They once protected their nation but now sit as relics of a bygone era.
They no longer grace the skies, nor defend the fleet, but these grey ghosts dutifully watch on forever.
These photos were taken aboard the famous US Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) at the Patriots Point Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina in December 2013. This is an excellent naval museum and well worth visiting.
The USS Yorktown was commissioned in 1943 and saw extensive service in the Pacific theatre of World War Two earning a Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars. In the 1950’s the carrier had an angled deck added to better suit jet aircraft operations and during the Vietnam War she earned a further 5 battle stars for operations from 1965 to 1968.
In December 1968 USS Yorktown was used to retrieve the Apollo 8 astronauts and their capsule when they returned to Earth from the first manned spacecraft mission to leave the Earths orbit and orbit the Moon. In 1970 USS Yorktown was decommissioned and in 1975 became the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Museum.
