Hundreds of people made their way to San Pedro’s waterfront on Friday, May 23, to officially kick off LA Fleet Week, the largest Memorial Day weekend event in Southern California — which honors the nation’s seafaring military branches each year.
The 10th iteration of the annual celebration will be crammed with various events and activities — from the lighthearted, like a military dodgeball tournament, to the more somber, such as Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony — and will give visitors the opportunity to meet visiting service members, go on ship tours, interact with military equipment and more.
There will also be aircraft flyovers and the chance to visit the Battleship Iowa, which is the heart of the main expo area, as well as enjoy food trucks, live music and other entertainment.
But it’s the chance to tour active-duty Navy and Coast Guard ships that’s the real highlight for visitors — whether they’re from a different state or country, or a local.
“We live in San Pedro, so we think it’s awesome that we have this every year,” said longtime resident Maria Paredes. “We’re just very proud and thankful to our service members.”
While plenty of people are longtime Fleet Week visitors, Crystal Stockes was a first-time visitor on Friday, despite being a San Pedro resident.
“It’s amazing seeing all the ships up close,” Stockes said after finishing a tour on the USS Harpers Fairy.
This was her first time attending the event, and got to the active duty ship tours by 10 a.m. and saw all three ships by noon.
“We’d definitely come back again,” Stockes said.
Something new this year at LA Fleet Week is that active-duty ships tours require joining a digital queue to be assigned a time to enter the shuttle line. Fleet Week organizers have tried to streamline the queuing process for years — and hope this new system will do the trick.
On Friday morning, the new system seemed to be running smoothly, with hundreds making it to the Outer Harbor, where the ships are docked, with apparent ease.
“There were some hiccups,” said David Canfield, who helped organize the new system. “But it worked pretty well.”
While some lines did form, he said, the software company was on site and it seemed to be in line with a first real-life trial of a new system.
Having additional shuttles taking people to the 22nd Street area and directly to the ship tours this year also seemed to help the flow of early visitors on Friday, said Elise Swanson, president and CEO of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.
Lines, however, were long to get onto the USS Harpers Ferry and the USS Carl M. Levin in the early morning and throughout the day. Organizers recommended making time for multiple security checkpoints and line wait times this weekend.
Still, Nancy Arseneault, of South Redondo Beach, said she and her husband were surprised by how easy the experience was so far, as they’d finished seeing the expo before noon and were ready to hop a tram to tour the ships.
“That was the best decision,” said Los Angeles resident Amanda Reyes, who was on the ship tours with her husband, Jose Palacios, and their two sons. “Last year, we tried to come and we were in line, we even came early, and we still couldn’t get on the aircraft carrier.”
Last year, Fleet Week experienced long lines for the ship tours because of the USS Carl Vinson, one of the 11 mega warships in the Navy’s fleet, which visited the Port of Los Angeles for the first time in 13 years. That warship is not here this time.
“This was way better, more organized,” Reyes said. “It worked great.”
For Palacios, finally being able to get onto the ships was exciting to share with his family — especially the USS Harpers Ferry. He did, after all, serve on the ship when he was in the Marines.
“My friends and I served; I got out in 2006,” he said. “I still have dreams that I get called back to the ship. You can drop me off in any place on the ship and I can remember it like the back of my hand. It’s definitely nostalgic. I’m glad I was able to come back. I never thought I’d step foot in the ship again but I’m glad we got the opportunity to.”
Ship tours are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily throughout the weekend.
At the main expo venue, meanwhile, the Battleship Iowa serves as the backdrop to various booths and entertainment. Throughout Fleet Week, the expo will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The first day started with cool, overcast weather in the mid-60s as a smattering of crowds began to arrive. By mid-afternoon, the sunny skies brought more people to the event.
The expo had multiple displays of equipment from the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Army, and visitors got to interact with military personnel — which is always a highlight emphasized during Fleet Week events.
Other, non-military organizations also had booths, including LA city’s crisis response team, the Pasadena Police Department, the LA Fire Department, CalFire, LAPD and the Long Beach Police Department, among others.
People also got to learn about CPR and simulation combat trauma from the Navy’s 1st Medical Battalion.
There were also games and face painting for kids — which ensures LA Fleet Week has something for people of all ages.
Some people said they came on Friday to beat the crowd of thousands who are set to attend Fleet Week Saturday through Monday.
“It’s been great; we got here before the lines,” said Santa Clarita resident Becky Bax. “We’d definitely recommend people come check it out.”
As for the second day of Fleet Week, there’s plenty of fun stuff lined up for Saturday as well, including:
- 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Festival of Sail at LA Fleet Week.
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Aircraft flyover.
- 10 a.m. Battleship Iowa tours.
- 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Military Has Talent qualifying round.
- 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Navy Esports Challenge
- Noon to 2:30 p.m.: Galley Wars at the Main Expo.
- 5 to 10 p.m.: West Harbor After Party.