Fleet Week to Return to NYC in May

Fleet Week, a victim of sequester budget cuts in 2013, will is back on for May.

A man photographs the USS Wasp docked for Fleet Week festivities in 2012.(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In a press release, the organization Fleet Week New York announced that 1,500 Navy sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen will descend on lower Manhattan Wednesday, May 21 through Tuesday, May 27.

Started in 1984, organizers call Fleet Week New York's "celebration of sea service" with the chance for the public to meet personnel and tour a number of ships. Scheduled events open to the public will include military band concerts, exhibits and military demonstrations and the opportunity to board participating ships.

The landing ship USS Oak Hill, the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole will be anchored on the Hudson for Fleet Week as will the US Coast Guard ships Katherine Walker (WLM 552), known as the “Keeper of New York Harbor” from Bayonne and cutter Campbell from Portsmouth, N.H.

Military personnel will also participate in community projects including helping Habitat for Humanity with Sandy reconstruction projects and volunteering with Meals on Wheels and the Salvation Army according to the Staten Island Advance.