Yorktown IV: Revenge of the Essex Class (Day 97)
I guess it’s never a bad thing to go hang out on an aircraft carrier-museum for a few hours. Well — probably the second consecutive day of it might get old. Never done it that way, though, so I wouldn’t know.
I’m starting to realize that Charleston’s attractions are merely okay. OTOH, it’s been a great, comfortable, *polite* place to hole up for a few days.
That said, here are a few pictures of the same thing each time. (The aircraft carrier is the Yorktown, it was built in 1943 and therefore involved in WWII. Decommissioned in 1970. It smelled like an aircraft carrier.)
Oh, and I forgot to re-charge my DSLR battery, so these were taken with my cell phone, so they’re kind of crappy-looking.
Carrier, flag, Ravenel Bridge (connects Charleston with Mt. Pleasant)
Tailhook, but no scandal.
Hornet is go.
Bridge and Phantom viewed from flight control.
Y’know, I’m not sure I learned anything from this ship. The guy there didn’t know if there were any actual F4F Wildcats left anywhere (theirs was another FM-2). Um. They have a Medal of Honor museum on-board, but it was pretty dull. You do (re-)learn that aircraft carriers are big, complex systems there. Got to see the on-board dentist area. There’s also a submarine that you can walk through (torpedo room, engine room, officers’ rooms, bridge, galley, mess, torpedo room — IIRC).
Beautiful day, though.
bkd
(PS, I *did* learn that Charleston lost their navy base in, like, ’98 or so. Still got the AFB, though.)
Too bad you didn’t pass through about a week earlier. We had an “air show” at one of the near-by bases that would have been a nice alternative to the aircraft carrier. As I understand it, this years air show was the first in about 8-10 years since the local unit had been constantly deployed, and is leaving again soon. I missed it myself. But it is a great memory from my childhood.
Would’ve been fun. I keep missing the Miramar Air Show also. I actually remembered it in time this year, just that I was in New Hampshire or somewhere…
Hard for the Hornet to go without engines.
Hook that thing up to the catapult and it’ll go *somewhere*…! 😉
@bkdunn
I don’t know anything about that air show, but “Miramar” sounds vaguely familiar from the movie Top Gun.
That’s the one — although it’s MCAS Miramar now rather than NAS.