Fleet Week 2008

A photo that caught a "tourist" near one of the Fleet Week information banners.

As related in the New York Times, "Fleet Week, a Memorial Day staple for more than 20 years, began on Wednesday as five United States Navy ships, a United States Coast Guard cutter and three Canadian ships sailed into New York Harbor with thousands of sailors and marines aboard. The Navy has docked the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, the guided missile cruiser Leyte Gulf at Pier 88 at 48th Street, and the cruiser Monterey and the destroyers Sullivan and Nitze at Stapleton Pier on Staten Island." We toured the Kearsarge on Saturday. It was awesome. All of the photos from this entry were taken on the Kearsarge.

John is trying to take a photo of the photographer (me) while standing behind a flying machine called the Osprey.


This is the Osprey from the front. The NY Times tells it better than I ever could: "On the deck of the Kearsarge is an exotic-looking aircraft that looks like a cross between a propeller plane and a Black Hawk helicopter. It is the much-heralded and controversial V-22 Osprey, known as a tilt-rotor aircraft because its rotors can shift from vertical to horizontal, enabling it to fly like a plane but take off and land like a helicopter. It is capable of the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop plane.

"The strange war bird looked even stranger in its habitat this week, with the Midtown skyscrapers as a backdrop. It rested on the bow deck of the nearly 900-foot-long Kearsarge, which carries helicopters and surface boats and nearly 3,200 crew members."

A photo taken from mid-deck toward the stern (rear) of the ship. The water is the Hudson River and the coast is that of New Jersey.

Could not resist taking this photo of an old soldier standing near Old Glory.

New York's finest is ever vigilant.

We found all kinds of equipment below decks. Trucks, landing vehicles, a mess tent (kitchen), etc.

This is the exit end of a piece of equipment used to get troops from the ship and onto the beach.

Tables were set up with lots of information and handouts on programs and equipment use. One of the most important to me was their environmental program to keep any plastic products from entering the sea. Any plastic on the ship is compressed into large circular disks about 2 inches thick. Once in port these disks can then be sent to a recycling facility.

This photo is from the deck of the Kersarge looking down toward the harbor. Can you see the Statue of Liberty? She is almost in the middle of the long boom on the crane.