Fleet Week Festivities Continue At Manhattan's Intrepid Museum

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City Fleet Week means New Yorkers have the chance to get up close and hands on with some very cool military gear.

Even though the stars of Broadway commandeered the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Saturday, the true showstopper was floating right next door.

"This is the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), which is an amphibious assault ship," U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Mike Billips told 1010 WINS' Andrew Falzon.

Billips says all 844 feet of the ship -- from stem to stern -- is open to the public.

"It's a combination of air capability and landing craft capability, so it both has a flight deck that looks like an aircraft carrier but inside there's a pluggable well deck," he said.

The public can even climb aboard and tour the hovercraft that's sitting inside the ship's flood deck, where a grateful Petty Officer Evan Kerrick is happy to answer questions.

"New York has just been great," he said. "It's been kind of great to get out and see this part of the country."