San Pedro kicks off LA Fleet Week with music, dancing and visiting sailors in white
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
LA Fleet Week has been in the air all week — culminating Thursday night, May 23, with the traditional downtown San Pedro welcoming party for scores of sailors and other service members who joined in for live music, dancing and other celebrations.
But preparations have been ramping up all week for LA Fleet Week throughout the Memorial Day weekend, an event that’s arguably become the port town’s biggest annual party.
By Wednesday, May 22, shops and restaurants in the downtown were festooned with U.S. flags and patriotic bunting. Here and there, newly-arrived sailors in their dress whites began being seen around town shortly after Tuesday’s arrival of the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier headlining this year’s event.
At a lookout spot at the south end of Gaffey Street on Wednesday, folks parked and got out of their cars to take in the view below of the USS Carl Vinson after it had arrived just the day before, making local headlines and newscasts.
“There it is, Mom, right there,” said a Torrance woman who arrived with her mother — and carrying a handy pair of strong binoculars. “Just the sheer size of it, it’s impressive.”
“There it is!” said another local tourist trying to get a distant glimpse of the massive ship that already is generating a buzz for the 2024 LA Fleet Week that runs from Friday, May 24, through Monday, May 27.
But it isn’t LA Fleet Week without the official welcome party.
Fleet Week: Thank military members and tour the Point Fermin Lighthouse on Friday
By Thursday night, the throngs began to gather in the downtown district and the party was on with live bands and dancing in the streets.
A Wilmington welcome party for LA Fleet Week will be from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 24, at the Banning Museum where a homestyle picnic and live music will highlight the event that will be attended by visiting service members.
The hometown welcome parties have become a tradition kicking off the annual Fleet Week tribute those in uniform. All branches of the military are expected to be represented at the four-day event. But it will be the sailors — some 3,000 of them from the aircraft carrier crew alone — who will be front and center.
“There’s been just so much excitement,” said Ryan Blaney, executive director of Discover San Pedro and the town’s business improvement district. “It’s a very festive mood.”
Blaney said there was some trepidation about the under-wraps effort to get an aircraft carrier booked this year.
“We’ve been on pins and needles,” he said, noting that ships are always in the Navy’s on-call queue to be diverted if needed.
The welcome party Thursday night featured the Swing Band, the 1st Marine Division Band, and the Midlife Crisis band.
The mission of the 1st Marine Division Band, consisting of about 50 Marine musicians, provides musical support at Camp Pendleton and the surrounding community, traveling also throughout the U.S.
The Red Trolley will be in full service throughout the start-of-summer festival that celebrates the nation’s Sea Services at the Port of Los Angeles.
The festival is free and, along with ship tours, features live entertainment, military displays, equipment demonstrations, aircraft flyovers, a STEM Expo, sports tournaments, and the popular Galley Wars culinary cook-off competition between Sailor, Marine and Coast Guard teams.
Arnold Hoel, 78, and his wife, Marion, 74, of Carson, said taking in the physically demanding festival might be a bit too much for them this year. So they decided to head to the San Pedro lookout point to at least get a glimpse of the aircraft carrier from above.
San Pedro held a Welcome Party on Thursday evening for Fleet Week 24. Mesa Street between 5th and 6th was down for the celebration which included a beer garden food trucks and vendors. Area business also joined in flying the red white and blue and putting out welcome signs. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
Hoel, a Navy veteran who signed up in 1962 amid the Cuban Missile Crisis and did three tours in Vietnam, weren’t alone. The soon were joined by others who reminisced about the days when they were young and brave and willing to answer the call for the nation’s defense.
Hoel’s ship — he was wearing the ship’s cap — was the USS Topeka, CLG-8, a guided missile cruiser based out of Long Beach.
“Half the town signed up,” said the Massachusetts native recalling the missile crisis when John F. Kennedy was president. After four years, he left the Navy and went on to civilian life, leading Scout troops, working in aerospace and later for Los Angeles Unified School District. He and his wife, a Torrance native who worked for LAUSD, raised four sons and still attend the Topeka ship reunions that are held around the country when they can.
The military, he said, provided valuable life lessons that matured a generation of young men.
And the best part of being on a ship? Lying on deck at night under the stars, he said, with only the sounds of the waves lapping below.
“There’s nothing more peaceful,” he said, adding, “I’d do it all over again.”
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