‘Everyone Loves To Go To Fleet Week’ in City

New Yorkers may see fewer sailors for this year’s Fleet Week than in years past — a result of Navy training schedules, a shortage of dock space, and a ban on nuclear-powered ships entering the harbor — but that doesn’t mean the sailors will be in low spirits.“Everyone loves to go to Fleet Week,” a communications officer on the USS Leyte Gulf, Ensign Lance Oberlin, 29, said. This is the second Fleet Week for the Toledo, Ohio, native, who also visited in 2003. “The last time I was here, we got pulled off the street and were given a tour of the Stock Exchange, totally unplanned,” he said. “Some guys who work there used to be in the service, so they brought us in and showed us around.”During their free time, sailors plan to sightsee, experience the city’s restaurants and nightlife, and visit with friends and family. “We want to go see ground zero,” an explosives ordnance disposal petty officer, first class, Patrick Flanigan, who has just returned from Iraq, said. This is the first time in New York City for the 25-year-old, who is originally from Rochester, Wash.Another member of his team, Charles Lane, 27, of Waldoboro, Maine, also an explosives ordnance disposal petty officer, first class, came to Fleet Week several years ago. “The last time I was here, I don’t think I paid for a single thing. The reception here is very positive,” he said. His family is coming to visit him this weekend. “I think we’re going to go to the Statue of Liberty. Can you go up to the top? I’d like to take them up there,” he said. The answer, unfortunately, is no.Jeff Moleski, of Southampton, Mass., has just been promoted to explosive ordnance disposal senior chief. “My mother is coming to visit while I’m here,” he said.Fleet Week has been an annual New York tradition since 1984. This year, 4,000 white-clad sailors are flooding the city, eager to make merry before shipping out to their next destination.Five ships are docking in New York this year. Two, the USS Leyte Gulf and the USS Kearsarge, are currently docked at Pier 88, while the other three, the USS Nitze, the USS Monterey, and USS The Sullivans, are at Staten Island. The ships paraded up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge from the Verrazano Bridge on Wednesday.“The ships that participate in Fleet Week are assigned based on many factors,” a Navy spokesman, Chris Zendan, said. “The decision is based on operational and training schedules as well as available pier space.”Of the two ships docked at Pier 88, the smaller, USS Leyte Gulf, is a guided missile cruiser carrying about 350 sailors. In Navy talk, it is “a small boy,” a term reserved for destroyers, frigates, and cruisers, Officer Oberlin said. The USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship docked at its side, is also called a “big deck.” It carries 2,000 sailors and Marines, as well as a number of aircraft, including the Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft that can make a vertical takeoff and landing and short takeoffs and landings.Through Memorial Day weekend, festivities are planned around the city in honor of the visiting sailors, including an appearance on “Today,” a concert in Times Square, and several Memorial Day parades in various locations. The Marine Band is scheduled to give a concert in the Central Park Bandshell on Saturday evening, and numerous public demonstrations will be held to explain helicopter raids, Coast Guard rescue missions, and naval research projects.Amid all the merriment, work goes on. “While we’re docked, the ship is going through workups for its next deployment,” Officer Oberlin said. “I’m not sure at this time where that’ll be. It’s still up in the air.”

‘Everyone Loves To Go To Fleet Week’ in City

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