U.S. Navy starts 250th birthday bash in Philly with parade of ships and military fly-overs
Hundreds lined the banks of the Delaware River to catch a glimpse of naval warships as part of a weeklong celebration of the Navy’s founding.
4 days ago
U.S. Naval Sea Cadets carry flags in the Navy and Marine Corps 250th anniversary parade. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
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A seemingly endless stream of marching bands moved through downtown Philadelphia on Monday, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States’ first navy, commissioned in Philadelphia in 1775 for the Revolutionary War.
Those bands were joined by color guards, floats, historic re-enactors and cavalry as part of Homecoming 250, a week of events in Philadelphia that has attracted thousands of Navy and Marine soldiers to the city dressed in their formal blues.
Michelle Jacobs came from Pittsburgh with her sister Pola Rychlinski. They wore plastic ponchos because a little rain was not going to keep them away from a parade.
“The music. The bands,” Jacobs said. “In our local town they have parades, but it’s just fire trucks and dignitaries. This is awesome with the music and the bands.”
“It makes us so proud to be from America. It’s just beautiful,” Rychlinski said. “Look at the men and women that fought for this country. We can’t come out and stand in a little rain?”
Herb Smith, a 77-year-old Marine veteran, was marching in place outside City Hall, keeping time with the Navy band passing by in precise lockstep.
“Don’t get no better than this,” he said. “Tight. Everything is tight. This is the Navy and Marines. I wouldn’t miss this for nothing in the world.”
The Navy started 250 years ago in fits and starts. In 1775, the rebel Continental Congress was divided on whether to launch a navy at all, worried about the expense and the inexperience of a colonial armed force at sea.
Its main champion was John Adams of Massachusetts, the future president, who admitted he really didn’t know what he was doing.
“It is very odd that I, who have never thought much of the old ocean or the dominion of it, should be necessitated to make such inquiries,” Adams wrote at the time.
The first naval recruits were mustered at Tun Tavern, a Philadelphia waterfront tavern that no longer exists, but a new foundation is determined to rebuild it as a historic site.
Once commissioned, the first navy was besieged by internal problems, fraud and ineptitude.
“The Continental Navy, with few exceptions, was a wasteful and humiliating fiasco,” wrote author Ian Toll in “Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the United States Navy.”
Shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy dissolved. In 1794, a new navy, in which the modern U.S. Navy has its roots, was launched to protect American merchant ships from pirates.
None of that mattered to Dominic Blair, whose mother pulled him from homeschooling in Virginia to take a day trip to Philadelphia and see the parade.
“I like all the cool guns and the flags, and their uniforms are cool,” he said, dressed in a rain slicker and camouflaged hat. “I dressed up for last Halloween as something like that, so I can definitely say that they’re not comfortable.”
Homecoming 250 week comes to an end Wednesday evening with a fireworks display over the Delaware River.
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