thedrifter
05-25-08, 12:27 PM
May 25, 2008
On Shore, a Week to Release Stress but Also a Chance to Address It
By COREY KILGANNON
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/25/nyregion/25fleetBAR.span.jpg
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Whistlin’ Dixie’s Texas Tavern on 11th Avenue advertised itself as the bar nearest to Pier 88 and enticed sailors with free-drink cards and hula-hooping employees.
For many service members, Fleet Week is a fun time to get some shore leave, explore New York and have a few — maybe free — drinks.
But for Dan McSweeney, a former Marine Corps captain who is now a reservist who handles publicity for the corps, it is an opportune time for a more serious task: approaching sailors and marines while in port, in a more leisurely setting, to broach the subject of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Although he now lives in Manhattan, Mr. McSweeney does not forget the mortar blasts from his time in Iraq. He still cringes when he hears random rumblings in the city, or sounds resembling air raid sirens.
On Saturday, standing on Pier 88 in Manhattan, where two of the five Navy ships in town for Fleet Week were docked, Mr. McSweeney greeted sailors and marines as they departed their ships. He handed them leaflets and cards with information about the Department of Defense’s Mental Health Self-Assessment Program, which allows service members and their families to take an anonymous test online, over the phone or at special events. The assessments are intended to help identify symptoms and provide help for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.
“Here’s a couple of young jarheads,” he said, stepping up to two wiry marines in their blue and gray dress uniforms. They politely took the cards, thanked Mr. McSweeney and kept walking.
“They won’t stop to talk about it,” he said. “Even though PTSD bears much less of a stigma today in the military than years past, it’s still pretty private. The message is just, if you’ve been deployed and have seen some pretty bad stuff, it’s better to face it than not to face it.”
Fleet Week, a Memorial Day staple for more than 20 years, began on Wednesday as five United States Navy ships, a United States Coast Guard cutter and three Canadian ships sailed into New York Harbor with thousands of sailors and marines aboard. The Navy has docked the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge and the guided missile cruiser Leyte Gulf at Pier 88 at 48th Street, and the cruiser Monterey and the destroyers The Sullivans and Nitze at Stapleton Pier on Staten Island.
Generally, the ships are open for public viewing from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Tuesday, with lines capped at 4 and some exceptions on Sunday.
A Rara Avis: The Osprey
On the deck of the Kearsarge is an exotic-looking aircraft that looks like a cross between a propeller plane and a Black Hawk helicopter. It is the much-heralded and controversial V-22 Osprey, known as a tilt-rotor aircraft because its rotors can shift from vertical to horizontal, enabling it to fly like a plane but take off and land like a helicopter. It is capable of the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop plane.
The strange war bird looked even stranger in its habitat this week, with the Midtown skyscrapers as a backdrop. It rested on the bow deck of the nearly 900-foot-long Kearsarge, which carries helicopters and surface boats and nearly 3,200 crew members.
The Ospreys cost about $100 million each and have had a long and contentious development process over more than 25 years, including the deaths of numerous pilots during test runs.
Its reputation and history make the Osprey all the more fascinating to civilians and service members alike, said Capt. John Sax of the Marines, who oversees the crew operating the Osprey aboard the Kearsarge. Actually, he said, the Osprey was such a curiosity in Iraq that troops kept taking pictures of it as they climbed aboard.
“They were taking pictures, and they were just awe-struck that, you know: ‘What is that?’ ” he said. “And if they did know what it was: ‘I can’t believe it’s here.’ ”
Hot-Rodding the Harbor
On the other side of Pier 88, the Navy was showing its Mark V special operations craft, one of the more recent additions to its special warfare units, which include the Seals and the Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (also known as Swccs).
The Mark V can drop a 16-member Seals team behind enemy lines for stealth operations, and can be used for coastal patrol. It can move at 47 knots (about 54 miles an hour) and can leap from the crest of one wave to another in high seas, its crew members said. On Friday, its twin diesels and sleek V-hull made light work of the chop in the Hudson River. It blew past a Circle Line tour boat and several ferries. The crew displayed the boat’s nimble high-performance maneuvers, cutting a tight bank-turn and stopping the craft in a split second by stuffing its bow into the water, nearly causing it to pitchpole.
The craft has heavy machine guns and automatic grenade launchers, and the sight of it prompted excited waving from passengers on the Staten Island ferry, when the Mark V zipped around New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty.
Buy Me a Drink, Sailor?
On Wednesday, it was mostly family and friends waiting for the sailors and marines pouring off the ships at Pier 88. But a few knowledgeable entrepreneurs also positioned themselves at the gate to hand out business cards to service members heading for shore leave in the big city. A car service reminded sailors that they might need a ride back to make their 2 a.m. curfew. But the biggest presence was the staff of a nearby bar: Whistlin’ Dixie’s Texas Tavern, on 11th Avenue and 51st Street.
Its owner, Aidan Kiernan, told the uniformed men that his was the closest bar to the pier’s entrance, and along with several of his female bartenders pushed “free drink” cards into eager hands.
He said the bar was offering specials, including the first drink free, and had adopted a “ladies drink free” policy the entire week, to attract a female clientele, which in turn would attract more servicemen.
“We’re pretty much the only bar within a four-block radius here, so with all the ships docking here, this is kind of our St. Patrick’s Day or New Year’s,” Mr. Kiernan said. “Location, location, location — this is our week,” he said. Many of the sailors and marines who came off the Kearsarge on Thursday had Whistlin’ Dixie’s drink passes in their hands.
Indeed, things were hopping at the bar, which was flooded with sailors in white uniforms and marines in tan shirts. White caps and sailor hats covered tables, along with glasses and beer cans, as Mr. Kiernan’s staff entertained the service members, since not too many women had come to take advantage of the free drinks.
The Human Canvas
Maritime tattoos have long been a tradition for sailors. And although the Navy now discourages sailors from getting tattoos that it deems offensive or sexually explicit, body art is still quite common. On Friday, several sailors at Pier 88 displayed the work that they had had done in foreign ports. There were the traditional anchors and American flags and pinup girls and the familiar initials of the United States Navy, but some were done in decidedly new styles.
Frank Montano, a senior chief special warfare operator in the Navy Seals , had a black ink rendering of a frog skeleton crawling up his large right bicep. He said he had had the tattoo done in the Philippines, and chose the frog image because Seals are also called frogmen. On his left thigh he had a more familiar anchor with the anchor line wrapping around it and the letters U.S.N. across the front. Another Seals officer, Art Castiglia, walked up and pulled off his shirt to reveal a similar frog image on his right shoulder.
“It’s a symbol,” Chief Montano said. “Everyone’s proud of what they do. Whether you’re a sailor, a cook, a corpsman or a Seal, everyone’s got their pride.”
As he spoke, a former Navy man, Mike Smith of Bay Shore, on Long Island, walked up and took off his shirt to show his 40 tattoos, many of them done while he served in the Navy from 1974 to 1977. One on his back showed a female devil with angel wings and bared breasts, with the words: “Looks like an angel — devil in disguise.”
“I’m not done yet,” Mr. Smith said. “I’m still getting more.”
Pix's
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/25/nyregion/25fleetBAR.span.jpg
Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/fleet-week/
Ellie
On Shore, a Week to Release Stress but Also a Chance to Address It
By COREY KILGANNON
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/25/nyregion/25fleetBAR.span.jpg
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Whistlin’ Dixie’s Texas Tavern on 11th Avenue advertised itself as the bar nearest to Pier 88 and enticed sailors with free-drink cards and hula-hooping employees.
For many service members, Fleet Week is a fun time to get some shore leave, explore New York and have a few — maybe free — drinks.
But for Dan McSweeney, a former Marine Corps captain who is now a reservist who handles publicity for the corps, it is an opportune time for a more serious task: approaching sailors and marines while in port, in a more leisurely setting, to broach the subject of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Although he now lives in Manhattan, Mr. McSweeney does not forget the mortar blasts from his time in Iraq. He still cringes when he hears random rumblings in the city, or sounds resembling air raid sirens.
On Saturday, standing on Pier 88 in Manhattan, where two of the five Navy ships in town for Fleet Week were docked, Mr. McSweeney greeted sailors and marines as they departed their ships. He handed them leaflets and cards with information about the Department of Defense’s Mental Health Self-Assessment Program, which allows service members and their families to take an anonymous test online, over the phone or at special events. The assessments are intended to help identify symptoms and provide help for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.
“Here’s a couple of young jarheads,” he said, stepping up to two wiry marines in their blue and gray dress uniforms. They politely took the cards, thanked Mr. McSweeney and kept walking.
“They won’t stop to talk about it,” he said. “Even though PTSD bears much less of a stigma today in the military than years past, it’s still pretty private. The message is just, if you’ve been deployed and have seen some pretty bad stuff, it’s better to face it than not to face it.”
Fleet Week, a Memorial Day staple for more than 20 years, began on Wednesday as five United States Navy ships, a United States Coast Guard cutter and three Canadian ships sailed into New York Harbor with thousands of sailors and marines aboard. The Navy has docked the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge and the guided missile cruiser Leyte Gulf at Pier 88 at 48th Street, and the cruiser Monterey and the destroyers The Sullivans and Nitze at Stapleton Pier on Staten Island.
Generally, the ships are open for public viewing from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Tuesday, with lines capped at 4 and some exceptions on Sunday.
A Rara Avis: The Osprey
On the deck of the Kearsarge is an exotic-looking aircraft that looks like a cross between a propeller plane and a Black Hawk helicopter. It is the much-heralded and controversial V-22 Osprey, known as a tilt-rotor aircraft because its rotors can shift from vertical to horizontal, enabling it to fly like a plane but take off and land like a helicopter. It is capable of the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop plane.
The strange war bird looked even stranger in its habitat this week, with the Midtown skyscrapers as a backdrop. It rested on the bow deck of the nearly 900-foot-long Kearsarge, which carries helicopters and surface boats and nearly 3,200 crew members.
The Ospreys cost about $100 million each and have had a long and contentious development process over more than 25 years, including the deaths of numerous pilots during test runs.
Its reputation and history make the Osprey all the more fascinating to civilians and service members alike, said Capt. John Sax of the Marines, who oversees the crew operating the Osprey aboard the Kearsarge. Actually, he said, the Osprey was such a curiosity in Iraq that troops kept taking pictures of it as they climbed aboard.
“They were taking pictures, and they were just awe-struck that, you know: ‘What is that?’ ” he said. “And if they did know what it was: ‘I can’t believe it’s here.’ ”
Hot-Rodding the Harbor
On the other side of Pier 88, the Navy was showing its Mark V special operations craft, one of the more recent additions to its special warfare units, which include the Seals and the Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (also known as Swccs).
The Mark V can drop a 16-member Seals team behind enemy lines for stealth operations, and can be used for coastal patrol. It can move at 47 knots (about 54 miles an hour) and can leap from the crest of one wave to another in high seas, its crew members said. On Friday, its twin diesels and sleek V-hull made light work of the chop in the Hudson River. It blew past a Circle Line tour boat and several ferries. The crew displayed the boat’s nimble high-performance maneuvers, cutting a tight bank-turn and stopping the craft in a split second by stuffing its bow into the water, nearly causing it to pitchpole.
The craft has heavy machine guns and automatic grenade launchers, and the sight of it prompted excited waving from passengers on the Staten Island ferry, when the Mark V zipped around New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty.
Buy Me a Drink, Sailor?
On Wednesday, it was mostly family and friends waiting for the sailors and marines pouring off the ships at Pier 88. But a few knowledgeable entrepreneurs also positioned themselves at the gate to hand out business cards to service members heading for shore leave in the big city. A car service reminded sailors that they might need a ride back to make their 2 a.m. curfew. But the biggest presence was the staff of a nearby bar: Whistlin’ Dixie’s Texas Tavern, on 11th Avenue and 51st Street.
Its owner, Aidan Kiernan, told the uniformed men that his was the closest bar to the pier’s entrance, and along with several of his female bartenders pushed “free drink” cards into eager hands.
He said the bar was offering specials, including the first drink free, and had adopted a “ladies drink free” policy the entire week, to attract a female clientele, which in turn would attract more servicemen.
“We’re pretty much the only bar within a four-block radius here, so with all the ships docking here, this is kind of our St. Patrick’s Day or New Year’s,” Mr. Kiernan said. “Location, location, location — this is our week,” he said. Many of the sailors and marines who came off the Kearsarge on Thursday had Whistlin’ Dixie’s drink passes in their hands.
Indeed, things were hopping at the bar, which was flooded with sailors in white uniforms and marines in tan shirts. White caps and sailor hats covered tables, along with glasses and beer cans, as Mr. Kiernan’s staff entertained the service members, since not too many women had come to take advantage of the free drinks.
The Human Canvas
Maritime tattoos have long been a tradition for sailors. And although the Navy now discourages sailors from getting tattoos that it deems offensive or sexually explicit, body art is still quite common. On Friday, several sailors at Pier 88 displayed the work that they had had done in foreign ports. There were the traditional anchors and American flags and pinup girls and the familiar initials of the United States Navy, but some were done in decidedly new styles.
Frank Montano, a senior chief special warfare operator in the Navy Seals , had a black ink rendering of a frog skeleton crawling up his large right bicep. He said he had had the tattoo done in the Philippines, and chose the frog image because Seals are also called frogmen. On his left thigh he had a more familiar anchor with the anchor line wrapping around it and the letters U.S.N. across the front. Another Seals officer, Art Castiglia, walked up and pulled off his shirt to reveal a similar frog image on his right shoulder.
“It’s a symbol,” Chief Montano said. “Everyone’s proud of what they do. Whether you’re a sailor, a cook, a corpsman or a Seal, everyone’s got their pride.”
As he spoke, a former Navy man, Mike Smith of Bay Shore, on Long Island, walked up and took off his shirt to show his 40 tattoos, many of them done while he served in the Navy from 1974 to 1977. One on his back showed a female devil with angel wings and bared breasts, with the words: “Looks like an angel — devil in disguise.”
“I’m not done yet,” Mr. Smith said. “I’m still getting more.”
Pix's
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/25/nyregion/25fleetBAR.span.jpg
Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/fleet-week/
Ellie