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 …
At the October 2015 Reunion of the Association, I enjoyed a long visit with Donald R. Heck and this is his story. Donald served aboard Yorktown as an AMS3 with a detachment from HU-1 as the ship worked up and deployed for the 1964-1965 WestPac. HU-1 was a utility helicopter squadron that provided small detachments to carriers of the Pacific …
After several months of preparation and planning, the 2019 USS Yorktown Crew Reunion is over after just a few days. The Yorktown Association hosted over 300 guests for a three-day event with about 120 of those guests being Yorktown veterans. The 71st Yorktown Reunion centered around the theme of the Apollo 8 splashdown that the Fighting Lady assisted with during …
Every old sailor is familiar with the “Magic Carpet” business at the end of World War II when personnel were ferried back to the States from both Europe and the Pacific. As early as 1943, the Pentagon began contingency planning for returning millions of personnel from overseas whenever victory was won. It was an enormous task, sardonically cited by cartoonist …