The home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is one of 15 U.S. cities chosen in 2016 to tell the story of the Navy to people hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean about the role of the sea service in national security.
“Dayton is an Air Force town,” said Lt. Cmdr. Leon W. Moore, a Navy spokesman and a native of the Gem City. “…We’re just trying to go to towns where you don’t see sailors walking around very often. During Navy Week, you’ll see plenty of sailors walking around trying to spread the word about the Navy and what we do for this country.”
This is the first time a Navy Week has been staged in Dayton, a city more akin to news about airmen at Wright-Patterson or history tied to the Wright brothers.
“There’ve been a lot of people from Dayton who have gone into the Navy,” said Moore, a 1987 Alter High School graduate who grew up in Troy and is an Afghanistan veteran. “This is a chance to see what their sons, their daughters, their husbands, and their wives do. We have a variety of different job classifications coming into town.”
Rear Adm. John R. Haley, commander of the Naval Air Force Atlantic in Norfolk, Va., will be the highest-ranking naval leader to visit Dayton during the week..
The Navy Leap Frogs parachute team will end Navy Week with performances at the Vectren Dayton Air Show June 18-19. The Navy’s Blue Angels flight team had to cancel an appearance at the air show at Dayton International Airport when a team pilot was killed in a tragic June 2 crash in Tennessee.
Navy Week in Dayton is a homecoming of sorts for Lt. Gregory A. Fritz, a Cincinnati native.
He’s in charge of Navy Band Northeast, complete with both concert and rock bands, who will perform at a dozen locations in the Dayton region during the week.
Ohio sailors assigned to USS Constitution in Boston Harbor and dressed in 19th-century era uniforms will make appearances, too.
“Part of us going out and doing these things is to get to areas where there’s not a big naval presence and inform people, educate people about what their Navy is doing around the world, 24-7 an how that impacts their lives,” said Fritz, 42. “The other part of our concerts and the main portion is obviously entertain install patriotism in our citizens, make them feel good about their country, their Navy.”
Dayton has historical connections with the Navy. In the midst of World War II, Dayton residents bought war bonds to help defray the cost of a cruiser warship bearing the city’s name on the high seas.
The Navy also named a small aircraft carrier after the city during the war.
In World War II, hundreds of Navy WAVEs descended on Dayton to work inside National Cash Register to quietly build code-breaking machines to decipher secret Nazi messages.
The Navy has had staged week-long celebrations in about 70 U.S. cities since 2005.
This year, Navy weeks also were scheduled in Phoenix, Ariz.; Sacramento, Calif.; Boise, Idaho; Des Moines, Iowa.; Baton Rouge, La.; St. Louis, Mo.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Houston, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Milwaukee, Wis.; Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va.
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