Navy Fleet Week

Well, this is long overdue I'm afraid. I (Marcus) was given the opportunity to do some volunteering at Fleet Week New York back in May. I took a personal day and then went back a bit more on a weekend - well worth it, and a huge thanks to CDR. Corey Barker of the United States Navy for letting me participate!

Things have been crazy since then - so I haven't been able to get a blog post up. Thought it was about time.

The main activity of the week was going out on the USCG Cutter Campbell on the morning of May 21. Campbell is a medium endurance vessel with a law enforcement / security / patrol / rescue mission. She and the crew are stationed in Maine, and go out for two month stints.

She came in to Pier 92 in Manhattan to pick me and a good number of other civilians up for a little "cruise" out past Brooklyn and Staten Island to meet three USN ships, the Arleigh Burke class destroyers Cole and McFaul, and the dock landing ship Oak Hill.

They were off in the distance at first and had been holding about four miles out since the night before.

As they came in, we formed a "parade of ships."

FDNY joined the fun.

My job was to assist a CNN film crew as they interviewed sailors, and Medal of Honor recipient Kyle White, who we were honored to have onboard.

As we passed Fort Hamilton at the tip of Brooklyn, and the World Trade center, the crew silently and resolutely rendered honors.

Later that weekend, I toured the USS Oak Hill. She is a massive troop and equipment transport ship. I was able to check out her considerable cargo areas, and go aboard a V-22 Osprey, the Marines' fixed-wing / helicopter hybrid.

This is at the very rear of the Oak Hill, where her well deck opens. For those not familiar, this allows landing craft (in this case, she had a hovercraft aboard); you can see the fan-like engines in the edge of the frame. These craft are used to ferry marines and equipment to shore.

My tour of the V-22 concluded with, ironically, one happening to fly by on its way to an aircraft demonstration.

It was a really fun week / weekend, and a really neat opportunity to get to help out a bit and experience a lot of very interesting activities, ships, aircraft and people!