What was an aging American naval destroyer doing moored at a pier in Thessaloniki, Greece? We had just checked into a hotel on the waterfront and were stepping out onto our room’s tiny balcony to take in the Aegean Sea. I had visions of ships from Greek mythology, coming home from the Trojan War, or more realistically a billionaire’s yacht, or cargo from Africa, but not this aged warhorse.  Curious, we set off down the pier toward the destroyer and were met by a very enthusiastic young guide selling tickets to tour the ship later that evening.

We chatted and learned that Markos was fulfilling his military obligation on the ship. It was perfect, he explained: work started at 4:00 pm, tours at 6:00 and 9:00, off duty before midnight, just in time to party with friends til dawn, then a big breakfast and back to the ship to sleep until his next shift at 4:00. Like many Greeks we met he believed that he had the perfect life. Who could argue?  So, with time on his hands and happy to educate a couple of ignorant Americans about their own history and the bond between his country and ours, he began the story.

Originally christened the USS Charette, she served nobly in the Pacific during World War II. She even, according to Markos, survived unscathed the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was really impressive since she was commissioned and joined the Pacific fleet in 1942, a year after Pearl Harbor. But such was the glory of the great ship, and who were we to doubt a teller of Aegean tales. After the war she was refurbished and modernized and given to Greece to serve in the royal Greek navy. Renamed Velos (Arrow), she patrolled the Mediterranean waters beginning in the late 1950s. Markos became more animated as he came to the heroic part.

In 1967 Greece suffered a military coup and the birthplace of democracy came under the rule of a harsh military junta which was known as the Regime of the Colonels.  In May 1973, Nikolaos Pappas, commander of the Velos, was participating in a NATO exercise near Sardinia. He and his crew were listening to the radio and learned that several Greek naval officers who opposed the junta had been arrested in Athens and brutally tortured. The 44-year-old Pappas was a leader of this secret group of officers who were loyal to the Constitution and had planned to overthrow the junta in the next few days. He now knew there was no hope for resistance inside Greece and decided to take the battle to the international stage.

He turned the Velos toward Italy and anchored at Fiumicino, telling officers and crew that he planned to go ashore and declare mutiny. All were supportive and wanted to join him, but he took only a handful of officers and left the crew aboard, fearing there would be retaliation against their families in Greece if they joined the mutiny. He notified NATO headquarters, quoting the NATO preamble “all governments … are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage, and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law.” Once ashore he arranged for a press conference to announce to the world that the Velos would no longer serve the junta’s cruel regime. The resistance movement had done what it could. It was time for ally nations to help restore democracy and peace to his country.

Many believe that this mutiny, Pappas’ refusal to use the Velos to support the dictatorship, marked the turning point in the resistance and the beginning of the end for the dictatorship which collapsed a year later in July 1974, giving way eventually to a parliamentary republic.  In 1994, the Hellenic Navy General Staff declared the ship the “Museum of the Struggle Against Dictatorship.”

The Velos is revered by Greeks, the gift from America that brought them freedom. Markos was quick to make the connection. “Maybe we give the Velos to America so she can get democracy back!”

Lovely as that would be — not to mention romantic and mythical – the ship is staying put, and we are left to find our own ways of dealing with this current authoritarian attack on our values and our constitution. But the message from Greece is hopeful. There will be opportunities for heroic action, if we are patient, prepared and committed. We are a young country, as Europeans reminded us often. They have endured, resisted, and survived dictatorships, some multiple times in their long histories. We have had close calls – the American Nazi movement and the plot to overthrow FDR’s administration, both in the 1930s, and McCarthyism in the 1950s. With this current assault our time may have come. Let’s learn what we can from those who have reclaimed freedom elsewhere, let’s craft our own unique brand of resistance, let’s be ready for that Velos moment.