Defense News: Navy Week Charts Course to Fort Worth April 8-14

Source: United States Navy

Participating Navy assets include Sailors from the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), Virginia-class submarine USS Texas (SSN 775), USS Constitution, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1, Naval Talent Acquisition Group Red River, Navy Reserve Center Fort Worth, Naval History & Heritage Command, Navy Band Southeast, U.S. Ceremonial Guard Drill Team, Naval Special Warfare Assessment Center, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels), U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Navy Parachute Team (Leap Frogs), and the Office of Civilian Human Resources.

More than 50 Sailors will participate in education and community outreach events throughout the city, including a Navy Week proclamation and recognition ceremony at the Fort Worth Stockyards and a Navy Day at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum.

The Navy’s senior executive is Rear Adm. Keith Hash, Commander, Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division/Assistant Commander for Test and Evaluation, Naval Air Systems Command. During Fort Worth Navy Week, he is participating in community engagements, meeting with local Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains, and engaging with local businesses, civic, education, and government leaders.

“As a Texan by birth, I love being able to come home and share my Navy experience with the Lone Star community,” said Hash. “I’m looking forward to swearing in the next generation of Navy Texans as well as talking to our future Navy civilian teammates. It’s going to be a busy – but exciting – week, and I hope you all make it out to enjoy the fun.”

Navy Weeks are a series of outreach events coordinated by the Navy Office of Community Outreach designed to give Americans an opportunity to learn about the Navy, its people, and its importance to national security and prosperity. Since 2005, the Navy Week program has served as the Navy’s flagship outreach effort into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence, providing the public a firsthand look at why the Navy matters to cities like Fort Worth.

“We are thrilled to bring the Navy to Fort Worth,” said NAVCO’s director, Cmdr. Anthony Falvo. “Though our Navy is deployed around-the-world and around-the-clock, the Navy Week program allows us to showcase our Navy in places that don’t enjoy an everyday naval presence. Most importantly it affords us the opportunity to highlight our most important asset – the highly skilled men and women of the United States Navy who ensure our warfighting advantage to preserve our American way of life.”

Throughout the week, Sailors & civilians will participate in various community events across the area, including engagements with students across several high schools, Boys & Girls Clubs and after school programs. They are volunteering at organizations in the city of Fort Worth, including Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, Hope Farm, Saving Hope Animal Rescue, United Way, and the Tarrant Area Food Bank, among others. Residents will also enjoy free live music by Navy Band Southeast at venues in the city throughout the week.

Fort Worth Navy Week is one of 15 Navy Weeks in 2024, which brings a variety of assets, equipment, and personnel to a single city for a weeklong series of engagements designed to bring America’s Navy closer to the people it protects. Each year, the program reaches more than 140 million people — about half the U.S. population.

Media organizations wishing to cover Fort Worth Navy Week events should contact Ensign Jordyn Diomede at (901) 232-4450 or jordyn.s.diomede.mil@navy.mil. You can find the Fort Worth Navy Week schedule of events at www.outreach.navy.mil.