We are headed today to tour the USS Yorktown, “The Fighting Lady”. This vessel was the 10th of a class of 24 “Essex” class carriers which made up the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s combat strength during WWII. The Essex was the first of this class.
The USS Yorktown served in WWII and Vietnam and in 1968 recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts, the first men to orbit the moon. That is the extent of my knowledge of aircraft carriers. Even with my limited knowledge I did find the tour very interesting.
On our way we passed over the Cooper River Bridge, another beautiful bridge. This one is 2.5 miles long.
There is a walking bridge out to the carrier. There are golf carts running people out if you don’t feel like walking.
The Yorktown was commissioned on April 15, 1943.
We went up and down a LOT of these steep stairs today. I told Greg I wanted to go down like you see the sailors do on tv using just their hands, sliding down. He encouraged me to go ahead but I was afraid he would hurt himself laughing at me so I refrained.
One thing I did learn today was that sailors who reside on these carriers have to be short and thin. We followed a tall guy around for a while and I was just sure he was going to whack his head on something. Even at 5’2” I managed to brush my head against something going down one set of stairs.
The “ready room” where pilots are briefed. I’ve seen enough old war shows to recognize this.
A few of the many planes on the landing deck. This is a self-guided tour. They give you a pamphlet that tells you what you are looking at on each deck but you can take as much time as you would like.
Looking back down the deck from where the planes leave the carrier for takeoff.
The USS Laffey, a destroyer, is also on site and part of the tour. We didn’t go through it, we were pretty tired after the Yorktown tour.
The USS Clagmagore is also on site and part of the tour. You couldn’t get me on this thing unless you knocked me out! Submarines are not for people with claustrophobia.
The Admiral’s sea cabin is pretty luxurious compared to the other accommodations we saw later. This has a bunk, desk, toilet, shower and wash room.
The sailors could visually manage aircraft on the flight deck from here.
More planes are a level below in the hangar deck, where planes were stored.
An aircraft carrier such as this one is a “floating town”. They have to have all needs covered for the 3500 or so people on board for extended periods of time.
The cleaning and pressing room.
There were several of these rooms for dentists.
Butchering room
The galley which provided breakfast, lunch, dinner and midrats (midnight rations) to those 3500 people every day.
This recipe was posted on the wall. Thought I better get a copy, never can tell when you will need a recipe for 10,000 chocolate chip cookies.
This is one of two crew mess areas.
The bunks and lockers used by the majority of the crew.
We stopped for lunch at the Fighting Lady Café, which was on board the carrier. I would recommend you eat someplace else either before or after the tour.
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