June 30, 2005

Almaden’s Paul Stephan awarded 9-11 ribbon by
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta

By Julie Davis Berry
Executive Editor

Navy Captain (S) Paul Edmond Stephan of Almaden was awarded the Secretary of Transportation’s 9-11 Ribbon in private ceremonies at the Fairmont in San Jose recently.

Transportation Secretary Mineta recently awarded Capt. (S) Stephan the Department of Transportation 9-11 Ribbon.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta personally awarded the certificate to Capt. (S) Stephan, with his family in attendance, for his work as a mobilized reservist after the 9-11 attacks.

Although he was seriously injured on active duty, he fought to remain in the Navy Reserve. He says he cannot release the details of his injuries. In fact, in May 2005, after successfully demonstrating his physical recovery to a Navy Medical Board, he was selected for promotion to the rank of captain.

Stephan leaves everyday life behind on Sept. 11
When the first news of an attack on American soil hit the airwaves early on Sept. 11, Paul Stephan was at work at his law firm in San Francisco. Without thinking twice, the Navy Reservist went straight to the Army Camp Parks Commun-ications facility in Dublin to respond in the initial “Battle Stations” call by the Pentagon (before it was hit). “It was an incredible experience to be in that facility at that time,” says Stephan.

Stephan said he immediately suspected that the attack was a terrorist event with a jihad bent because it was so “coordinated, dramatic and was designed to be suicidal and inflict mass casualties on civilians.”

Stephan and his Navy team were assigned to support the Coast Guard Maritime Defense efforts in District 11, encompassing most of the eastern Pacific Ocean, where Stephan was significantly responsible for the development of the Coast Guard HH-65 “helicopter vertical delivery” program.

The Coast Guard pilot program pioneered the training and deployment of armed Coast Guard Sea Marshals onto underway foreign-flagged merchant ships. The program is now used worldwide by the Coast Guard. It entails quickly dropping Coast Guard personnel onto an “800-foot merchant ship that might be pitching up and down, left and right in the ocean swells” to take “positive control of the ship and evaluate any threats on board—well offshore.”

The citation highlighted the contribution made in those early days of the global war on terrorism. The award certificate states that the Department of Transportation’s “security forces were rapidly augmented to reduce the vulnerability of America’s airports, harbors, borders and transportations systems.”

“The Coast Guard said we’re going to go out and be aggressive about defending our ports and the Navy supported them,” said the Navy man who worked with the Coast Guard during this time. “We took it personally and some of us worked almost seven days a week during that time. We had a motto: ‘Not in our port!’”

He says that it was impressive to see how many individuals risked their physical safety and their careers to protect their country. And he was impressed at how quickly the Coast Guard adapted to the threat. “They changed gears completely,” said Stephan. “They went from primarily rescuing people to now aggressively protecting our ports in a very short period of time. We were under very severe time and personnel constraints at the time. In fact a lot of the personnel involved in our initial Homeland Defense joint efforts were Coast Guard and Navy reservists and California National Guard personnel. It only takes one boat coming into a port [to cause significant damage].”

An impressive resume
Stephan was born 52 years ago in Brooklyn, N.Y. and started his career in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1983. He had already served as a Fresno County deputy sheriff. During his law enforcement years, he earned many awards including the Sheriff’s Medal of Valor for saving the life of a wounded fellow deputy. Later, as a lawyer, he served as a prosecutor and city attorney.

During this time, Stephan joined the Navy Reserve because the organization was looking for individuals with law enforcement experience

Capt. (S) Paul Stephan USN was honored for his work designing a “helicopter vertical delivery” program. In the picture he is being lowered from a Coast Guard HH-65 helicopter onto a ship at sea during a Coast Guard Sea Marshal Boarding. USN Photo.

Twelve years ago, Stephan and his wife Carol moved with their two children to a home near the old Almaden Winery. Stephan became partner in the San Francisco law firm of Selman-Breitman. While they were used to Stephan being deployed two to three times a year for short periods of time while in the Navy Reserve; his family was not used to him being gone full time as he was for more than a year subsequent to the 9-11 attacks.

“Sometimes I would just be working offshore outside San Francisco Bay or Long Beach with the Coast Guard cutters,” says Stephan. “But as my wife reminded me, if she couldn’t talk to me, it was as if I was thousands of miles away because during that time she was, in a sense, a single mom.”

Although he cannot discuss specific deployment locations, he says he has never been to Afghanistan or Iraq. “I am too old to be useful as a soldier on the ground carrying an M-16A2 again,” he said.

His law firm also felt his absence, but was “extremely helpful by continuing to pay me quite a bit of my salary.” In fact, Selman-Breitman LLC received a prestigious National award from the Department of Defense for “Employer’s Support for the Guard and Reserve.”

Stephan takes particular pride in his time in the military working with the Coast Guard. “Many in the media slighted the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Ridge as they thought we were leaving the ports wide open. But what they didn’t know—because it was not something you publicize—is that we were out there protecting the ports the whole time.”

And, thanks to Stephan and others like him, they continue to protect us today.

Chip off the old block

Paul is not the only Stephan pulling off impressive feats these days. Paul and Carol’s 16-year-old son Brian, a Bell-armine sophomore, earned second place in the nation this June for his debating efforts in the National Extemp category in the NFL National Tournament in Philadelphia.