Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, across the Cooper River from the charming city of Charleston, is the home of the USS Yorktown (CV-10), “The Fighting Lady,” an Essex-class, WWII-era aircraft carrier that is a sister-ship to the USS Franklin and now serves as a museum. She holds the largest display and collection of USS Franklin (CV-13) artifacts as part of the Patriot Point Naval & Maritime Museum.
During construction, she was renamed from BonHomme Richard to Yorktown after her predecessor, the Yorktown-class carrier CV-5, was sunk during the Battle of Midway. The USS Yorktown (CV-10) was commissioned April 15, 1943 and entered the war in August of that year. As a member of Task Force 58 off the coast of Japan, the Yorktown was hit by a bomb dropped by a Japanese “Judy” bomber on March 18, 1945 killing five men and wounding 18 the day before the attack on the Franklin.
Quoting the museum website:
“In the 1950s, The USS Yorktown was modernized to operate jet aircraft as an attack carrier (CVA). In 1957, she was re-designated an anti-submarine aircraft carrier (CVS), and would later earn 5 battle stars for service off Vietnam (1965-68). The ship also recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule (December 1968). The USS Yorktown was decommissioned in 1970 and placed in reserve. In 1975, this historic ship was towed from Bayonne, NJ to Charleston, SC to become the centerpiece of Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.”
The USS Franklin (CV-13) exhibit was in its own room on a lower deck of the USS Yorktown (CV-10) museum when dedicated in October of 1987. Since that time, the exhibit was moved up to the middle of the hangar deck, next to the USS Yorktown (CV-10) exhibit, where it receives a good amount of traffic by visitors to the museum. There is a small theater with a plasma screen where the Navy documentary Saga of the Franklin continuously plays on a loop, which helps to attract visitors to the exhibit and learn about the Franklin.
Artifacts in the Franklin exhibit include the ship’s bell, dated 1944, a set of Bofors 40 mm guns, famous photographs and headlines of the March 19, 1945 attack, artifacts associated with the two Franklin Medal of Honor recipients, Father Joseph O’Callahan, Chaplain, and Lt. (jg) Donald Gary, a replica of an original Plan of the Day from 19 March 1945, a photograph of a U.S. flag that flew on the Franklin, and a set of plaques memorializing the men who were killed while serving on the Franklin. These represent only a fraction of the roughly 400 artifacts associated with the USS Franklin that are in the collection of the USS Yorktown museum, which were largely donated by the USS Franklin (CV-13) Museum Association and its members.
A display within the USS Franklin exhibit is dedicated to Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, Father Joseph O’Callahan and Lt. (jg) Donald Gary. On display are the citations for their Medals, photos of President Truman presenting the Medals to each of the men, O’Callahan’s chaplain’s helmet, rosary and miracle medal that he wore during combat, and Gary’s 704 Club card.
A large model of the USS Franklin from the 19 March 1945 attack is on display as part of the exhibit, with a Franklin life ring mounted on the base of the case. It was made by a model maker but her name is not given on the display.
These bronze plaques in the Franklin exhibit, donated by the USS Franklin (CV-13) Museum Association, list the names of all of the men who died while in service on the USS Franklin. The plaques were dedicated on the USS Yorktown CV-10 museum in October of 1987 at the same time as the Franklin exhibit room.
At the end of the hangar deck, a separate exhibit memorializes all service members who were killed while serving on U.S. aircraft carriers, and there is another set of plaques listing those killed on the Franklin.
I went to the USS Yorktown museum in the fall of 2023 to see the USS Franklin exhibit, to learn about the Franklin-associated artifacts that were in the museum collection, and to talk to the staff about filming at the museum for the documentary. Everyone I met there was extremely helpful and happy to have the Franklin exhibit on the ship. The Yorktown is located in a lovely area – Charleston is a beautiful city – and the rest of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is very interesting. I recommend a visit there if you get the chance.
(All photos by Anderson Clark.)