The Ships Get Our Attention

One of the best parts of Fleet Week is watching someone step aboard an active-duty Navy or Coast Guard ship for the first time. You can see the curiosity. People want to know what the ship does, where it has been, how many people live aboard, and what the equipment does. But what I enjoy most is watching what happens when people start talking to the sailors. Suddenly, the Navy isn’t an institution or something they have seen in a movie. It is a real person standing in front of them. Maybe it is a young sailor from Iowa who joined the Navy right out of high school. Maybe it is someone from Southern California who is now serving thousands of miles from home. Maybe it is a Marine explaining an aircraft to a kid who has never met anyone in the military. Those conversations matter. Most Americans today do not have a direct connection to the military. This makes it easy to form opinions based on television, social media, or movies. Fleet Week allows us to change that. You can walk on board a ship, look a sailor in the eye, and ask, “What do you do?” That connection is difficult to replicate any other way.

We Also Bring the Fleet to Los Angeles

Early on, we realized something important. If LA Fleet Week was going to truly connect the military and the community, we couldn’t expect everyone to come to San Pedro. We needed to take Fleet Week into the community. That is why our Neighborhood Activations have become such an important part of the week. During Fleet Week, service members can be found all over Southern California. They may spend the day at Disneyland, attend a Dodgers or Angels game, perform with a military band, visit a school, participate in a community event, work alongside volunteers, or spend time in one of our neighborhoods. In 2026, those activities stretched across the region, from the LA Waterfront to Disneyland, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and communities throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Some of my favorite Fleet Week moments happen at those events. You see sailors and Marines outside of their normal environment, just talking with people. You see a service member who has traveled all over the world experiencing Disneyland for the first time. You see kids asking questions. You see veterans walking up and introducing themselves. You see people realize that the person wearing the uniform is not that different from them. That is exactly what we want. We want our service members to leave Los Angeles knowing that this community appreciates them. And we want our community to understand the people behind the uniform better.

Sometimes the Best Relationships Start With a Little Competition

Not everything we do needs to be serious. In fact, some of the best relationship-building happens when people are simply having fun together. That is why LA Fleet Week includes athletic and culinary competitions, as well as other experiences that bring service members, first responders, and community members together. Galley Wars is a good example. Military culinary teams compete against one another and against local public-safety teams aboard Battleship IOWA. There is plenty of competition and usually a fair amount of trash-talking. But underneath it is something much more valuable. People are meeting one another. They are learning names. They are sharing stories. Relationships are forming. The same thing happens through sports and other Fleet Week activities. You don’t always need a conference table to build a meaningful relationship. Sometimes you need to put people together and give them something to do.

Service Is Part of the Week

Fleet Week takes place over Memorial Day weekend, and that is something we never want to lose sight of. We want people to enjoy themselves. We want families to have a great time. We want the waterfront to be filled with energy. But Memorial Day has meaning. Throughout the week, visiting service members participate in memorial ceremonies, place flags at veterans’ graves, spend time with veterans, and take part in community-service projects. Those moments provide an important balance to everything else happening around Fleet Week. We celebrate those who serve. We connect with those who are serving today. And we remember those who never came home. All three belong together.

There Is Another Side of Fleet Week Most People Never See

One of the things I am most proud of is the work that happens behind the scenes around disaster preparedness and recovery. Los Angeles is an incredible city, but we also live with risk. Earthquakes. Wildfires. Floods. Cyberattacks. Infrastructure failures. Major events that can quickly challenge our region. The military has extraordinary capabilities that can support civilian authorities during a major disaster. So do businesses. So do nonprofits. So do our public-safety agencies. The challenge involves ensuring those organizations understand one another and have relationships in place before something happens. LA Fleet Week gives us a chance to work on that. We bring together people from the military, government, emergency management, public safety, business, nonprofits, and other organizations to discuss preparedness, Defense Support of Civil Authorities, and how our capabilities can work together. I have learned something very simple through this work: You do not want to be exchanging business cards for the first time in the middle of a disaster. Relationships matter. Trust matters. Knowing who to call matters. Fleet Week gives us a reason to build those relationships when there isn’t an emergency. That may not be the part of Fleet Week that makes the evening news, but it is one of the most important things we do.

Los Angeles Is the Venue

The scale of LA Fleet Week has grown significantly. In 2026, more than 100,000 people came to the LA Waterfront during the week. Nearly 60,000 attended the four-day public EXPO, and thousands toured the Navy and Coast Guard ships. Including events, neighborhood activations, sports, community programs, and other activities across the region, LA Fleet Week connects nearly 1,000 service members with more than 250,000 people throughout Southern California. That is why I don’t think of LA Fleet Week as an event that happens at the Port of Los Angeles anymore. The Port and Battleship IOWA are our anchor. Los Angeles is the venue. And that gives us an enormous opportunity.

Why This Matters

I’ve spent much of my life around a battleship. One thing I have learned is that ships are incredible, but ultimately the story is about people. People designed them. People built them. People sailed them. People maintained them. People depended on one another to accomplish a mission. LA Fleet Week is really no different. The ships may bring people to the waterfront, but the lasting impact arises from the relationships we create around them. A child meets a sailor. A sailor meets a veteran. A Marine spends a day working alongside a community volunteer. A business leader meets an emergency manager. A first responder gets to know someone from the military who may someday be working beside them during a disaster. A family walks aboard a Navy ship and begins to understand a world they previously knew very little about. Those are small moments. But I believe small moments can change perceptions. And changed perceptions may forge stronger relationships. That is what LA Fleet Week is really about. Yes, come see the ships. Bring your family. Tour an active-duty vessel. Watch the demonstrations. Enjoy the music. Meet the service members and experience the LA Waterfront. But while you’re here, do one more thing. Talk to somebody. Ask a sailor where they’re from. Ask a Marine what they do. Thank a Coast Guardsman. Listen to their story. You may walk away understanding a little more about them. And they may walk away understanding a little more about us. That’s the connection we’re trying to build. And that’s why LA Fleet Week matters.