Wish granted: An aircraft carrier is returning to headline LA Fleet Week in San Pedro

LA Navy Week 2024 takes place May 22-27 at the Port of Los Angeles along the San Pedro waterfront.

Attention: An active-duty aircraft carrier will headline this year’s LA Fleet Week on Memorial Day weekend.

And it will be sure to steal the show.

It’s the first time an aircraft carrier has visited the Port of Los Angeles and San Pedro in 13 years. In 2011, the USS Abraham Lincoln came in for Navy Week, a forerunner event to claiming a Fleet Week designation.

Its presence sparked a surge of visitors who stood for hours in massive lines to get onboard for a tour.

And nearly every year since, folks have asked organizers when a carrier would visit again.

Well, this is your year.

They’ve been called “cities at sea” and carry crews from 3,000 to 5,000 sailors.

Measuring more than 1,000 feet long, the nation’s aircraft carriers celebrated their 100th birthday two years ago. The first one off the line was the USS Langley commissioned in 1922, a test for the role of naval aviation that was just emerging.

And it was a success. The carriers radically changed military aviation.

Warships that serve as a seagoing airbase, they are equipped with a full-length flight deck and the ability to carry, arm, deploy and recover aircraft.

The massive vessels also serve as an impressive symbol of the nation’s war power capabilities.

The news, released on Monday, May 14, is expected to fuel what could be a record attendance for this year’s LA Fleet Week, set for May 22-27 at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.

Events will stretch throughout the long weekend event with many activities also planned for the wider Los Angeles area. LA Fleet Week will bring thousands of Navy sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and soldiers to experience Los Angeles with community events. The Navy and Marine Corps bands will provide entertainment at venues throughout the region.

The aircraft carrier, yet to be identified, will be anchored in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor where it will be open for tours.

Also arriving for berthing closer to the downtown harbor expo area — adjacent to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum — will be a Coast Guard cutter that will be open for tours.

The tours are fee and will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily from Friday, May 24, through Sunday, May 26; and from 9  a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Memorial Day, May 27.

To tour the aircraft carrier, visitors will have to catch a shuttle bus from the main LA Fleet Week Expo footprint next to the USS Battleship Iowa at 250 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro.

Reservations for ship tours are not required and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. All adults must present a valid government-issued ID (state ID card, drivers’ license or passport) to take Navy ship tours.

Non-US citizens must show valid passports and will be subject to a brief additional screening before boarding the vessels. Photo copies of IDs will not be accepted.

Additional information can be found on the LA Fleet Week website  including a schedule of events, maps and information about parking.

The main footprint of the festival — with displays and demonstrations — will be next to the USS Battleship Iowa on Harbor Boulevard just south of the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

The expo will be open to the general public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from May 24-27. Admission is free.

Activities and exhibits will highlight and celebrate the nation’s military services and all those who serve. Included are military displays and equipment demonstrations; live entertainment and aircraft flyovers; the annual Galley Wars culinary cook-off competition between culinary specialists from the five military service branches; and dodgeball and Military Has Talent competitions.

Dining options include Vicky’s Doghouse Cafe on board the Battleship Iowa and a variety of food trucks. Restaurants throughout the nearby Downtown San Pedro area also will be open.

Neighborhood “activations” throughout Los Angeles and Orange County cities are designed to introduce service members to the public by way of community projects and outreach activities. Navy and Marine Corps bands will perform at various venues including in the cities of Los Angeles, Fullerton and Venice.

Service members also will join in a Habitat for Humanity build site, a beach clean-up in Venice and a facility improvement project for the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center.

On Memorial Day, 500 sailors will gather to walk across the iconic Sixth Street Bridge in Downtown Los Angeles as a Memorial Day sale.

A solemn Memorial Day ceremony also will be held on the LA Fleet Week Expo main stage next to the Battleship Iowa honoring those who lost their lives in defense of the country.