him get the job. "My audition consisted of three parts," said Yagerline. "First, I gave a loud cry, then recited a short ditty by Benjamin Franklin and concluded with a toast." His selection was announced by Alexandria Mayor Kerry J. Donley last Sept. 29 at a candlelight news conference at Gadsby’s Tavern. Donley said that Yagerline was chosen for three reasons: his love of history, his commanding presence and his booming voice. "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" called out Yagerline at the news conference, reading from a scroll. He prefers "Oyez" which is Old French, to the more modern "Hear Ye." "...all the candidates were very good, and some have offered to fill in if John [Yagerline] has a conflict," said the Office of Historic Alexandria’s Liz Milner. After the word was out, Yagerline began hearing from people he hadn’t heard from in years, many of them friends from the Coast Guard. "While growing up in California, I had never even heard of town criers," said Yagerline.

Though his golden years are proving to be noisy ones, Yagerline began his Coast Guard career quietly at 18 when he left his home in Long Beach, Calif. and headed off for Cape May. That was 1948, and Cape May (then called Coast Guard Receiving Center Cape May) had just opened.

"I was in the third company to go through Cape May," said the 69-year-old Yagerline. His father, Harold Yagerline, was a Seaman First Class and Coast Guard Reservist who served during World War II.

During his 24 years active duty, Yagerline served on the CGC Sebago, CGC Casco, CGC Arbutus, CGC Firebush and at Loran stations in Greenland and Japan. His last tour of duty, which began in 1969 at Coast Guard Headquarters, brought him to the nation’s capital and nearby Springfield, Va., where he still resides.

After retiring from active duty in 1972, he worked three years as a program manager for an electronic equipment manufacturer, and then 20 years as a civilian employee for the Coast Guard, mostly in the Coast Guard’s Quality Assurance Division at Headquarters. When he finally retired for the second time in the mid-1990s, Yagerline wanted to do something entirely different.

He got his wish.

"I never thought I’d end up doing something like this," said Yagerline. "There are probably 20-25 people in the Guild of American Town Criers and only about 300 around the world."

He looks every bit the part of town crier standing in his 18th-century attire — which includes a dark red mask frock coat over a long (early 18-century) gray waistcoat, a shirt with frills at neck and wrists, black knicker-length britches, white knee-high socks and black silver-buckled shoes (made with no right and left foot distinction). He alternately wears or carries a black tri-cornered hat with a dark red velvet and grosgrain cockade.

Since his selection, he has been photographed numerous times and has already appeared in various magazines and newspapers. He is slated to appear in the April edition of Southern Living magazine.

Yagerline met his wife Yoshie in Japan. She maintains a lifelong interest in classical Japanese dance and plays a koto, a 13-stringed instrument. He is the proud father of four grown children: two daughters and two sons.

His family wasn’t sure about their father’s new job at first, but have since become pretty supportive.

"My job as town crier is strictly voluntary and I can pretty much pick and choose which events I attend unless, of course, the mayor really needs me to be somewhere," said Yagerline. "And I hope to continue service as a Gadsby’s Tavern docent. I meet fascinating people from all over the world. I like to talk to people abou history and this gives me the opportunity."