Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 10/21/1996 All articles from this issue

Los Altos residents take cruise aboard WWII liberty ship

printer friendly version

Town Crier Staff Report

Fleet Week on the San Francisco Bay had a special treat for hundreds of people lucky enough to get tickets for a cruise aboard the famous Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien - under full steam at that.

The 441-foot-long O'Brien is the sole operational survivor of the armada that stormed the Normandy Beaches on D-Day during World War II. One of 2,700 "Liberty Ships" that formed the supply line to U.S. and Allied troups during the war, she is a veteran of both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres of war. However, the O'Brien is most famous for the 11 shuttle voyages ferrying troops and supplies to the Normandy beachheads during the historic assault June 6, 1945.

Guests on board for the Fleet Week Bay cruise included Dan Alexander, past president of the Los Altos Hills Historical Society, and Los Altos residents Paul Foerster and Liz Nyberg, current president of the Los Altos History House Association. Guests had free access to all parts of the historic ship, from the huge engine and boiler room to the bridge, as it cruised for six hours on the Bay in mid-October.

Following the war, she joined hundreds of her sisters in a reserve fleet in Suisan Bay near San Francisco. And then, after dodging the scrap heap for 33 years, she was designated as a memorial ship and steamed to San Fransisco for restoration.

In 1994, the volunteer crew of the O'Brien returned the ship to the D-Day beaches of Normandy for the D-Day plus 50 years gala, the only ship of the original Normandy 1944 armada of 6000 ships to return for the cermonies.Keeping the ship in full operation is "a labor of love and friendship," said Anna Falche, president of the team of skilled volunteers that maintains the ship.

"We usually take two cruises around the Bay annually and guests are invited to cruise with us," Falche said.