SAN PEDRO, Calif. – June 23, 2021 – The National Museum of the Surface Navy, founded aboard Battleship USS Iowa and scheduled to open in 2025, today named former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien the recipient of the 2021 Freedom of the Seas Award. The award is presented to an accomplished individual who embodies the core principles of the American Surface Navy to protect and defend our oceans for the benefit of the free world.
Ambassador O’Brien will accept his award and present the keynote speech at the 2021 Freedom of the Seas Awards, the premier annual event of the National Museum of the Surface Navy at the Battleship Iowa. The event will be held on October 23, 2021, aboard Battleship USS Iowa in the Port of Los Angeles.
An accomplished lawyer and experienced diplomat, Ambassador O’Brien served as the 28th U.S. National Security Advisor. In that role, Ambassador O’Brien brought a renewed focus to defense and industrial base issues, orchestrated the historic Abraham Accords in the Middle East, brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, and achieved increased cooperation with America’s allies across the Indo-Pacific.