Lanier W. Phillips, comedian Bill Cosby and former Washington Redskins star and the Dallas Cowboys’ first starting quarterback, Eddie LeBaron, were honored Wednesday with the U.S. Navy Memorial’s Lone Sailor award.  I, of course,  know Bill Cosby and as a young boy I watched LeBaron, the shortest pro- quarterback I have ever seen at only 5’7″, scramble so as not to be crushed by the the larger players, but I had never heard of Lanier W. Phillips.  His story is perhaps the most interesting of the three.

For shipwreck survivor, a new honor and an old story

Lanier W. Phillips, 87, is a retired navy sonar technician and oceanographer whose life was changed when his ship was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland in 1942. Having grown up with the sting of racism in Georgia and in the U.S. Navy, his view of life changed when, to his amazement, he was treated with care and humanity by residents of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland.

See also: Shipwreck survivor recalls how town altered his idea of race