Yorktown Stories
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 even happier to learn his leave would start the same day as mine and we would be going home together. My mother had recently been transferred to Washington D.C. which meant I would have to go there as well as New Orleans where I had enlisted. The way things worked out I would have to go to New Orleans first. Lutchie and I boarded the train to New Orleans together. The train ride would be an ordeal. The car we were in was an old one which meant we would ...
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 a connection. As Melvin relates, the Yorktown left Long Beach for WestPac 68 on the morning of December 28, 1967. I don’t know how many sailors missed the ship’s movement or how they caught up to us, but we had a few chipping paint and laying carpet in the Career Counselor’s Office as “extra military instruction” for returning late from Christmas leave. But back to the connection with Melvin’s story about the sub chase. By Christmas I had been aboard nearly four months. I had become acquainted with a fellow ...
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 long distance phone call to my new lady friend (who became my wife in 1970) in Long Beach while in Amsterdam and my funds had become depleted. Soon after boarding ship in late afternoon I heard the message over the PA system to “Set the Special Sea Detail”. I realized this meant we were about to leave port and 2/3 of the crew was ashore on liberty. I was the Chief Aerographer’s Mate in the OA Division (The Weather Office on the 07 level) and realized I had better get ...
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 fleet. Don went aboard with his detachment, which consisted of three helos and some thirty officers and enlisted personnel, in June 1964. Aboard Yorktown, the HU-1 helos flew search and rescue, plane guard, and utility missions. Page 274 of the 64-65 Yorktown cruise book contains a full page shot of HU-1 helo number 40 on a utility run with a torpedo being transported on a sling. On Essex class carriers space was always at a premium and creature comforts very sparse. The HU-1 detachment enlisted men, except for the unit ...
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 recovery. The event kicked off on Thursday with a symposium of “Yorktown Stories” told by Yorktown Association board member Chris Cooke, Ed Sarkisian, and Barbara Flanagan. The event was emceed by former Association Board Chairman Ron Meacham. The first Yorktown Dinner on Thursday hosted more than 300 crew members and their loved ones. They joined together to enjoy a time of fellowship and hear journalist Mark Bloom’s account of the Apollo 8 story. Bloom was a lifelong journalist, writing for Reuters and the New York Daily during Apollo missions 8, ...
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 Bill Mauldin who showed the everyman GIs Willie and Joe sulking at an embarkation port: “I don’t remember no delays getting us over here.” The first “Magic Carpet” ships left Europe in June 1945, barely a month after VE Day. With the Navy fully committed to the Pacific, most of the shipping came from the Merchant Marine or the U.S. Army, carrying some 430,000 men to the East Coast per month. Fleet aircraft carriers were popular Magic Carpet rides, as they could accommodate 3,000 or more returnees. The brand new ...
