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San Francisco Fleet Week is on!

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Published  October 2, 2023 8:10pm PDT
Fleet Week
KTVU FOX 2

SF Fleet Week is on!

There is excitement on ships and shoreside for San Francisco Fleet Week, which is on after all, following the threat of not happening if a deal was not reached to keep the federal government open.

SAN FRANCISCO - With a last-minute deal in Washington D.C. now signed, Fleet Week in San Francisco is officially underway with Navy ships in port and sailors and Marines onshore.

The Navy ship USS John P. Murtha is currently at Piers 30 and 32, the amphibious assault ship spent part of the day offloading military vehicles. 

"What they're actually doing is we have our landing craft utility, that vessel right there, put down their stern gates, what we call a stern gate marriage," said Lt. Cmdr. Chloe Morgan. "That's how we can transport vehicles off this ship, put it on the landing craft utility and go where it needs to be."

In this case, where those vehicles need to be is shore side for the public to check out, as part of this year's Fleet Week activities. 

The federal government shutdown would have meant no ship tours and no Blue Angels air shows.

The Navy says they're happy that deal was reached, and that the sailors and Marines will get a chance to meet with the public and welcome them aboard for Fleet Week. 

"Absolutely some relief,' said Lt. Cmdr. Morgan. "We've been planning for this for months and months and if there was a government shutdown it would have precluded, really our ability to participate. So, we're happy to be here, we've been planning for it for a while and the sailors and marines have been looking forward to it."

While the sailors and Marines have been looking forward to it, businesses say they're thrilled a deal has been worked out. "Well when we first heard it was possibly going to be canceled we were really worried," said Larry Silva from The Buena Vista.

The Buena Vista, famous for its Irish coffee, will have front row seats for the airshows.  They're thrilled that Fleet Week is on, and the million or so visitors it draws will soon fill the waterfront. "We were worried that they weren't going to do it," said Silva. "But, when we got that notice a day in advance that they agreed that it was going, that made me happy."

The Blue Angels arrived Monday. Public tours are set to get underway Wednesday, the airshows set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.