NYC Fleet Week 2008

Fleet Week 2008 is well underway, and the sailors and Marines from various US ships, along with their fellow sailors from three Canadian ships are enjoying their stay in the Big Apple. Quite a few showed up at the Yankee game last night, where they were treated to a great game that had a bit of everything - good pitching, timely hitting, watching Joe Girardi get tossed from the game over a seemingly questionable call and getting his money's worth for the ejection (from where I was sitting down the third base line, it looked like the ball didn't touch Giambi's bat), Mariano Rivera's dominating performance, and Robinson Cano's game winning hit.

Some are wondering why the Fleet Week doesn't have as many ships as usual, with some suspecting that the Navy doesn't have ships to spare with the war in Iraq.

One major reason that there are fewer ships is that the US Navy no longer has any active duty conventionally powered aircraft carriers. The USS John F. Kennedy and USS Midway have both been retired, and the JFK used to be the centerpiece of Fleet Week.

The reason for this was because the City passed a rule saying that nuclear powered naval ships could not enter the harbor, which means that the current active-status US aircraft carriers cannot attend Fleet Week (the Nimitz class carriers or the USS Enterprise). Instead the Navy sends amphibious assault ships, which are nearly the size of the World War II era USS Intrepid at about 900 feet in length. This year, the USS Kearsarge is the largest of the ships making a port of call in the City.

I would hope that the City revisits the question and considers scrapping the law, which was passed in part to prevent the US Navy from using the newly built Staten Island Homeport. Mayor Mike Bloomberg certainly appears willing to scrap it, but will the City Council play along?

The following ships are in town: USS Kearsarge (LHD 3); USS Nitze (DDG 94); USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55); USS The Sullivans (DDG 68); USS Monterey (CG 61); USCGC Ida Lewis (WLM 551); HMCS Toronto (FFH); HMCS Preserver (AO); and HMCS St. Johns (FFH).