Fort Hamilton to salute Fleet Week ships

The 35th annual commemoration of Fleet Week gets underway early on May 24, when the parade of ships steams up the bay past Fort Hamilton, proceeds under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and enters New York Harbor.

When the flagship USS Bataan (LHD-5), an amphibious assault ship, reaches Fort Hamilton, she  will be greeted by a 11-gun salute from the base’s Howitzer cannons positioned along the shoreline. This will mark the official start of Fleet Week, which runs from May 24 to May 30.

This year’s maritime event, in addition to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels, will include three ships from NATO allies: the HMCS Grace Bay from Canada, ITS Virginio from Italy and HMS Glace from the U.K. Participating ships from the U.S. flotilla are the USS Wasp (LHD-1), USCGC Warren Deyampent (WPC-1151), USS Oak Hill (LSD-51), USCGC Legare (WMEC-912) and four Yard Patrol crafts from the U.S. Naval Academy.

According to Ray Aalbue, chairman of the United Military Veterans of Kings County and executive director of Brooklyn’s 156th Memorial Day Parade on May 29, sailors and Marines from Fleet Week ships will be in the line of march. 

In other Memorial Day parade news, the parade committee has announced that Brig. Gen. John Thomas DiGilio, Jr. (USA) will be the 2023 grand marshal. The general was inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame in 2011. Army Junior ROTC cadet units from Fort Hamilton H.S. and Theodore Roosevelt H.S. will serve as deputy grand marshals. The lead veterans’ contingent for the parade will be from the VFW.

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Shoplifting crimes here and across the city are almost out of control! Recent statistics show a reported 81 percent increase for the first quarter of 2023 over last year. Let’s hope our local state senators and assemblymembers support measures that have been introduced to make it a felony for even minor assaults against retail workers. Another measure would make it a grand larceny felony if a shoplifter is convicted a second time within two years.