With more than 10,000 members working across all Military Sealift Command (MSC) platforms, both at-sea and ashore, two members share a unique tie that brings more than camaraderie to its ranks, it brings a sense of familiarity.
Teresa M. Mann and Nakari D. Phillips are mother and son who share two different job titles, with the same end mission.
Mann works for MSC’s N46 Global Support team while Phillips has carved his own career path sailing the seas aboard MSC ships as a Wiper for Engineering department.
“I enjoy it because I get to see another side of what MSC does through his eyes,” Mann said about her son serving at MSC. “I like the fact that I can learn other things through him that I didn't know because I did my sea time in the Navy.”
Mann, born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, retired from the U.S. Navy in 2018 after serving 20 years in the logistics and supply field, then transitioned into MSC, first as a contractor, then by joining MSC’s N46 Global Support team in 2020. Where she previously carried out the role as the warfighter during her active-duty days, her current role now is to support the warfighter through logistics, supply issues, and stock control on a global scale.
“It helped having the Navy experience and when crossing over to MSC. Though I didn’t know all of the programs, the lingo was the same,” Mann said. “It really helped prepare me for MSC.”
Phillips, also a Hampton Roads native born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, decided to pave his future path when he pursued a career as a Civil Service Mariner (CIVMAR) by joining the ranks of MSC in May of this year. He recently completed his first deployment aboard the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20).
“A big part of me coming to MSC was to get the hands-on experience,” Phillips said. “I’ve done engineering before when I went to school for it, and a lot of what I was doing was a desk job. I’m very blue collar in the work I like to do, so MSC is very fitting for me.”
As a Wiper, Phillips’s responsibilities while underway are cleaning, preserving, and maintaining the engine spaces and its equipment, but his career goals don’t stop there.
“I’m trying to advance as much as I can within Engineering department to one day move up into the position of 2nd Engineer,” Phillips said. “And hopefully one day transition to the shore side. It would be cool to take my mom’s job when she retires.”
Coming from a military background of both his mother and father serving and retiring from the Navy, Phillips often watched his parents set sail for deployment, but the tables have turned now that he works at MSC.
“It’s interesting to be on this side because growing up, I was the one staying here and they were gone,” Phillips said. “So now it’s me who’s gone, and they are staying here.”
As Phillips’s career at MSC is just starting out, and with various opportunities through the years for traveling, learning, teaching, and leading, Mann will also have many of the same opportunities while she watches her son from ashore.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what his next experiences will be,” Mann said.
MSC directs and supports operations for approximately 140 civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships at sea, conduct specialized missions, preposition combat cargo at sea around the world, perform a variety of support services, and move military equipment and supplies to deployed U.S. forces.
MSC exists to support the joint warfighter across the full spectrum of military operation, with a workforce that includes approximately 6,000 Civil Service Mariners and 1,100 contract mariners, supported by 1,500 shore staff and 1,400 active duty and reserve military personnel.
| Date Taken: | 11.13.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.13.2025 14:03 |
| Story ID: | 551007 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Two Generations Serving Together at Military Sealift Command, by Molly Burgess, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
