“I feel like I’m in a movie right now,” said Petty Officer Ayanna Crawford, who was exploring Times Square in bow ties last weekend with a group of panhandlers dressed as Elmo, Minnie Mouse and Spider-Man. “It was a culture shock,” she said.
Petty Officer Crawford, 20, who serves on the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, went to the city with fellow crew member Coby Brenz, 22, an airman, and about 2,300 disembarked sailors, Marines, and Coast Guard members. It was smooth sailing. New York celebrates Fleet Week, a week-long celebration of those who serve and protect America at sea.
Held almost every year since 1984, Fleet Week often has the unintended effect of reminding the most jaded locals that the gritty, crowded place they call home remains an unrivaled backdrop to what can sometimes seem like an endless film reel. coming. It was film director Milos Forman who said that New York was “the only city that looks better in person than on a postcard.”
He added that perhaps more than any other city, it is also conscious of its own film presence. This is never clearer than when Manhattan is filled all night long with thousands of sailors in crisp uniforms who look like extras from “On the Town.”
Petty Officer Crawford, who accessorized her plain white outfit with a chic black Valentino shoulder bag she bought while on vacation in Cyprus (“It’s real,” she said), said this was what surprised her most about the city she was visiting for the first time. The same goes for the different clothes people wear on the streets and what they don't.
“Big tops and big bottoms, small tops and big bottoms, and oh my god, a lot of them are wearing almost nothing,” said the sergeant from Norfolk, Virginia, who dressed conservatively, if it was safe to say. No one has ever crossed the street with a naked cowboy.
From Times Square, Sergeant Crawford and Airman Brents headed to 34th Street and the Empire State Building. This is a must-see on your Fleet Week itinerary. The line of sailors waiting to head to the observation deck is any indication.
Kyle Stauch, 22, currently serving on the frigate Baden-Württemberg, said, “I've never been to New York, but it's pretty much what I expected after seeing 'Spider-Man' and 'King Kong'.”
For Mr. Stauch's colleague Yuvraj Dhillon, 21, the “incredible” thrill of climbing to the skyscraper's 102nd floor observation deck was not so much the panoramic view of King Kong as “the opportunity to take a photo where all the socializing happens.” . “Media celebrities take selfies,” he said.
“Ever since I was a kid, New York has been in all kinds of movies,” Mr. Dhillon said. His to-do list also included social media-friendly spots like Joe's Pizza, Little Island, and Shake Shack. He said, “I also want to go to Central Park, which appears in ‘Home Alone.’” “It’s almost surreal to go to these places you always see in the movies.”
If the giant silver screen defined New York's global image for nearly a century, smaller, portable screens are increasingly taking on that role. In fact, the grandeur of John A. Roebling's 1883 masterpiece, the Brooklyn Bridge, is lost when viewed on TikTok. Nonetheless, two Bataan sailors, Emerson Kiroz, 26, and Joshua Banez, 24, made a beeline across the East River to shoot the obligatory reel with the downtown skyline in the background.
For Navy officers like 38-year-old Samantha Brantley, months go by with absolutely no prospects. She is the logistics officer for the missile submarine USS Wyoming, and Ms. Brantley often travels for such long periods of time without seeing a single glimpse of sunlight on her. “Being at sea gets you used to it and makes you focus on your work,” she said.
Nonetheless, Mr. Brantley was soaking up the hot midtown Manhattan sun as he and a colleague headed west through Times Square to Pier 55 and Little Island. “I heard it’s good for photos,” she said.
Mr. Brantley was carrying a souvenir bag, including a sparkly cinnamon roll tumbler he bought for his daughter. Unlike many of the Fleet Week staff, she did not disembark from a ship docked in the Hudson, but traveled by train from her home base at Naval Port Groton, Connecticut.
Like almost all the sailors who strut their stuff on the streets during Fleet Week, she wore a starched white dress. “It’s a matter of respect,” Ms. Brantley said of the Navy. “I’m a very feminine girl when I’m off duty. I love my heels. And I love long, bright nails with crown tips.”