Remembering America’s Greatest Passenger Ship

The SS United States, the embodiment of U.S. honor, greatness, and prestige, will soon become the world’s largest artificial reef, 20 miles off the Florida coast, to be explored by divers and invaded by fish. Despite its history and prestige, it has been sold many times but no owner has transformed it into a successful business.

Her departure resurrects key events in my life. I may be one of the few living persons to have sailed on the SS United States — still the world’s fastest ship at the equivalent of 44 land miles per hour with the fastest transatlantic crossing — and to have met and interviewed General Dwight D Eisenhower as he sailed back to the United States.

JV

About the Author

John William Van de Kamp

John William Van de Kamp is a Colonel, United States Air Force (Ret.). He served in the Strategic Air Command in strategic planning; in the Reagan and Bush Administrations in national security strategy in the Pentagon, Department of State, and United States Southern Command, with one year at the American Enterprise Institute. He was an opinion columnist for the Annapolis, Maryland, Capital Gazette and has written for Army Magazine and Virginia Living.

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The SS United States, the embodiment of U.S. honor, greatness, and prestige, will soon become the world’s largest artificial reef, 20 miles off the Florida coast, to be explored by divers and invaded by fish. Despite its history and prestige, it has been sold many times but no owner has transformed it into a successful business.

Her departure resurrects key events in my life. I may be one of the few living persons to have sailed on the SS United States — still the world’s fastest ship at the equivalent of 44 land miles per hour with the fastest transatlantic crossing — and to have met and interviewed General Dwight D Eisenhower as he sailed back to the United States.

JV

About the Author

John William Van de Kamp

John William Van de Kamp is a Colonel, United States Air Force (Ret.). He served in the Strategic Air Command in strategic planning; in the Reagan and Bush Administrations in national security strategy in the Pentagon, Department of State, and United States Southern Command, with one year at the American Enterprise Institute. He was an opinion columnist for the Annapolis, Maryland, Capital Gazette and has written for Army Magazine and Virginia Living.