LA is celebrating Memorial Day by hosting its annual multi-day Fleet Week celebration honoring the country’s Sea Services at the Port of LA Waterfront and around the city.
The free celebration will last all weekend and feature live entertainment, aircraft flyovers, live military band performances across LA and active duty ship tours.
The celebration was moved from Labor Day weekend to Memorial Day weekend last year to line up with New York's Fleet Week.
Around the city there will be multiple live entertainment performances featuring the First Marine Division Band.
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The band features around 50 musicians which play a wide variety of instruments. They fulfill a plethora of musical requirements at performances like wind ensemble, jazz combo, and military marching band.
There will be recurring tours of military boats and battleships.
Both the USS Essex (LHD-2) and the USS Portland (LPD 27) will be open for attendees to tour. The USS Essex was first commissioned back in 1992 and has had more than 30 deployments, including the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf.
It is capable of carrying over 1,000 service members and U.S. Navy and Marine helicopters.
The USS Portland was first commissioned in 2018 and was built to operate with up to date technology.
It can carry over 800 service members and is equipped with “fiber-optic shipboard-wide area network (SWAN),” which allows its parts to be updated and replaced much easier as newer technology becomes available.
There will be flyovers from different agencies including the LAPD, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and LAFD.
LA Fleet Week will conclude with a Memorial Day evening service at the Main Expo Footprint at the Battleship IOWA in San Pedro from 5:00-6:00 p.m.
The service will be dedicated to honoring fallen heroes who have died in the service.
