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" NEW YORK \u2014 The annual Memorial Day weekend tradition of Fleet Week began yesterday in New York City, as 11 Navy ships arrived in the harbor to berth on Manhattan&amp;#039;s West Side and on Statten Island. We were waiting as the USS Kearsarge tightened her dock lines after a short, two day sail from Norfolk, VA. With an escort from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), we boarded moments after the gangplank rolled out, bucking a tide of Sailors and Marines anxious for some Manhattan liberty time. In between checking out some very far out technology sponsored by ONR (more on that later), we poked around the 820-foot Kearsarge, taking an impromptu tour with a Quarter Master and a Petty Officer who were proud to show off the decks, island and labyrinthine passageways of their vessel (which arrived home from in September from deployment in Persian Gulf). Although it looks like a small aircraft carrier (and can launch a complement of Naval and Marine aircraft), the ship&amp;#039;s true purpose is to carry up to 3000 Marines into combat. A Wasp class LHD, the Kearsarge&amp;#039;s transom opens to launch beach-breaching hovercraft to ferry a Marine Expeditionary Unit\u2014and all their equipment, from armored vehicles to Howitzers to M1-A1 Abrams tanks\u2014onto the hard. \u2014Benjamin Chertoff Next: It&amp;#039;s More Powerful Than A Blackbird (And It Fits In The Trunk), Saved In Translation: Helping The Message Survive The Medium In Iraq No Beach Outta Reach: Even if it&amp;#039;s made outta concrete. It was only a short passage up from Virginia, but the Sailors and Marines of the Kearsarge are anxious to take on Manhattan. Photos by B. Chertoff The gangplank has barely set in to the Kearsarge&amp;#039;s quarterdeck as we make our way aboard. The flight deck of the USS Kearsarge (LHS-3) is vast and empty as its crew musters below on the hanger deck. The slack lines on deck will soon rig the ship&amp;#039;s dress flags. The bridge of the Kearsarge, with the nav station in the foreground. Just hours earlier this deck held the ship&amp;#039;s captain, XO, helmsmen and navigators as they snaked heavily-trafficked Ambrose Channel on their way into New York Harbor. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a5356/2871476/>