Braden J. Phillips

Mr. Phillips was born and raised in Lockport, New York, which is located between Buffalo and Niagara Falls in western New York.  After high school, he accepted a nomination to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.  He graduated with the Class of 1968 and was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy.

Following Naval flight training, he was designated a Naval Aviator in 1969.  Over the next twenty years, he served in a number of aviation squadrons and commanded squadrons both ashore and afloat.  As a specialist in Antisubmarine Warfare, he amassed over 5000 flight hours and 500 aircraft carrier landings.

He attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in the mid-seventies and earned a Master of Science degree in Financial Management.  He subsequently worked in Washington, D.C. on Navy budget matters with the Office of the Navy Comptroller and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Capitol Hill.

In 1989, Captain Phillips was selected to command a deep draft ship and was assigned the amphibious ship, U.S.S. Ogden (LPD-5), homeported in Long Beach.  Under his command, Ogden, with its crew of 300 and nearly 800 embarked Marines, was deployed to the Persian Gulf for 301 days in support of Operation Desert Storm.

After assignments as Commander of an Amphibious Squadron of four ships and 2000 Marines, and as Chief of Staff to the San Diego Regional Commander, Captain Phillips retired with over 27 years of active duty service in July 1995.

He joined the City of Long Beach as a Navy Reuse Consultant in August 1995 to help coordinate the City’s planning efforts for the reuse of the closed Naval Station and Shipyard properties.  In 1997, he became a member of the City’s management staff in the Public Works Department, where he worked for two years as Special Projects Division Officer responsible for several major capital projects.  He then worked as the Special Assistant and City Contracts Officer on the staff of the City Manager until September 2001, when he was appointed to his current position as Administration Bureau Chief for the Long Beach Police Department.

Mr. Phillips is active in the community and is currently serving as Board Chair for ChildNet and the California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ),an Executive Board member of the Greater Long Beach and Rio Hondo Chapters of the American Red Cross and is currently serving on the Boards of Directors of the Long Beach Police Foundation, the Long Beach Police Historical Society, For the Child, the Greater.  He is a Past President of the Downtown Long Beach Lions Club and a member of the CSULB Human Resources Advisory Committee. He and Susan, his wife of 43 years, are residents of Long Beach, where Susan works as a Personal Fitness Trainer.  They have an adult daughter, Blake, who lives and works in the Long Beach area.