Fleet Week, 2021

Fleet Week, 2006: Coit Tower, the Blue Angels and Alcatraz

When the Blue Angels flew by in the 2000's, all work stopped in the office and we would rush to look out the big windows in the 22nd-floor conference room. Towards the end of my tenure the anti-carbon, anti-military voices were growing louder, and it was a reasonable prediction that Fleet Week's days in San Francisco were numbered.

A Navy parachutist, the U.S. flag, and applause.
This is San Francisco, too. (Chron photo)

Last year's coronavirus-induced cancellation had a silver lining: San Franciscans discovered that Fleet Week is one activity that they really missed when it was gone.

Lewis Loeven, executive director of the San Francisco Fleet Week Association, which organizes the celebration, said he was pleasantly surprised that this year’s throngs appeared similar in size to pre-pandemic years, with tickets for premium viewing of the air show close to selling out each day.

Before the pandemic-driven suspension last year, Loeven said, Fleet Week would draw upward of 1 million people to stroll along the Marina and Embarcadero, watch the Blue Angels from the Marina Green, and tour Navy and Coast Guard ships in the bay. The wildly popular ship tours this year drew steady streams of visitors, he said, indicating numbers could match those of pre-pandemic years. By 10 a.m. Sunday, dozens of people were lined up at Pier 35 waiting to tour the missile destroyer Michael Monsoor.