Patriot's Point

If the C-17 Globemasters lined up at the Charleston airport aren't a giveaway, it won't take you long to realize this town has strong ties to the military. As you look across the Cooper River from the Battery, the second thing you'll notice is the aircraft carrier parked on the north side of the river (the first thing you notice is the Cooper River Bridge - 520' is a mountain in the Low Country!). The Yorktown CV-10 operated in the Pacific theater during the second half of WWII, and is one of 3 ships that make up the Patriot's Point museum.

We started out on the destroyer USS Laffey, which was involved in Okinawa and known as the "ship that would not die." She took 3 direct hits and 5 kamikaze attacks, but still limped back to the West Coast, was repaired in Seattle, and acted as support for the Bikini a-bomb tests.

The Yorktown was named after the ship which was sunk at midway. She had most of her decks open, including engineering (4 steam generators, 8 turbines!), the galley and mess, flight deck, and hangar deck. It felt downright spacious after the destroyer! My favorite parts were the machine shop and a Steerman they had hanging on the flight deck - I took a picture for Grandpa.

Our final stop was the diesel-electric USS Clamagore, a submarine. It was used in U-571, if you want to get a feel for the clausterphobic  life of a sailor in a swimming steel cigar.