‘An angry eagle, but that’s fitting too’: The stories hidden within the USS Ted Stevens

WHITTIER, Alaska (KTUU) - When Lily Stevens Becker was born, her father had already been in the U.S. Senate for more than a decade.

Ted Stevens served as a United States senator for Alaska from December 1968 until January 2009, making him the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Republican Party history.

This week, the USS Ted Stevens will be commissioned in his honor in Whittier.

She remembers his staff being around, so much so she describes them as “family.” She remembers traveling around Alaska and well-known public figures like Alaska Native leader Oliver Leavitt, who became simply “Uncle Oliver,” and former Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who was referred to as Steven’s “brother.”

“Senator Inouye was very soft-spoken and my dad was known for his fiery speeches sometimes, and, so you wouldn’t think that they would be such great friends, but they called each other brother,” Stevens Becker said. “They had a really strong bond and I think that was formed because of their upbringing. They both served in World War II and they both came from families that weren’t of great means and worked really hard, but decided to devote their life to public service.”

She’s been planning for the USS Ted Stevens commissioning in Whittier this week for years, reading her dad’s notes and speeches and talking with countless people about his legacy in the state.

She arrived for the interview with Alaska’s News Source wearing a pin with the ship’s crest.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is on the bottom, representing an award her father received. There’s a chain around the edges representing his bond with Sen. Inouye. There are six ribbons, red and white, representing his six terms in the Senate. Along the top is the President Pro Tempore gavel from his time when he served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate. And there’s an eagle at the top with an enlarged eye.

Stevens Becker describes the eagle as “an angry eagle, but that’s fitting too.”

The enlarged eye represents Stevens being denied enlistment in the Navy.

“They denied him because he failed the eye exam. So then he went and found a doctor who gave him eye exercises, and then he went and was accepted to the Army, and then became part of the Army Air Corps,” she said.

At the bottom is the ship’s motto, “lead with courage.”

“Courage is just a word that he used a lot. It was funny, when people would say, ‘Senator, can I get you something?’ he would look at them and say, ‘courage.”’ Stevens Beck said.

Leading up to the commissioning this weekend, she says, she also got to see the USS Daniel Inouye, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, alongside the USS Ted Stevens off the coast of San Diego.

In a statement on Facebook, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam posted about the historic moment that “mirrors the deep partnership and ‘brotherhood’ of their namesakes, decorated World War II veterans U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who jointly championed Pacific defense initiatives and represented the strategic maritime interests of their non-contiguous home states.”

Stevens Becker says she sent her mother a picture of the two ships together as part of an early birthday present.

“I can’t even come up with the words, but it was very powerful and it seems, like I said, the best tribute to my father and to [Inouye] to know that their names are on these ships for the next 40 or so years and will be out there doing such important work,” Stevens Becker said.

This past weekend, Stevens Becker and her mother watched the ship finally sail into Whittier.

“It came out of the mist, and you could see it coming, and I’ve seen the ship before, but I had not seen it underway,” she said. So it was very fast, and we were just out there waving our flags, and some of us were crying and pouring rain, and everybody was so happy."

Stevens Becker says it’s hard to describe her feelings about the ship, the commissioning, as well as the preparations for its construction and arrival in Alaska. Several times during an interview with Alaska’s News Source, she dabbed tears away with a Kleenex.

“It’s so hard to describe. It’s very touching. It doesn’t begin: heartwarming, it’s just so wonderful,” she said.

She says she’s loved hearing people tell stories about her father, as well as reading the notes he would write to both people he represented in Alaska and to herself.

“I get very emotional because most of [his notes to her] were about how he believed in me and supported me and I’m tearing up thinking about them now,” she said.

Stevens Becker will speak during the commissioning this Saturday. She says she may wear his Harvard class ring, or a senate pin her mother turned into a necklace.

“I’m just trying to enjoy all the moments.”

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