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Published: December 19th 2007
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Posted by: Onaxthiel: I know that there are only a handful of readers that will get this, but that makes today a day of divine intervention. It did turn out pretty well, so it's possible. Today we went out to Patriots Point, home of several WWII warships, most notably the USS Yorktown, “the Fighting Lady” made famous in a 1944 propaganda film of the same name. The various decks of Yorktown house dozens of exhibits beside the ones specifically dedicated to the ship herself, so I would recommend arriving as soon as the gates open at 9:00 in the morning. We were there for eight and a half hours, and we gave only fairly cursory examinations to the other ships on display. Where to even begin with Yorktown?
The flight deck and island (the command tower for people not familiar with jargon.) are perhaps the single most interesting portions of the tours, with post war aircraft on display up to the (almost) present era of Navy jet fighters. The bridge is worth a look, if for no other reason than sitting in the captain's chair and seeing how the world looks for the commander of one of history's most powerful
warships. Of course most of the time, they saw a lot less of Charleston's port than I did from that vantage point. On the hangar deck are the Warbirds, the prop driven constructs that the navy used to pummel the Japanese fleet in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks. The Medal of Honor museum also is on this deck, showing how ludicrously high the standard to win the nation's highest award has become since the Civil War, when it was awarded for virtually any valorous act.
No one who survives can win it anymore. This is particularly odd given the tendency for standards for all other decorations in the army to decrease as time goes on. “What? You sat in an air conditioned office in Iraq for 18 months AND attained E-7 pay grade while there? Well, here is your bronze star. If the AC had gone out a few more times, I could have gotten it for you with a V device.” Deeper below deck, near where the crew lived are the displays that honor the other ship classes that participated in the greatest conflict in earth's history. The battleships, from Arizona to Wisconsin; the cruisers, which
the curators think are all extinct now, being unaware of the existence of the Salem in Quincy, MA; and the score of support vessel classes designated only by numerals due to their sheer number. I think the most amusing part of the tour was trying to guess the significance of all the different signs, buttons, dials, and knobs. The only one I am settled on is that all the large container-like things with red Zs on them are zombie closets. That way, in the event of a zombie outbreak on the ship, crew members can hide in the zombie closets until the Marine detachment finishes killing off all the reanimated monstrosities. These zombie closets seemed to be located throughout the passage ways all over the ship, giving the crew adequate options of retreat.
After Yorktown we moved on to a Coast Guard Cutter anchored beside it. This vessel served in a destroyer escort role during the massive sea lift of men, weapons, provisions and equipment that served to bolster Britain and prepare for the Normandy invasion in the first two years of American involvement in the war. After the war, she went on to provide fire support in Vietnam,
and finally finished her career doing drug interdictions in the Gulf of Mexico. Not really what I would think of for the Coast Guard, but more power to them for helping out. What the display of this ship really showed to me was how much better the standard of living for a Coasty was than for the Navy enlisted personnel. A bit more personal space in their lockers, fewer men assigned to each berth, and a far nicer mess.
The next walk through was on board a submarine. The old diesel boat was another Vet that went on to serve far longer than initially anticipated. Lengthened and fitted with German sub tech in the late 40's, she served well into the early 70's, the last diesel in the fleet. There isn't really much to say about the walk through on this vessel. It's one person wide, gives a feeling of how much room the crew doesn't have, and made me wonder what we weren't being shown, as it felt considerably smaller on the inside than it even looked on close inspection of the outside.
Lastly was the Destroyer Laffee. There to represent the Tin Can fleet of the
Big mixer bits. There's a recipe for 10,000 chocolate chip cookies on the bulkhead behind it.
Bulkhead is Navy talk for wall. You know . . . in case you think that it's an insult pointed at Marines. war years, the Laffee survived an attack by 50 kamikazee aircraft, 11 of which managed to connect with the ship. Somehow, the ship not only survived, but managed to make it back to San Fransisco for repairs, although the Japanese Navy reported it sunk.
We didn't much feel like going back to our campsite from the previous night, so we set out for one in Summerville, a bit to the north and west of Charleston. We had to drive a long time to get there, thanks to bad routes and bad traffic, and we arrived at about 6:30 PM, only to find that they had closed and locked the gates to their campground at 6:00 PM. Slightly infuriated, we set out to find a motel for the night, which we were eventually able to accomplish.
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