THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607020301
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 71 lines
Navy Capt. Herbert Stephan can tread water, but he's not much of a swimmer. He can't stand salt-water. He won't eat fish. And he never sets foot on a sandy beach.
He didn't even want to join the Navy. But from his start as a seaman, Stephan rose through the officers' ranks, retiring as a captain after 38 years of service.
He collected three Bronze Stars, two Legion of Merits, four Meritorious Service medals and three Purple Hearts along the way.
``He represents, probably, one of the best stories that this country has to tell about a young man who came into the Navy,'' retired Adm. Stan Arthur said. ``He contributed all these years and rode the deck plates all the way up to captain. He has been a major influence at every place he's been.''
As commander of Naval Beach Group Two at Little Creek Amphibious Base, Stephan led a 30-person staff and a flotilla of hovercraft, barges and landing craft.
Among his charges: LCACs, hovercraft designed to transport troops and Marine Corps vehicles from ships to shore.
LCACs skim on an air cushion across water and land, enabling troops to make landfalls where conventional landing craft dare not venture.
Stephan sent the hovercraft to the Gulf War, Haiti and Bosnia, though he didn't go himself.
Stephan's father was in the military too - he fought for Nazi Germany during World War II. After Stephan's father, a Luftwaffe officer, died in combat, Stephan's mother helped a trapped U.S. airman out of a downed plane. They fell in love.
In 1951, when Stephan was 11 years old, his new family moved to California. Stephan didn't speak a word of English.
Moving every two years, he struggled with English and frequently wound up in trouble. In the 11th grade, he was kicked out of school.
So he joined the Navy.
Unfortunately, he hadn't learned to swim when, during boot camp, he was thrown into a pooland sank straight to the bottom. ``Somebody had to fetch me with a pole,'' Stephan said. ``I didn't realize I had to come up.''
His rise through the Navy's ranks started inauspiciously: During his first hitch, he was thrown into the brig for not emptying a bucket, and saw his three-day sentence turn into a week without food, exercise or a shower when his fellow sailors forgot he was there.
After that experience, he shaped up. Today Stephan is a mild, quiet man. He never yells - he always talks problems through.
Still, he's a firm leader, Arthur said. ``He can be a tough character, but he's got a heart that's bigger than the whole outdoors.''
Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Damico described working for Stephan as one of the best experiences of his life.
``He allows you to do your job and be responsible for yourself,'' Damico said. ``As long as you do well and do right by him he continues to give you that latitude.''
``After 38 years in the Navy, he's certainly the salty seaman,'' says Rear Admiral Jim Maslowski. ``He did it all.''
A few days before his retirement, Stephan stood on a sea of blue carpet surrounded by blue chairs. His desk was emptied; its contents, and that of his office, had filled eight boxes.
He doesn't have any hobbies, beyond old John Wayne movies and exercise. He hopes to spend much of his retirement, he said, with his three grandchildren, aged two weeks to nine months.
``I didn't watch my kids grow up. I was gone most of the time,'' Stephan said. ``Now I'll watch my grandkids grow up, and hopefully, be there for them where I wasn't for my kids.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB