Well it’s been another great day on memorial day weekend, but this time in New York City. this week has been Fleet Week, which basically means that the Navy visits New York and has a thoroughly good time. Everywhere you go in midtown Manhattan there are the men and women of the Navy in their finest dress whites, strolling, being photographed and being thanked for their service. The USS New York has docked at Pier 86 nearly 10 years after it was first commissioned at the same site. It’s bow is partly constructed from steel recovered from the World Trade Centre.
Berthed just next to the US New York is the USS Intrepid, an Essex class aircraft carrier that saw action in World War II and Vietnam before being decommissioned and becoming a museum ship permanently moored in New York City.
Today, on memorial day there was a memorial day ceremony on here 86. They seemed quite happy for me to attend so I wandered in and took a seat. Various museum officials made a series of speeches (slightly too long and a little bit too self-serving for my tastes, but there we go). However once they were done and out of the way we listened to Admiral Bill Moran the present Vice Chief of Naval Operations, and soon to be promoted to be the man in charge of the entire United States Navy; in short, a man worth listening to. As if that wasn’t enough, next up was the 109th Mayor of New York City, Mr Bill Deblasio. I’m certainly keeping some impressive company.
There was a very impressive military band who wrapped things up nicely with “Stars & Stripes forever” and a fly past by Navy pilots. I put it all together into a short two minute video. It’s amazing what you can find going on in this city.
TimOnTheTrain 