The USS Yorktown is the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. Located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, it is across Charleston Harbor from downtown Charleston. While the Museum has several components, time allowed us only a tour of the Yorktown which can easily take a full day.
The Yorktown is a World War II vintage aircraft carrier that also saw action during Korea and Vietnam. In 1968, it was the recovery shop for the Apollo 8 mission around the moon. It was decommissioned in 1970 and has been permanently berthed at Patriots Point since 1975 when the Museum opened.
The Yorktown offers several self-guided tours that can go from the flight deck on down. There are also several rooms dedicated to various naval ships. Of particular interest to this Examiner was the Enterprise Room. My father served on that ship during World War II. The Congressional Medal of Honor Museum is housed on the hangar deck. Long term plans indicate that this Museum will have its own land-based building sometime in the future.
Their flight deck offers several aircraft from various periods from the 1950s through the 1990s. One Sunday a month is "open Cockpit Sunday" when the aircraft are open for a closer inspection.
The Patriots point complex is about 2 1/4 hours from Columbia and is well worth the trip. In future installments, we will visit some of the other components such as the USS Laffey, a destroyer, the USS Clamagore, a submarine, a Vietnam Naval Supply base and a Cold War Submarine Memorial.
There is a gift shop and snack bar on the land side (the snack bar is open seasonally) and a snack bar is also available on the hangar deck of the Yorktown. Admission is $18 for adults, $15 for Seniors 62 and over and $11 for children under 12.Active Duty Military are admitted at no charge.
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