We’re often contacted about a veteran who served on the ship, but this one takes the cake. (Or should we say fruit cake? or figgy pudding?) We received an email recently from an aircraft carrier enthusiast with an eye for details that others miss. “What few people know,” Mickeen Hogan wrote, “is that Yorktown CV-10 has a cameo in one …
The Yorktown Fliers play USS Wasp NCAA’s March Madness has us thinking about basketball on the USS Yorktown (CVA-10). It was during the 1950s that the sport really took off in the Navy, and the crew and squadrons on the Yorktown included some great players. In 1954, while in Hong Kong, the ship’s basketball team defeated the number one and …
1948 – 2023 Dale O. Heggie, 74, of Bloomington, IL passed away on Friday, February 17, 2023, at his home with family by his side. Dale was born on December 9, 1948 in Bloomington the son of Stanley H. and Dona M. (Dahlhoff) Heggie. He married Cathy L. Wasson on January 28, 1967 at Second Presbyterian Church, Bloomington, IL. Surviving …
1939 – 2023 Walter Thomas Chesser was a Signalman 2nd Class in CS Division from 1961 to 1965. He lived in Sacramento, California.
1924 – 2024 Richard Franklin Hazelton of Sequim, Washington, shed his earthly tent (2nd Corinthians 5:1) and replaced it with his eternal mansion (John 14:2) on September 23, 2024, in beautiful Sequim, Washington.?? A Memorial Service will be held at a later date, where his ashes will be spread next to his beloved wife’s and his loved ones will surround …
1946 – 2023 Michael Thomas McKee, 77, of Ardmore and formerly of Newtown Square, PA, died Friday, October 20, accompanied by family after an unexpected hospitalization. Born June 14, 1946, in the Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, he was a son of the late William and Margaret (Malloy) McKee, and brother to the late Bill McKee of Williamstown, NJ. Michael …
Saturday, October 12th9am to 12pm The veterans of the USS Yorktown will reunite on their beloved aircraft carrier “The Fighting Lady” to share stories of their service from World War II through the Vietnam War. And this year, they will be joined by USS Bennington (CV-20) veterans celebrating their 80th anniversary. Visitors to Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum will …
North of Asakusa, where the Sumida River makes a hairpin turn before flowing south to Tokyo Bay was Tokyo POW Camp 10-B. This is where VT-5 pilot James Willoughby “Pop” Condit found out the war had ended. Pop, radioman Gordon H. Marshal, and gunner Kenneth O. Kalberg had been shot down and captured during the attack on Marcus Island in …
Dear Shipmates:We are well underway planning our 2024 Reunion. This one will be exciting and a little different than our past reunions. First, we are very pleased to announce the USS Bennington CV-20, CVA 20, CVS-20 Association Members will be joining us – so it will be a reunion of “The Lady & Big Benn”. Their Association visited the Yorktown …
Yes we just completed our 2023 Reunion and a mini recap is in this issue. And, yes we are talking about “2024”. As you’ve probably seen in your everyday life, things are moving faster – it seems; and planning events takes longer. So here’s a snapshot.October 9 – 12, 2024. Write the dates on the calendar. Tell all your shipmates, …
April 15th, 10 am – 3 pm As you know, the USS Yorktown (CV-10) was commissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia on April 15, 1943. That was eighty years ago, this year. So, the leadership and staff at the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mt. Pleasant, SC are preparing an 80th Birthday celebration of the USS …
A USS Yorktown Plankowner in Engineering Department has a humorous run-in with Captain “Jocko” Clark (Above) Harry at 17 and fresh from bootcamp (Below) A tight fit through the Panama Canal for the Yorktown It was during this time [1943 in Newport News, VA] that we had the opportunity to meet our captain of the Yorktown. His name was Captain …
Click the image above to view the contest 2022 Holiday Decorating Contest “Merry Christmas to all! We had a Holiday Decoration contest here at Patriots Point and supported by the USS Yorktown Foundation. There are some really creative peeps on staff. The Attached pdf show all that participated and a sample of their decorations. Take the time to go see …
Ahoy shipmates!Hope all is well and troubles are few. Just returned from Hawaii, where I wore my white hat again. This time aboard the “Arizona”. Quite moving. May we all enjoy good health. The trip was to celebrate my 75th.I remember so vividly the site of the Arizona when we steamed up the channel in ’68 and anchored across from …
These things are important to know when you give to the USS Yorktown (CV-10) Association: We are a 501(c)(19). As a veterans non-profit, all donations made to us are tax deductible. Simply keep your receipt for your taxes. We are the veterans who served on the USS Yorktown and their families – and we’re proud of it! Let’s just say …
November 11 – 13, 2022 Celebrate veterans this Veterans Day weekend aboard the USS Yorktown! Patriots Point will offer free admission to Veterans and active duty military from November 11 – 13. Admission to the museum includes access to the warships USS Yorktown and USS Laffey, and the three-acre Vietnam War Experience. In addition to offering free admission to veterans, …
US Navy personnel all over the world will mark the 247th birthday of the US Navy at 9:00 am (wherever they are). They will ring a bell nine times – 8 to signal the end of the watch and the 9th to represent the start of a new watch. The “watches” in this case are the past and present years …
Time stands still when a World War II veteran steps onto the decks of the Fighting Lady. We were blessed, today, to take Bryce Thornton of the Army’s 104th Infantry Division on a special tour of the ship. As it happens, Pat Waters (grandson of General Patton) was here for a meeting and able to speak to him as well. Mr. …
The US Coast Guard this month has requested that Patriots Point Development Authority register the USS Yorktown as a Permanently Moored Vessel. This certification will mean that the Coast Guard would not need to inspect the Yorktown, since it was removed from navigation years ago. Of course, it has been common knowledge that the Yorktown is permanently moored, but the …
On Monday, July 11th, SC Governor Henry McMaster announced his intention for “a complete remediation and removal of hazardous materials from the hull of the USS Yorktown, including hundreds of thousands of gallons of old petroleum, polluted ballast waters, and polychlorinated biphenyl compounds, or PCBs that were not removed from the ship’s 428 vessel tanks and compartments by the Navy.” …
Yorktown Day commemorates the victory of General George Washington’s Allied American and French troops over Lord Cornwallis’ troops at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. This victory essentially ended the American Revolution and paved the way for our freedom from Great Britain. Yorktown Day 2022 occurs on Wednesday, October 19 in historic Yorktown, Virginia. The agenda for the 18th and 19th …
Our Next Reunion: October 5 – 7, 2023 Grab the family! Call your shipmates! Plan to gather again in the fall of 2023. It’s only the best time to be in Charleston, afterall. The flowers are blooming, the humidity is low, and the temps are just right for exploring our favorite aircraft carrier. Be on the look out for more …
Attendees wearing their reunion name tag/badge will get 20% off merchandise in the Patriots Point Gift Shop (landside by the parking lot) during the reunion. There will be lots of fun items to bring home to friends and family!
On Veterans’ Day, crewmember Joe Zaccaro (OE Division, 1964-1966) visited with his daughter, Laura’s, second grade students at a New Jersey elementary school to speak about his service on the ‘Fighting Lady.’ The students had lots of questions for him. “Besides the size of the ship and how many people on board and were any of them women,” Zaccoro said, …
1958-59 Far East Cruise By Terry G. Fritz. Ed’s Note: This is the third part of a multi-part piece written by Terry G. Fritz covering his experiences on the 1958 – 1959 WESTPAC. We went back to Pearl Harbor to get rid of the O.R.I. team and have a little celebration. This was on a Friday. Monday we got underway for …
By Steven R. Butler When the Yorktown left Norfolk in September 1969, I was on leave from my previous duty station. It wasn’t until I arrived at Norfolk in mid-September that I learned the ship had already departed for a 3-month cruise. After spending a miserable three weeks in the transient barracks in Norfolk and a further (and much more …
By Lorena R. Farrar In August 1955, my soon-to-be husband, Ted W. Farrar, was unexpectedly transferred from the Air Traffic Control School at the U. S. Naval Air Station in Olathe, KS (my hometown) to the USS Yorktown CVA-10, which was in dry dock in Bremerton, WA. On arrival, he questioned why he was being sent to an aircraft carrier, …
The following is from “ALL HANDS” of January 1967 and is reprinted with permission from that magazine. Paddle Landings Took Skill For nearly six decades, Navy pilots have progressed through various stages of carrier landings ranging from the seat-of-the-pants methods to the fully automatic landings now becoming operational. (Remember this article was written in 1967.) Antisubmarine Squadron 22 claims for …
By Art Francis This piece is a composition based on information received from Dan Bernath, Steven Butler, Neil O’Connor, Dave Garrison, and the Department of the Navy, Naval Safety Center, Norfolk, VA. Wandering through the Hospitality Room and mingling with attendees at the various functions during an annual Reunion of the Yorktown Association is a terrific way to learn unique …
A story told by Ben Couillard: I remember that when I was 16, 17 and 18 years old, I was serving aboard the USS Yorktown CV10 as a member of the Flight Deck fire crew. We were returning to Pearl Harbor, HI after participating in the invasion of Tarawa and adjacent islands in the Marshalls and Gilberts in the latter …
Among the many exotic ports most American Sailors visit when doing a WESTPAC – Western Pacific – deployment is Hong Kong. Sailors usually also enjoy memorable port visits to Singapore, Japan and the Philippines and sometimes on the way home, Australia. But the one thing most remembered about the WESTPAC port visits was a lady in Hong Kong named Mary …
This Story goes back over 50 years to the fall of 1961. I was on my third and final Far East cruise aboard the USS Yorktown. I was assigned to V-6 Division upon arrival at the Yorktown from boot camp in Chicago. You might say I had good timing. V-6 Division took care of all the rolling stock assigned to …
Written by William (Willie) Lagarde. When Yorktown pulled into Bremerton, Washington in Sep 1944 I was looking forward to my first leave in twenty months. I was happy to see USS Dale as one of the three destroyers that escorted us in from the fleet because one of my back home buddies, Lutchie Wieland ,was a crew member. I was …
Based on the experiences of Melvin Bien and Art Francis I received a note from Melvin Bien shortly before Christmas 2015. In the note Melvin related the story of a submarine that Yorktown chased on the way to Pearl Harbor in January of 1968, and when one sailor tells a story it reminds every sailor within earshot of something with …
Written by Clement D. St. Louis, AGC, USN (Ret.) OA Division CPO on 10/03/1969. As I recall vividly, I had been on liberty overnight in Amsterdam and ran out of funds to continue on liberty so I took the train back to Rotterdam and Yorktown to get some more money to continue on liberty that evening. I had made a …