The Man at the Wheel statue and the city’s bustling harbor served as the backdrop to the promotion of Gloucester native Benjamin Swan from the rank of lieutenant commander to commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve on Saturday afternoon.
About 40 friends, family, neighbors and well-wishers gathered at the Fishermen’s Memorial for a short ceremony during which Swan took the oath of office just after 2 p.m. Saturday, his 39th birthday.
The ceremony took place under a cloudless sky on a warm mid-October afternoon with Swan’s friend and “battle buddy,” Cmdr. Patrick Gorman, serving as emcee.
He said this was a particularly important ceremony in the Navy as one rises from a junior officer to a senior officer. Gorman and Swan serve in the same unit at Fleet Forces Command based in Norfolk, Virginia.
“This is probably one of the most important promotions short of him making admiral someday,” said Gorman, who has been working alongside Swan since 2020. Gorman read the order of Swan’s promotion to new commander effective Aug. 1 and then administered the oath of office.
Swan’s wife, Deirdre, and his daughter, Vivian, 8, came forward and attached new shoulder boards on his white dress uniform and gave him a new commander’s hat with hugs and applause from those in attendance.
“Thank you everyone for coming out today,” Swan said. “What a perfect day. I mean we can’t ask for a better day than today.”
When he and his wife began to plan the ceremony a few months ago, one of the biggest questions was where it would be held. The choice came down to two places, possibly aboard the USS Constitution in Boston where a number of those at the ceremony were commissioned in 2008, and Gloucester, Swan said.
“While that certainly would have been great,” he said of the Navy’s oldest commissioned warship, “I never want to pass up an opportunity to come home to America’s oldest seaport.”
Although Gloucester is known more for its fishing than as a naval hub, the harbor was the first place Swan ever saw a naval warship.
That was in the summer of 1993 when the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea was anchored in the harbor just behind those at the ceremony after being in dry dock in Boston. As a kid, he remembers coming home with a card with all of the warship’s particulars on it, something he committed to memory for a time.
“While it looks like the ceremony is to celebrate individual achievements,” Swan said, “the truth is I never would have made it this far without the help, love and support from many people, some of which are here, some are not.”
He thanked his daughter and his wife for holding down the household when he is away.
“None of this would be possible without you,” Swan said.
Swan was commissioned in 2008 as a strategic sealift officer, he said via an email to the Times. Such officers are licensed by the Coast Guard as either deck or engineering officers to man merchant ships such as oil tankers, containers, tugboats and others. In his last unit, he was a facilitator for the Afloat Bridge Resource Management Workshop program, boarding warships and conducting watchstander training while underway.
He transferred to his current unit in May.
“We assist operational commanders in managing risk by providing situational awareness of the merchant shipping picture, related operational impacts, and coordination and guidance to assist with safe passage during crisis and contingency,” Swan said.
Swan, a graduate of Gloucester High and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, lives in Plymouth with his family, but he was born and raised in Gloucester and his parents Joel and Sharon Swan live in West Gloucester. Swan and his wife were married at the Elks Lodge on Atlantic Road in 2012. His siblings, brother Spencer, and his wife, Tamara, and sister Meredith, were on hand for ceremony.
Swan has been sailing since 2008, mostly serving aboard tugboats homeported in New York City. He’s a licensed tugboat captain transporting petroleum barges on the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I always tip my hat when I’m a-beam of Twin Lights,” he said in an email to the Times.
After the ceremony on Stacy Boulevard, a backyard reception was held at the Swans’ home during which there was a “wetting down” ceremony of his new shoulder boards with seawater.
The idea of this ceremony is to age the stripes when someone goes up in rank to give the new officer the look of having experience. Joel Swan said he collected a bucket of seawater from Pavilion Beach just for this occasion.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.
