First it was the White House Easter Egg Hunt – cancelled due to the sequestration. Now it appears that Navy Fleet Weeks in ports around the country, traditionally held each spring, may fall victim to the automatic budget cuts as well. The New York Times is reporting that Fleet Week this year in New York harbor will be “significantly reduced if it occurs at all.” On Thursday, Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Navy spokesman, said that “no branch of the armed forces may participate in community relations or outreach events that come at additional cost to government or rely on anything other than local assets and personnel. We will follow that direction, to include participation in Fleet Weeks.”
There are also reports that no Navy ships will participate in Fleet Week in Portland, OR, from June 5 through June 9, though Coast Guard, Army and Canadian navy vessels may make an appearance. Likewise there will be no Navy ships at Seattle’s Fleet Week. The same appears to be the case in Fort Lauderdale and possibly San Francisco. Budget cuts have also grounded the Navy’s precision air squad, the Blue Angels.
Here is a short video of the New York Fleet Week from two years ago:
After Super Storm Sandy, and help is on the way: the Southstreet seaport looks like a Neutron device hit it, the Waffle building, one NY plaza has HVAC equipment and boilers in the streets: now no Navy Fleet Week: this makes absolutely no sense to me.
The Navy’s sailors are on the clock even if they don’t participate in Navy Fleet week, OUR vessels are more than likely underway, and not tied up in some port. These Sailors are our amabassadors to the world
via the ports of call OUR ships visit. Far better for a newbie seaman to
have a momentary lapse of judgement here in NYC than to err in some foreign port of call where he may find himself incarcerated for a very long time, or worse. Alas, this is the same old same old: You can’t play with the football, while the government is throwing a hissy fit!