2006 RV - Doug & Crystal

Today we visited the Home of the WWII Aircraft Carrier (Yorktown) at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Uhhhhh, this was not my favorite, this is boy stuff. I did have fun though and learned quite a bit. Also I visited the Destroyer Laffey – The Submarine Clamagore – and Coast guard Cutter Ingham.This event took place at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. Altogether, there were four ships-25 Aircraft Medal of Honor Museum Displays-Memorials and Exhibits.

Coast Guard Cutter Ingham: Ingham served with distinction during World War II on convoy duty. Protecting ships ferrying vital supplies to Great Britain, Ingham battled stormy weather, German U-Boats, and enemy aircraft. During one crossing Ingham engaged and sank the enemy submarine U-626. After 1944, Ingham served as an amphibious flagship. Ingham patrolled the waters surrounding Korea during the Korean War and earned a Presidential Unit Citation for her service during the Vietnam War. After the war the cutter returned to regular Coast Guard duties, serving until 1988, when she was decommissioned.

Destroyer Laffey: One tough destroyer. The first Laffey sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, the second Laffey was built by Bath Iron Works in Maine as a destroyer and commissioned February 8, 1944. After bombarding German beach defenses at Normandy on D-Day she cruised to the Pacific to participate in the liberation of the Philippines, the first carrier strikes on Tokyo, and the Iwa Jima and Okinawa landing operations. While escorting carriers off Okinawa in April 1945, the Laffey was assailed by 22 Japanese bombers and suicide kamikazes. Five kamikazes and three bombs hit her killing 32 and wounding 71 of her 336 men. They shot down eleven attackers and kept the Laffey afloat. She was decommissioned in 1975 after bombarding the North Korean coast in 1953 and later operating in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.