It takes a certain panache to wear white in New York City. And Khrzielle Vargas, a 21-year-old marine apprentice from Fremont, California, was strolling through Times Square Thursday afternoon in her white pants, white sweater and white sailor hat.
“Walking around town in your uniform makes you look like you’re glowing,” said Mrs. Vargas.
Ms. Vargas was among the 3,000 Marines and Marines who swarmed the streets of New York City for Fleet Week, a Memorial Day tradition that has returned for the first time since 2019.
The seven-day festival includes a parade of ships, public tours of Navy ships docked along the Hudson River, and several demonstrations of nautical and aeronautical skills by members of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
And, of course, the service workers take advantage of their shore leave to explore the city’s many diversions.
In recent decades, the concept of sailors blowing off steam was reminiscent of distinctly masculine rituals of carousing, as idealized in the 1949 musical “On the Town,” which starred Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly as two navy men in search of love. while on leave in New York City.
But the Fleet Week packs strolling through Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night were mostly made up of both men and women, and many seemed to limit their revelry to window shopping, museum hopping and lunching at the Hard Rock Cafe just like any other tourist.
“I mostly see museums, look at shops,” said Chelsea Acevedo, 26, a sailor from Austin, Texas, who, along with another female sailor and two male shipmates, took part in the people’s parade down the red stairs in Times Square.
Unfamiliar with the city, Ms. Acevedo said she made it a point to travel with other male sailors for safety. New Yorkers, she said, sometimes mistook her for one of the men.
“From the front, people don’t really see your hair, so they’ll say, ‘Thank you for your service,'” said Ms. Acevedo. “And then you turn around and they’re like, ‘Oh, OK!’
While Manhattan has seen many anti-war protests, several female sailors said they were surprised by greeting passers-by. (A female Marine, however, said a woman in Times Square gave her the middle finger.)
At about 4:30 p.m., on West 46th Street and Seventh Avenue, groups of sailors mingled near the statue of George M. Cohan, the Broadway hero whose life inspired the movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” They found themselves becoming tourist traps, like the people who dress up as Minnie Mouse or Elmo for tips.
“Everyone wants to take a picture with us,” said Anna Rodriguez, 21, a crew member of the USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship. “They say, ‘Thank you for your service.’ Little children smile very big.”
Ms. Rodriguez, who is from Waco, Texas, said she was proud to patrol the city in her summery white attire, which looks smarter than ever, she said, with the updated navy trim on the collar and sleeves of the sweater flap.
Yet the New York grime poses a challenge. “It’s getting dirty,” she said. “But our ship offers free dry cleaning at night. Bring it at 2am and pick it up at 8am.
Brianna Crigger, 20, a USS Bataan shipmate of West Jefferson, Ohio, was enjoying a break from her job refueling fighter jets. For starters, the uniform is “just cool,” she said. “This is going to sound cocky, but I just love the way I look in it.”
And more than that, she was proud of the message behind the uniform.
“It’s a uniform you put on to show you’re doing this for your country, you’re doing this for the people who died for your country, you’re doing this for the people back home,” Ms Crigger said. “It just shows that you are more than you think you are.”
As for the hustle and bustle of the coast—the crowded bars, the flashy nightclubs—Mrs. Crigger had more modest plans for her time in New York.
“I want to go see Trump Tower and the Statue of Liberty because I know my mother would want a picture,” said Ms Crigger. “But I’m not of age, so I’m not going out. I usually just go back to the gym on the ship, shower and go to bed.”