NYC Fleet Week - an annual event where active duty Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen descend upon the city to rub elbows with the public and blow off some steam.

But to a lot of civilians, the image of ‘Fleet Week’ has been shaped by TV shows like “Sex in the City” - a kind of holiday where men in uniform are rewarded with free drinks and women throwing themselves at them.

But how true is that narrative when talking about female service members? What do they want out of Fleet Week? Last year, Vice’s Erica Matson was invited aboard the USS Arlington to spend 24 with a group of female Marines as they experienced Fleet Week for the first time.

CORRECTION: at 3:11, we state that "the military civilian divide is at an all time low", which is incorrect -- according to the United States DOD, the military-civilian divide is at an all time high. We regret the error.

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