SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The roar of the Blue Angels brings a sense of awe to San Francisco every year. As Fleet Week returns, the city is rolling out the welcome mat for the military. But some said it\u2019s hard to celebrate while the U.S. is at war.<\/p>\n
To kick off San Francisco\u2019s week of celebrating the military, new recruits took their oath to join the United States Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
Every October, Fleet Week brings service members and the public together, giving people a chance to connect with the men and women in uniform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people in this city who have never really known anybody who has served or have any family connection to it. So this is one of a few times you get to humanize the Navy and Marine Corps and I really enjoy that,\u201d said Lt. Joseph Baba of the U.S. Navy Reserve.<\/p>\n
Fleet Week was partially canceled in 2025 because of the government shutdown. This year, officials said the event is set to go on with no limitations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Francisco has earned a well-deserved reputation as a legendary port visit, and this Fleet Week is a gold standard for all of them,\u201d said Rear Adm. David Faehnle of the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n
A highlight of the event every year is the Navy\u2019s Blue Angels and their dazzling air show.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies gather along the waterfront, ships sail through the Golden Gate, and the booming sounds of planes fills the skies,\u201d said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.<\/p>\n
However, Fleet Week 2026 arrives when some in the Bay Area have mixed feelings about the state of the military. The ongoing war with Iran leaves some wondering if the nation\u2019s leaders are using the military to make the country safer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe contrast, really, between how people are struggling and this glorifying of the military flying over, it just doesn\u2019t compute for me,\u201d said Cynthia Papermaster, an organizer for CodePink, Women for Peace.<\/p>\n
Papermaster\u2019s group, CodePink, has protested every U.S. war since the Iraq War in the early 2000s. She said she appreciates the service members visiting San Francisco, but believes the conflict overseas makes it hard to feel patriotic during this week of military celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that we, actually, and this is going to be pretty controversial, could be proud,\u201d Papermaster said.<\/p>\n
Service members in town said they understand those concerns. Their hope is to separate their feelings about U.S. policy from their feelings about the people who serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are able to distinguish the individual from policy, so you can hate the policy not the individual, and I think that is much needed,\u201d Baba said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a distinction they hope can help bring the community together this week.<\/p>\n
CodePink said it typically protests during the Fleet Week air show, flying banners from a boat on the bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The roar of the Blue Angels brings a sense of awe to San Francisco every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[31532,5997,7,31533,167333,101,103,102,104,106,105,5999,136,5996],"class_list":["post-491209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-california","tag-human-interest","tag-ryan-curry","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-socal-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}