USS Yorktown

by Sharon McConnell

Title

USS Yorktown

Artist

Sharon McConnell

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

The USS Yorktown, along with USS Laffey, anchored at Point Pleasant, South Carolina, near Charleston. In the background is the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. On a personal note, my father-in-law served on the USS Yorktown, and while touring this ship, I was very moved, knowing he had been there, faithfully serving his country.

USS Yorktown (CV/CVA/CVS-10) is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She is named after the Battle of Yorktown of the American Revolutionary War, and is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. Initially to have been named Bon Homme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was recommissioned too late to participate in the Korean War but served for many years in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War, in which she earned five battle stars. Late in her career, she served as a recovery ship for the Apollo 8 space mission, and was used in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and in the science fiction film The Philadelphia Experiment.

Yorktown was decommissioned in 1970 and in 1975 became a museum ship at Patriot's Point, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. She is a National Historic Landmark.

USS Laffey (DD-724), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Bartlett Laffey. Seaman Laffey was awarded the Medal of Honor for his stand against Confederate forces on 5 March 1864. The ship earned the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when she successfully withstood a determined assault by conventional bombers and the most unrelenting kamikaze air attacks in history.

Laffey received the Presidential Unit Citation and five battle stars for World War II service, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and two battle stars for Korean War service, the Meritorious Unit Commendation during the Cold War, and the Battle "E" during all three conflicts.

Laffey was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986, at which time she was recognized as the only remaining US-owned Sumner-class destroyer, and the only surviving destroyer to see service in the Atlantic during World War II, and for her spirited survival of the kamikaze attack; and is preserved as a museum ship in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, outside Charleston.

Photograph by Sharon McConnell, Stardust Imaging Photography

Special Honors:
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE - 09/27/2020
- (South Carolina group)

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Uploaded

February 15th, 2016

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