Destroyer USS Edson to be towed thru Detroit Sunday

[WaCoTS]

looks like we made the paper, haha:
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/i...cannon_sa.html

DETROIT, MI — Thomas Berlucchi doesn't want the crew towing the USS Edson to be alarmed when they hear the cannon fire as they cruise by Historic Fort Wayne on the Detroit River.

"They aren’t being shot at, and it's not an attack," said Berlucchi, chairman of the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition. "It is a salute when they hear the cannon fire."

Historic Fort Wayne is honoring the retired Navy destroyer making its way to Bay City by flying the Navy's flag and firing a salute from a Civil War-era cannon as the ship passes. The fort will play "Anchors Aweigh", the fight song of the U.S. Naval Academy, from its public address system.

Berlucchi said that it was customary to fire a salute to Naval ships that sailed by the fort when it was an active Army base, from 1851 to 1971.
"Today, Historic Fort Wayne is a decommissioned fort and the USS Edson is decommissioned destroyer. We will fire a salute no matter what time she passes," Berlucchi said. "We are going to do it up and do it right."
The ship's current estimated time of arrival in Bay City is noon Monday, which means it could pass by Historic Fort Wayne during night hours.

The USS Edson left Montreal Wednesday morning and crossed through Canadian and U.S. locks along the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The destroyer got under way from Philadelphia on Wednesday July 18. The ship's departure marked the beginning of a journey across 2,436 miles of ocean and freshwater from the East Coast to Bay City.
The USS Edson ultimately will moor near the Independence Bridge Boat Launch, and will serve as the floating centerpiece of the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum. In April, the Navy announced it was donating the ship to the museum.

Berlucchi, a Navy veteran, served from 1979 through 1983 aboard two Forrest Sherman Class destroyers — sister ships of the USS Edson.

"As a former tin-can soldier, seeing the Edson go by will bring back a lot of memories," Berlucchi said. "It will be a pleasure to watch the USS Edson sail by so I can show her to my family as the kind of ship I sailed on for almost two years on the Pacific Ocean."

The destroyers that Berlucchi served on were active at the same time as the Edson: USS Morton DD-948 and USS Richard S. Edwards DD-950, out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The USS Edson, hull number DD-946, is another of the 18 Forrest Sherman Class destroyers.

"I will have many members of my organization along with the public who will sit along the shoreline and enjoy the sight of Bay City's new museum go by," Berlucchi said. "We would be honored if after we fire the cannon, they blow their ship's horn to us."

The fort's planned salute to the Edson is the only known military ceremony the ship can expect to see. The honors are expected around Sunday, depending on the speed of the destroyer during its voyage. Berlucchi said that it will get easier to plan on a time once the Edson gets to Lake Erie.

Historic Fort Wayne is located one mile south of the Ambassador Bridge on the Detroit River. It was built in 1851, and was used as an active army base for more than a century.

As Detroit's third fort, it served as an infantry training station, was the primary procurement location for vehicles and weapons manufactured in Detroit during both World Wars and housed prisoners of war from Italy during World War II.

also, in regards to treaties and warships, I am told that the ship must stay on the American side of the border.