Moored at Charleston Harbor, United States Ship Yorktown Is a Steel Sentinel Saluting America’s Veterans

Americans are marking Veterans’ Day with a focus on big battles and conflicts in living memory. But at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, United States Ship Yorktown is the centerpiece of exhibits including the Vietnam Experience, drawing a line straight from the present back to the nation’s founding this 250th anniversary year.In 1976, America’s bicentennial year, Yorktown opened as a naval and maritime museum at Hog Island, rebranded as Patriot Point for its new role. This Essex Class carrier replaced the previous Yorktown, named for the site of the 1781 victory that secured American independence. A year after its loss at the Battle of Midway in 1942, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt christened the replacement.The Medal of Honor Museum aboard the Yorktown helps expand the timeline of servicemembers honored beyond World War II, paying tribute to the over 3,500 who have been draped with the nation’s highest honor for valor. A chief warrant officer, Eric Slover, was the most recent recipient for actions during January’s strike into Venezuela.Within sight of Yorktown sits Fort Sumter, whose shelling by secessionists in 1861 sparked the Civil War. On recent visit to historic sites in the area including Fort Moultrie, this columnist saw commemorations of the strong point’s role in the Spanish-American and World Wars when the harbor made a tempting target.United States Ship Yorktown, now a museum, moored at Charleston harbor. James Willamor via Wikimedia Commons CC2.0Also marked around Charleston are British attempts to seize the city during the Revolutionary War. In 1776 at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, Colonel William Moultrie and General Charles Lee defended their unfinished fort against a sustained naval and land assault, holding out against all odds for the patriot cause.Yorktown was decommissioned after World War II, returned to duty during the Korean War and earned five battle stars during actions in Vietnam. The ship’s crew also recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968 after they became the first men to reach and orbit the moon. Almost 3,500 officers and enlisted men could be deployed aboard the carrier.One of those men, Vice-Admiral James H. Flatley, Jr., has his “outstanding leadership, courage, integrity, and friendship” celebrated with a plaque on the Yorktown. His son, Rear Admiral James H. Flatley III — and his elder sons, Commanders James “Seamus” Flatley and Joseph Flatley — were also Navy pilots. An F-6F Hellcat, F-4 Phantom, and F-14 Tomcat on the flight deck all bear the family name.“My grandfather,” Commander Joseph Flatley tells The New York Sun, had the “first landing on Yorktown after it was commissioned, and then successfully led its air wing into battle. … Being a Naval Aviator myself, I see all that with a perspective of having flown off carriers, aware of all the challenges those aviators endured.”Thousands of scouting groups spend the weekend aboard Yorktown each year, gaining a taste of what it was like to eat, sleep, and work aboard the 872-foot-long ship. Whether visitors have family members who served on board, are veterans or civilians, Commander Joseph Flatley said, it’s an “inspiring” trip.Commander James Flatley, a member of the USS Yorktown Foundation Board of Directors, tells the Sun that the carrier, destroyer USS Laffey alongside her, and other exhibits “serve to inform generations of the price paid for the freedoms we enjoy today.” Their “mission is to inspire … by promoting America’s proud long-standing traditions of service, leadership, duty, and sacrifice.”A recent visitor, Commander James Flatley said, brought his father to Patriots Point “for the specific reason of visiting the Vietnam Experience.” The veteran, who had “served on a similar boat as was on display,” found “closure” thinking of “the friends and shipmates he lost in that war.” The man’s son had “a moment to realize what it meant to his father” to live through the conflict.Charleston is a place to touch all of America’s conflicts and honor the veterans who fought on land, sea, and in the air. The Yorktown, Commander Joseph Flatley said, “will mean different things to different people depending on where they’ve come from. But I’d like to think, as they leave, that they walk away grateful for those who are willing to serve.”

Moored at Charleston Harbor, United States Ship Yorktown Is a Steel Sentinel Saluting America’s Veterans

Moored at Charleston Harbor, United States Ship Yorktown Is a Steel Sentinel Saluting America’s Veterans

More from the New York Sun

Falling Short in Effort To Impeach Hegseth Shows Trump Foes Danger of Putting Partisanship Over Governing

A Resplendent ‘Lantern,’ Undimmed by Time

Iran Unveils New Underground ‘Missile City’ as Hegseth Warns U.S. Is ‘Locked and Loaded’ Amid Diplomatic Efforts To End War

Fetterman’s Primary Opponent Is a Radical Anti-Zionist Who Believes Jews Must ‘Relinquish Their Privilege in a Partitioned Israel

Bernie Sanders Becomes First Sitting Senator To Call for Schumer’s Removal as Democratic Leader

Mamdani Talks ‘Pied-à-Terre Tax 2,’ Saying ‘Wealthiest City’ in the World Can Afford ‘To Deliver Dignity’

Trump Rates Denuclearization as Top Topic at Next Week’s Trilateral Summit With Xi, Putin

The New York Trio Soon To Be Heading the Federal Government

More from the New York Sun

Falling Short in Effort To Impeach Hegseth Shows Trump Foes Danger of Putting Partisanship Over Governing

A Resplendent ‘Lantern,’ Undimmed by Time

Iran Unveils New Underground ‘Missile City’ as Hegseth Warns U.S. Is ‘Locked and Loaded’ Amid Diplomatic Efforts To End War

Fetterman’s Primary Opponent Is a Radical Anti-Zionist Who Believes Jews Must ‘Relinquish Their Privilege in a Partitioned Israel

Bernie Sanders Becomes First Sitting Senator To Call for Schumer’s Removal as Democratic Leader

Mamdani Talks ‘Pied-à-Terre Tax 2,’ Saying ‘Wealthiest City’ in the World Can Afford ‘To Deliver Dignity’

Trump Rates Denuclearization as Top Topic at Next Week’s Trilateral Summit With Xi, Putin

The New York Trio Soon To Be Heading the Federal Government