S.S. John W. Brown Nov. 7 cruise will honor women veterans

Sept. 22, 2009

S.S. John W. Brown Nov. 7 cruise will honor women veterans

The active Liberty Ship SS John W. Brown will honor women in the American military past and present on Saturday, November 7, 2009 in its annual Veteran’s Day cruise in Baltimore harbor.

The Nov. 7 program aboard the Brown features self-guided tours of the ship, historical narration, a memorial service for veterans, music, entertainment and a pleasant ride in the harbor on an actual World War II vessel.

The ship will open for boarding after 8:30 a.m. at Pier Four, North Locust Point, Baltimore. At 10 a.m. she will leave the pier and sail under the Francis Scott Key outer harbor bridge, turn around and return to the dock by 12:30 p.m.

Passengers wishing to join the cruise, must make reservations by filling out forms and mailing them to Project Liberty Ship (PLS). These applications are located on the Project Liberty Ship web site, www.liberty-ship.com or by calling PLS at (410) 558-0164 and asking for forms to be mailed to prospective passengers.

The completed reservation cost $20.00 each person (one veteran and a companion). Finished forms and check or money order should be mailed to Project Liberty Ship, P.O. Box 25846, Highlandtown Station, Baltimore, MD 21224-0546. Checks should be made payable to ‘Project Liberty Ship’.

For Maryland port security reasons, all reservations must be received by Project Liberty Ship by Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009. Only persons whose names were provided will be permitted access to Pier Four, North Locust Point and then to the SS John W. Brown. The name must match a person’s photo ID. Tickets are non-refundable. PLS will mail tickets to purchasers.

Women have increasingly served in military service and support roles especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. Some 200,000 women are now serving on land, on the sea, in air and in space, including service in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some close to combat or in combat.

The dedicated service of all women is exemplified today by Irene Trowell-Harris, R.N., Ed.D., a U.S Air Force veteran and now director of the national Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans. She will be the main speaker on the Nov. 7 cruise. She served 38 years in the U.S. Air Force / Air National Guard, retiring as Major General in 2001. During her military career she served as chief nurse executive, flight nurse examiner-commander and frequent advisor on nursing, readiness and related military issues. She was a 1997 Air Force representative for the Committee on Women in the NATO Forces Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. She was the first African-American female in the history of the National Guard to be promoted to general officer.

Women work in key roles on the all-volunteer Brown which serves in the American merchant marine as an operating historical museum ship.

Michael J. Schneider, of Annapolios, chairman of Project Liberty Ship, Inc. (PLS) a Maryland non-profit whose members all own a piece of the Brown, will narrate the cruise. He is a former Navy frigate commander and submarine officer.

Capt. Rich Bauman, of Baltimore, a senior Chesapeake Bay pilot, is the master of the all-volunteer vessel. Organizing the veterans trip is Joseph Colgan, the Brown’s Armed Guard Commander and a U.S. Navy Armed Guard veteran of World War II who fought the Japanese in the Pacific.

While especially devoted to the country’s merchant marine and U.S. Navy Armed Guard, the ship honors all American veterans female and male whether they served in wars or not..

Prefabricated and sturdy after 67 years, the Brown is a 441-foot-long Liberty steam ship built in Baltimore in 1942. She is the only troop/cargo ship from World War II still operating anywhere in the world. During the war, crammed with soldiers and military cargo, the Brown was operated by the American merchant marine and protected by the gunners of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. She sailed eight times to Europe. Her convoys often came under attack.

Veterans of WWII and others saved her in 1988 from a Virginia ghost fleet, rebuilt much of her and began sailing her again in 1991. All Brown crew members are volunteers (and all Coast-Guard-certified) who have safely taken her out and brought her back almost 80 times in her 18 Living History sailing seasons.

Their story is told by two Brown members in three books and a DVD.