Vice President J.D. Vance joined the International Naval Review 250 on Independence Day at the Port of New York and New Jersey to commemorate America’s semiquincentennial.
Saturday’s event is the largest maritime and aerial gathering in U.S. history, according to Freedom 250, the organization hosting semiquincentennial celebrations.
New York Harbor has historically marked monumental national events, including the 1976 bicentennial and the Statue of Liberty centennial in 1986.
For the 250th celebration, the review includes more than 50 U.S. and foreign warships and over 30 Class A tall ships from more than 20 nations.
The Sail4th 250 International Parade of Tall Ships is led by the Coast Guard’s cutter Eagle and will include a performance from the Navy’s Blue Angels flight squadron.
The celebration features the largest gathering of U.S. and international naval vessels, military aircraft and tall ships ever assembled in American waters, according to Freedom 250.
The USS Kearsarge amphibious assault ship will headline the fleet, with government officials reviewing the parade from the harbor. The vice president arrived with his children at the Kearsarge on Saturday to participate in the event.
Aboard the ship, Mr. Vance pushed back against what he characterized as voices that focus only on America’s flaws, dispossession and power struggles.
He acknowledged imperfections while insisting they coexist with genuine achievement.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country. Reject that America is a place for zero-sum thinking. Because it is not,” Mr. Vance said. “Our history is one of people carving a great civilization out of the wilderness. Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness. Everything that we have done, everything that we have done as a country, we have done together. Not as citizens divided against each other, but as a common people working towards a common future.”
The vice president said “all of us” had a role to play in “creating 250 years of a proud American story.
“And all of us will need to do our part to create the next 250 years of American greatness. So I say to all my fellow Americans, I’m proud of you. Happy birthday. And happy birthday to our great nation.”
