Located in the beautiful Charleston Harbor, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is one of America’s most popular naval and aviation museums for hands-on learning. Patriots Point Development Authority was established in the 1970s to develop a naval and maritime museum on Charleston Harbor featuring the World War II aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown (CV-10) as its centerpiece. Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is home to a fleet of National Historic Landmark ships, the Cold War Memorial, the Congressional Medal of Honor Museum, and the only Vietnam Experience Exhibit in the U.S.
Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum strives to preserve the living history of our American servicemen, and after visiting Patriot Point it certainly instills within you a feeling of patriotism and gratefulness to our service members.
Since opening, Patriots Point has become one of South Carolina’s most popular tourist attractions with close to 300,000 visitors each year. The USS Yorktown boasts one of the largest education and overnight camping programs in the nation, with more than 40,000 school-age children attending these programs each year.
The USS Yorktown (CV 10) was the tenth aircraft carrier to serve in the United States Navy. It began construction as the Bon Homme Richard, a new Essex-class carrier, and was later renamed in honor of an earlier USS Yorktown (CV 5) which sank during the epic Battle of Midway (June 1942). Built in an amazing 16 ½ months at the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, USS Yorktown was commissioned on April 15th, 1943, and became known as World War II’s famous “Fighting Lady”. Yorktown would participate significantly in the Pacific offensive, which began in late 1943 and ended with the defeat of Japan in 1945. For her impressive service record during World War II, the “Fighting Lady” received the Presidential Unit Citation and earned 11 battle stars.
In the 1950s, Yorktown was modernized to operate jet aircraft as an attack carrier (CVA). And in 1957, she was again re-designated as an anti-submarine aircraft carrier (CVS), and would later earn 5 battle stars for service during Vietnam (1965-68). This particular ship also recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule (December 1968). Yorktown was finally decommissioned in 1970 and placed in the reserve fleet.
In 1975, this historic ship was towed from Bayonne, New Jersey to Charleston harbor to become the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.
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