With Plea for Unity, Advocates Warn Now Is the Wrong Time To Sink ‘America’s Flagship’

The SS United States Preservation Foundation is warning that there are just weeks left to save the luxury liner that its designer once said of its rivals that they “can’t set her afire, can’t sink her and can’t catch her.”The SS United States is the fastest ocean liner to ever cross the Atlantic in either direction and the last liner completely constructed in the United States. Four presidents once sailed in enviable luxury on board. Built in Newport News of American steel, she launched in 1952 and set speed records that remain to this day.But now the plan is to sink her off the coast of Florida — a move that would create the world’s artificial reef, Okaloosa County Sheriff officials say, but advocates argue would destroy a rich and patriotic legacy.We’re saving America’s flagship here that represents all of us,” Carlos Camacho, co-founder of the SS United States Preservation Foundation, told The New York Sun. “We’re all aboard the United States, the vessel United States, America herself is a vessel. And, yeah we’re steering and you know, we might not agree in the way that we steer, the direction we go but we’re all aboard the United States.”“We need to get back to understanding that we’re either going to sink together or we’re going to get to our destination together,” he added.Once berthed in New York City, the SS United States lay idle in South Philadelphia for years after her 1969 retirement, an aging beauty slowly soiling with rust. She was eventually sold off and towed to Mobile, Alabama in February 2025. There she sits today.“Think about the optics of that, I mean like you’re giving a symbolic victory to our enemies that they couldn’t otherwise obtain,” Mr. Camacho said. “That’s the real rationale and the message you send to the world, it’s own heritage, she doesn’t value its roots you know.”Mr. Camacho was a high schooler living in northern New Jersey when the 9/11 attacks occurred. His father worked in New York, not at the World Trade Center, but enough the family worried in those chaotic hours after the attack before they heard from him. A week later, Mr. Camacho was at Ground Zero.“I just remember smelling death,” he said. “It was one of the saddest experiences of my life, and it changed us, it basically made us grow up quick.” Later in life, said he was inspired to action by another figure whose passing was commemorated this week — Charlie Kirk.“I embodied what what Charlie showed us, and that was: you speak up when you see something wrong,” Mr. Camacho said.He now works with Turning Point USA, or organization Mr. Kirk founded, and Latinos for America First.Mr. Camacho was born and raised in New Jersey, and as an adult would go between New Jersey and Philadelphia frequently. There, just below the Walt Whitman bridge, he would see the distinctive twin red smokestacks of the SS United States.Eventually, Mr. Camacho took part in lighting up the ship for special events like holidays and the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl win.“So on the last two days before she left, I had the honor of being among four other individuals who got to light her, so I’ve personally been on her too and she’s phenomenal,” he said. “I mean even at 75 years of age she’s still got it. She might be gutted inside but you know think about as a blank canvas.”Numerous different proposals have surfaced on how to preserve or reconfigure the vessel. Mr. Camacho’s personal preference is to reclaim it as a massive support center for veterans. That would include job placement, job training, trade schools, housing and suicide prevention programs. The builders of the United States had contemplated allowing the ship to be converted to a troop carrier for 14,000 soldiers in the event of another war across the Atlantic. “She’s literally our greatest maritime achievement in our nation’s history,” Mr. Camacho said.Her current owner is the government of Okaloosa County, Florida, which hopes to sink her to create the reef by the end of 2026. The county has said it would be the world’s largest artificial reef — a haven for maritime life and a Mecca for diving enthusiasts.“This could literally happen in weeks so we are in crunch time and we desperately need the president to help us,” said Mr. Camacho, who wrote a letter to the President on July 4 but has seen no evidence the letter has landed on the Oval Office desk.The President had the power under current laws to save the ship, Mr. Camacho said.“It’s very demoralizing,” Mr. Camacho said in an interview Friday. “I mean, you’re literally sinking the United States in the Gulf of America, during our 250th, under what I consider arguably the greatest President and administration that is capable of saving the United States.”As memories of lost American eras fade, those like Mr. Camacho who seek to preserve America’s symbols of achievement hope they are not straining against an unconquerable tide.“I just want America to remember this: if America forgets her past, she risk your future,” he said.

With Plea for Unity, Advocates Warn Now Is the Wrong Time To Sink ‘America’s Flagship’

With Plea for Unity, Advocates Warn Now Is the Wrong Time To Sink ‘America’s Flagship’

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