He’s eternally anchored in gratitude.
Nearly two decades after Capt. Rich Phillips endured a near-death ordeal at the hands of Somali Pirates off the East African coast, he is still constantly showing thanks to his saviors — the US Armed Forces.
“I really didn’t think I was going to make it out of there,” Phillips, now 70, told The Post of his harrowing days of captivity in 2009 on board a cramped lifeboat after the four marauders sieged his cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama. 5
“I owe the SEALs a little — just my entire life.”
Capt. Phillips, whose perilous moments became the subject of an eponymously titled 2013 movie starring Tom Hanks, will deliver a “VIP” speech Thursday at Huntington’s Oheka Castle for the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL museum’s annual gala.
The prestigious ev