THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609270237
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: 62 lines
Fleet Week will be celebrated in Portsmouth beginning Oct. 6 with the opening of a military art competition and continuing until Oct. 12, when the Atlantic Fleet Jazz Band will give a free public concert at Hospital Point.
The Navy's Country Current Band, the Navy Steel Band and the Atlantic Fleet Band will give a free performance Oct. 9 at Willett Hall. The program will feature Sousa compositions as well as other popular works. Tickets will be distributed on a request basis by The Virginian-Pilot. For information about tickets, call Willett Box Office at 393-5144.
Portside will be the focal point for Fleetfest all day Oct. 10. The Cyclone, a coastal patrol vessel, will anchor at 9 a.m. and be open for visitor tours from 1 to 4 p.m. Back-to-back outdoor concerts will begin at 5 p.m. when Country Current, a Navy band from Washington, D.C., will play country and bluegrass music. The Navy Steel Band from New Orleans will play Caribbean music from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The Fleetfest celebration will feature special discounts for military personnel, and door prize drawings will be held throughout the evening. The Navy's newest recruiting trailer will be on site with a full array of Navy technology and information about careers open in an all-volunteer Navy.
On Friday, Oct. 11, the Portsmouth Seawall will be the viewing stand for a parade of Navy ships and a flyover of 16 Navy aircraft. Beginning at noon, the ships, aircraft and all personnel will receive a blessing offered by Lt. Dennis Boyle, a chaplain at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.
After the parade and flyover, open house will be held aboard a number of Navy and Coast Guard vessels that will be docked near Portside for the weekend. Friday hours for visiting the ships will be 1 to 4 p.m.
The ships at Portside also will be open for visits from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, and from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, Oct. 12, the celebration at the Naval Shipyard will be focused on history at Trophy Park, which will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Civil War re-enactors will camp at the facility, very close to where the USS Merrimack was converted to the ironclad CSS Virginia in 1862. The first battle of the ironclad Virginia with the Monitor in Hampton Roads changed the course of naval history.
Two hundred years of naval weaponry will be on exhibit in the shipyard park. Close-order drills and demonstrations and firings of Civil War rifles will echo inside and outside the historic shipyard walls near First Street.
Nearby, a modern Navy frigate will be anchored adjacent to the Trophy Park area for public visitation from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Hospital Point concert will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday with the Atlantic Fleet Jazz Band playing easy listening music as well as jazz numbers. The public is invited to join military members and their families for the event. Visitors may take lawn chairs and blankets to sit on and may take picnic baskets to the base. In addition, a variety of concession stands will be set up at Hospital Point. Parking will be available in the new multilevel garage at the hospital.
On Saturday, free trolley service will be offered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The shuttle will run from the Naval Shipyard to Portside to the Naval Hospital on a continuous basis. Those attending the Fleet Week activities will be able to park once and shuttle among events all day.
The art competition, open to all active-duty military personnel in South Hampton Roads, produced the show at the Potrafka Gallery at 600 Washington St. The competition is co-sponsored by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. The military art will remain on display through the month of October. by CNB