(Photos by Ryan Harris)
Seafair welcomes the U.S. Navy for the first time since the pandemic hit, with a kickoff at Seattle’s Pier 62 that included a performance by the Navy Band Northwest and a U.S. Coast guard helicopter rescue demonstration.
Rear Admiral Mark Sucato, Commander of Navy region Northwest, says he loves the Navy’s history of participation in Seafair fleet week, which goes back to the 1950s. “It’s a great way to celebrate Seattle’s maritime tie,” Admiral Sucato says, “and it’s a great way to celebrate, in my case, the Navy’s great history with this city.” Admiral Sucato spent his career as a Naval aviator flying F-18s. He even had an opportunity to fly once with the Navy’s Blue Angels, so he says that’s the part of Seafair he looks forward to the most.
There was also a group of protestors from Veterans For Peace at the event, including Allen Tlusty of Burien, an army Vietnam veteran who used this opportunity to call for diplomacy rather than waving our nuclear flag. Tlusty tells Northwest Newsradio our leaders and those of other nations need to set their egos aside to come up with a way to make peace without the threat of nuclear annihilation. Others in the group argue that nuclear weapons are actually illegal, and they say they’d like to see them eliminated from the world’s arsenals.
In addition to the Blue Angels show, the Navy will also have a couple of ships at Pier 90 that you can tour. There’s more on that at Seafair’s website.
You can see video of some of this day’s festivities, including the Coast Guard rescue demonstration, in the video below:
