The Road Taken
By AMY L. WITTMAN, Editor in Chief
For a few days in April, the eyes of
the world were focused on a small lifeboat in the Indian
Ocean, where Somali
pirates held Capt. Richard Phillips, master
of the MV Maersk
Alabama.
When four pirates
attempted to take
over his ship April 8, Phillips and his
crew did some extraordinary things:
the crew retained control of the ship
and their captain traded his safety for
theirs. The ordeal ended four days
later when Navy SEAL snipers, operating from USS Bainbridge, killed
three pirates who had taken Phillips
hostage. The fourth pirate, who was
aboard Bainbridge to negotiate a ransom deal, was taken into custody.
The courage displayed by the
Maersk Alabama crew, and especially
the bold leadership of Phillips, are a
testament to those who serve as Merchant Mariners. They come from
many walks of life and go to sea for
a variety of reasons, and most would
tell you that they rely on the support
of their families at home.
In Phillips’ case, he said he had
never thought of a career at sea, but a
chance meeting with a Merchant
Mariner in late 1974 changed the
course his life would take. When he
graduated from Winchester High
School, Winchester, Mass., he wasn’t
interested in going back to school.
“Both my parents were teachers,
so they were very disappointed, but I
took a few years off,” he told me June
13. While working as a cab driver, he
picked up a fare at Boston’s Logan
Airport — a Merchant Mariner who
talked about his job.
A few months later, Phillips’ father
and brother, who had
just graduated from
high school, visited
the Massachusetts
Maritime Academy in
Buzzards Bay. He
recalled his brother
telling him, “‘It’s not
really a military
school. They don’t really make you
wear uniforms. They don’t cut your
hair.’ All lies! And then he said, ‘You
go to sea and you work for six
months and then you’re home,’ I
said, ‘Well, that sounds good to me.’”
Phillips applied to the school. He
went to the academy; his brother did
not. “We’ve talked later about the
irony of roads not taken,” Phillips
said. “He didn’t think he could do it.”
Part of the reason Phillips has
been so successful in his career is
support at home and a spouse who
exhibits her own brand of courage
and good humor. His wife, Andrea,
noted that while his absences were
“a little tough when the [two] kids
were smaller. I was very lucky, between having the good family support and some wonderful friends
and neighbors. I used to always tell
people, ‘I love to see him come
home, but then I love to see him
leave,’” she said with a laugh.
To which he quipped, “And that’s
what every woman likes to see, her
man leaving.”
See the interview, page 16.
4
SEAPOWER
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES
Volume 52, Number 8, August 2009
PUBLISHER
J. Michael McGrath
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
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Amy L. Wittman
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