Fleet Week ending, but memories remain with crews

Though Fleet Week 2024 is ending -- causing bridge lifts throughout Monday as the ships leave -- the memories will remain, even for the crews.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Though Fleet Week 2024 is ending -- causing bridge lifts throughout Monday as the ships leave -- the memories will remain, even for the crews.

Petty Officer Andrew Kappler had never been to Portland before. Assigned to the Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick, they left their base in Ketchican, Alaska and patrolled the Oregon and Washington state waters.

The cutter also conducts federal fishery examinations for commercial fishing vessels, along with being "a standby search-and-rescue outfit for District 13 out of Puget Sound or Columbia River," he told KOIN 6 News.

Visitors during Fleet Week, he said, "ask a lot of questions on the missions we undertake and where we're based and what we're doing here. The people who have come on board have been very welcoming and supportive of us."

But for Kappler, at least, the most rewarding part of this kind of assignment is getting "to meet and interact with people, especially veterans of the Coast Guard and other branches who have been able to visit our ship and see the technological advancements that the Coast Guard has created upon its fleet. And how we're getting so much better at our jobs and we're keeping people safe on the water and we're having a good time while we're doing it."

TriMet will use shuttle bus services as the Steel, Broadway and Burnside Bridges are detoured to the Morrison Bridge. MAX service will be disrupted across the river as the ships will depart Portland between 7 a.m. and 12 noon.