Maneuvers With Murphy's Law - To Patriot's Point

One of the cunning reasons that Murphy's Law had come along, in addition to the fact that he's a great guy and friend, was that he and I could go forth and do some guy things while the ladies went off to do their things.

To put it another way, the family was not about to have me traipse them all over, up, down, and around the Aircraft Carrier, Destroyer and other features of Patriot's Point.  They sadly just lack appreciation and the attention span for studying our nation's military history in sufficient detail.

Now with Murph, traipsing everywhere at Patriot's Point where we were allowed to go, and, ahem, some places we weren't, was just what was in store.

In short, this was a win-win scenario.

First, I must declare that if you are traveling in the Charleston area of South Carolina, Patriot's Point is not to be missed. 

As you approach the dock, you see the DD-724, USS Laffey

Behind the USS Laffey, and much more on this historic ship later, sits the mighty USS Yorktown, CV-10. Named for the carrier Yorktown sunk at the Battle of Midway, this Yorktown was to blaze its own path in the history books in World War 2 and beyond.

We decided to explore the Yorktown first.  We also signed up for the special guided tour, which was well worth it.

You begin to get an appreciation for the sheer size of the Yorktown as you walk up to it, and it's about a third of the size of today's supercarriers.

Up those stairs you enter the Yorktown and see the ships' bell and the Presidential Unit Citation Awarded to the ship:

Quite a proud service record, and the Yorktown was surely in the thick of the fighting in the Pacific.

Then we walked into the ship and began to explore the hangar deck.