Participating Navy organizations include Namesake Sailors from USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), USS St. Louis (LCS 19), USS Constitution, musical concerts by Navy Band Great Lakes, demonstrations by the Ceremonial Guard, Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Office of Small Business Programs, Navy Talent Acquisition Group Mid America, the Nimitz (VR trailer), U.S. Fleet Forces, parachute jumps by the Navy’s Parachute Team (Leap Frogs), and the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels).
More than 75 Sailors will participate in education and community outreach events throughout the city, including live performances by Navy Band Great Lakes at Ball Park Village, Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, St. Charles Riverfront Stage, the City Museum, and Kiener Plaza.
The Navy’s senior executive for the week is Rear Admiral Ingrid Rader, Reserve Deputy Director for Maritime Information Warfare, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Rader is participating in community engagements, meeting with students and speaking with local businesses, civic, education, and government leaders.
“I am excited to represent the Navy and engage with the city of St. Louis and surrounding areas,” said Rader. “Being able to share the Navy’s story and interact with the citizens is both an honor and privilege.”
Since 2005, the Navy Week program has served as the Navy’s flagship outreach effort into areas of the country without a significant Navy presence, providing the public a firsthand look at why the Navy matters to cities like St. Louis.
“We are excited to bring the Navy Week program to St. Louis,” said NAVCO’s director, Cmdr. Anthony Falvo. “Seapower and America’s Navy are more important now than ever before. The U.S. Navy remains our nation’s most powerful instrument of military influence and Navy Weeks allow us to showcase how the Navy serves America at sea, in the air, and ashore.”
Throughout the week, Sailors will participate in various community events including engaging with students across multiple high schools and volunteering throughout the city with organizations such as the Veterans Community Project, Girl Scouts, St. Louis Food Pantry, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, SSM Health Cardinal, Glennon Children’s Hospital, St. Louis Cardinals Ceremonial Pitch, and the Black Girls Do STEM.
St. Louis Navy Week is one of 15 Navy Weeks in 2023, which brings a variety of assets, equipment, and personnel to a single city for a weeklong series of engagements designed to bring America’s Navy closer to the people it protects. Each year, the program reaches more than 140 million people — about half the U.S. population.
For more information on 2023 Navy Weeks, visit http://outreach.navy.mil or contact Mr. Isaiah Sellers at (228) 281-3940 or Isaiah.sellers.civ@us.navy.mil.
