Richard Phillips arrived at his farmhouse Friday with his wife, Andrea, to find their home festooned with ribbons, "Welcome Home" balloons and signs, with a flag-waving contingent of about 25 people standing on the other side of the road and cheering.
"To be able to come home, safe and sound, from such a harrowing experience ... oh, how Andrea's heart must be filled with joy right now," said Kathy Wright, of neighboring Jericho, a friend who waved red, white and blue pompoms when Phillips' vehicle pulled into the driveway.
Phillips, who had offered himself up as a hostage after pirates made an aborted attempt to seize the Maersk Alabama cargo ship April 8 off Somalia, survived the ordeal after Navy snipers on the USS Bainbridge killed the three pirates holding him with simultaneous shots under the cover of night.
Two posterboard signs were attached to the fence in front of the small, white home of the Phillips family, who have emerged as somewhat reluctant celebrities.
"Thank You for Your Prayers," said one.
"Please Give Us Some Time as a Family," said another, a polite message to members of the media and anyone else hoping to get close.
"This is not one of our typical homecomings," Andrea Phillips said during a brief news conference at Burlington International Airport, "and now that Richard is back, I just ask that you give us some time for us to be a family again."
Phillips was looking forward to some simple pleasures at home - a cold beer, some chicken pot pie and his mother-in-law's brownies. Around Underhill, folks were ready to welcome him but give him his space, too.
"You want to say `welcome home' and then be as normal as possible," said Molly Abbey. "The beauty of a small town is you have the lifting up and the support but also that people respect privacy."
During the airport news conference shortly after his arrival, Phillips said he doesn't consider himself a hero.
"I'm not a hero, the military is," he said, appearing healthy and invigorated. "I am just a bit part in this story, the small part of a seaman doing the best he can like all the other seamen out there."
Phillips went so far as to call the highly trained Navy SEALS, who pulled off a daring rescue that ended his five-day captivity, "superheroes."
"They're impossible men doing an impossible job, and they did the impossible with me. ... They're at the point of the sword every day, doing an impossible job every day."
Phillips arrived home in a chartered jet, followed by a police escort home and a hero's welcome in his hometown.
His wife, Andrea, and their adult children, Daniel and Mariah, boarded the sky-blue Maersk corporate jet after it landed, greeting him.
Phillips, wearing a USS Bainbridge baseball cap, waved to a small, cheering crowd and hugged his daughter before disappearing into a building for a private reunion with his family. He emerged later to praise his fellow crew members.
"We did it," he said, speaking with a thick New England accent. "We did what we were trained to do."
When Phillips was rescued, his arms were bound. On Friday, abrasions and scabs could be seen on the insides of his forearms. Asked what the high-seas hostage experience was like, he said: "Indescribable, indescribable."
