The USS Olympia, a one-of-a-kind steel cruiser that returned home to a hero's welcome after a history-changing victory in the Spanish-American War, is a proud veteran fighting what may be its final battle.
Time and tides are conspiring to condemn the weathered old warrior to a fate two wars failed to inflict. Without a major refurbishment to its aging steel skin, the Olympia either will sink at its moorings on the Delaware River, be sold for scrap, or be scuttled for an artificial reef just off Cape May, N.J., about 90 miles south.
Although you'd think that with nearly $800 billion in stimulus spending on highly questionable projects carried out over the last couple years, we could have allocated the relative pittance to maintain this symbol of our new status.
But if our military is on the down slope with our own version of Britain's post-World War I "ten-year rule," as I suspect, despite cries of protest from the Obama administration that our military will remain the most powerful, the destruction of this ship will be sadly symbolic.
--Independence Seaport Museum: http://www.phillyseaport.org/
--Friends of the Cruiser Olympia: http://www.cruiserolympia.org/
--The Cruiser Olympia Historical Society: http://www.tcohs.org/
