Navy Week sats sail for Tucson to recruit, showcase sailors away from shores

Sailors are coming to the desert to construct up the ranks of the U.S. Navy subsequent week as Tucson hosts Navy Week, the maritime navy department’s flagship recruitment effort that sends sailors to fifteen totally different cities. Tucson has hosted the occasion 3 times since 2005, most lately in 2020, and it’ll once more happen alongside the Tucson Rodeo.

The week of Feb. 20-28 will see greater than 75 sailors visiting Tucson to recruit at excessive faculties and the College of Arizona but in addition to supply assist as volunteers at native places, together with Casa Maria Soup Kitchen, the Boys and Women Golf equipment, Habitat for Humanity Tucson, Ronald McDonald Home and the Humane Society. They’ll even be current on the Tucson Rodeo and the parade.

The Navy Band Southwest, a 45-member ceremonial band and one the longest working musical packages within the department, shall be taking part in free of charge at venues all through the week. The band is predicated in San Diego and has been performing for greater than 80 years.

The U.S. Navy is recognizing the Previous Pueblo by sending sailors who serve on our metropolis’s namesake submarine, the usTucson, in addition to from the warships USS Gabrielle Giffords and USS John McCain, named after the previous politicians.

Former U.S. Sen. John McCain is probably going essentially the most notable Arizonan to have ever served within the Navy, together with his stint working from 1958–1981. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, flew planes over Vietnam when he was shot down and captured as a POW in 1967 and is now buried in U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery.

One of many visiting sailors shall be Tucson native Cmdr. Robert Burke, a graduate of Palo Verde Excessive Faculty and Northern Arizona College who now instructions the usCincinnati. Burke is “honored” to share his expertise within the Navy together with his hometown.

“I’m stuffed with gratitude that the management abilities, work ethic, and resiliency I developed rising up in Tucson have enabled my service,” Burke mentioned in a press launch.

The officer who shall be main the journey and function the senior govt host for the week is Rear Admiral Brad Rosen, who instructions U.S. Navy bases and stations of their Southwest area.

Different teams from the department that shall be collaborating in occasions for the week embrace:

  • Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group One
  • Sailors from the usConstitution
  • Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
  • U.S. Ceremonial Guard
  • Navy Reserve Middle Tucson
  • Navy Expertise Acquisition Group Phoenix
  • Navy Provide Methods Command
  • Navy Historical past and Heritage Command
  • U.S. Naval Academy
  • U.S. America Vietnam Battle Commemoration
  • Workplace of Small Enterprise Packages from the Division of the Navy
  • U.S. Fleet Forces Command

A collection of Navy Weeks takes place all year long, with 15 scheduled for 2023. This system reaches 140 million folks annually, based on the Navy Workplace of Group Outreach.

Tucson is internet hosting the second Navy Week of 2023, with the primary one having completed up on Jan. 29 in Miami, Fla. After Tucson, the Navy will go to Shreveport and Bossier Metropolis, La., then locations similar to St. Louis, Milwaukee, Salt Lake Metropolis and Philadelphia.

Navy Week launched in 2005 with the intention of sending sailors to recruit and showcase in areas of the nation and not using a important Navy presence. The weeklong collection of occasions is supposed to “carry America’s Navy nearer to the folks it protects” and for “offering the general public a firsthand have a look at why the Navy issues to cities like Tucson.” based on a navy press launch.

“We’re excited to carry the Navy Week program to Tucson,” Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, who leads the Navy Workplace of Group Outreach, wrote in a press launch. “Seapower and America’s Navy are extra vital now than ever earlier than. The U.S. Navy stays our nation’s strongest instrument of navy affect.”

Moreover McCain, different notable Arizonans who served within the Navy embrace present U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, who was additionally a naval aviator, and famed labor rights activist Cesar Chavez, who was born in Yuma and acquired an honorable discharge after two years of service as a seaman. Chavez additionally has a Navy ship named after him.