PERSIAN GULF: Spock speaks, Navy captain listens

So Navy Capt. David Adler, skipper of the cruiser Port Royal, was explaining to me that a captain has to be ready to order some members of the crew to risk their lives to protect the ship.

"As Spock said, 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.'"

Benjamin Spock, the baby doctor?

No, Mr. Spock in "The Wrath of Khan" (1982).

Tony Perry, on the Port Royal in the Persian Gulf

Photo: Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, half-Vulcan, half-human, executive officer of The Starship Enterprise. Credit: Paramount Pictures Corp.