The Navy Club of Chicago Ship 69 was established somewhere around 1938 and 1942 and was dry-docked (de-commissioned) in the last 1990s or early 2000s. Unfortunately the original charter is lost along with many historical documents along with the original date and members. We do have documents that Ship #69 was commissioned at least before 1942. Charters and other historical items are usually found in someone’s basement or garage and lost for years until someone finds it. We hope in the future someone will find the original charter and reach out to us. This has happened many times in the past and we are hopeful we will receive it as well.
Chicago was home to six Navy Club Ships (Chapters) and had one of the largest memberships but by the early 2000s, all six ships were dry-docked. Below are all the ships prior to 1942.
- Ship 56 South Shore Chicago
- Ship 64 North Shore Chicago
- Ship 69 USS Chicago
- Ship 78 Robert S. Abbott Chicago
- Ship 95 USS Raleigh Chicago
- Ship 155 USS Constitution Chicago
In March of 2023, a number of Navy Veterans came together to refloat USS Chicago, which has been decommissioned for over 20+ years. There are many amazing veteran groups in Chicago but none really dedicated to Navy Veterans. The Navy is extremely unique and has traditions 100s of years old that our members wanted to continue to preserve and celebrate.
Working with the Illinois Squadron we were able to identify 6 ships that was once commissioned in Chicago and USS Chicago Ship 69 was one of them. About a month later, we completed the paperwork, secured our first 15 members and held elections.
Walter Porter from Elgin Ship and also part of Illinois Squadron came to down to Chicago to host our first meeting and help commission each of our officers. The club nominated Leslie Rodriguez for the first commander of USS Chicago. Leslie is a US Navy Seabee Veteran and also the first women to lead a ship in Illinois. Our new home is at the VFW Armed Forces Post at 6940 W Diversey Ave in Chicago. We will host our quarterly social events and meetings there.