Patriots Point - Vietnam Support Base

This is a river patrol boat. They were very important for protecting the base and for finding enemies.

This is where they hid their ammunition and explosives.

There were a few of these buildings. One was for eating in. One was for radios. One was for sleeping. This one is for medical personnel. It reminds me of M.A.S.H.

Patriots Point - USS Clamagore SS-343

The USS Clamagore SS is a submarine. What surprised me most about it was imagining what it must have been like for so many people to be working in there for days straight. It is very tight, very hot (120 degrees with the hatch open and only one engine running), and loud (that was with only one engine running). With all three engines running it must have been even more hot, and three times as loud. I assume it smelled bad in there after a few days. 

This bird loved the cable at the front of the sub. As you can see above the bottom of the sub is starting to corrode away from the salt water.

This is an escape trunk.

This is the forward torpedo room. 16 members of the crew slept and lived in this small space. As you can see they slept wherever their bunk would fit around the missiles. The missiles are maintained and repaired here.

Everything is small and shoved anywhere it would fit. I must also note that it isn't a very pleasant looking place inside a submarine.

Patriots Point - USS Yorktown CV-10

I hope I remember all of the information we learned correctly about this ship. It is an aircraft carrier that served in World War II. If you were to take your time and read all of the self-tour signs it would take most of the day to go through. It is enormous! Coming over the bridge to Patriots Point the ship is the center of the scenery. 

The Flight Deck was huge! Walking on it felt like we are walking in a large parking lot overlooking the water.  There were many planes and a helicopter on the deck to look at. 

We learned about how the planes would take off and land. Taking off they used a catapult that was located in long slits in the front of the ship. When landing they flew in at the back of the ship. I imagined that there could be planes on either side parked on the deck and that the pilot landing had to be very precise landing on that narrow area on the deck while the ship could also be moving a bit. The pictures just above show the cables that were across the ship. There were five or six of them (can't remember) and the pilot aimed for the third one. A perfect landing would be when he/she hooked the third cable to stop the plane. 

Under the flight deck they had many planes stored. There is an elevator and they could move the planes below deck. All of the planes we saw had folding wings so that they could store more planes on the carrier. Some of the planes you could go up to or climb into. Austyn and Zoe got to sit inside and check out the controls.

Of course since it's located in South Carolina they had to mention 

that flight was discovered in their State. Here is the Wright Brothers Plane (I think it's a replica).

This aircraft carrier and others like it were used in the recovery of astronauts and their capsules when they landed in the ocean. This ship picked up the astronauts from Apollo 8 (The first trip around the moon).

Exploring the inside of the ship was fun for the kids. It was a very hands on experience. Most of the areas were open for exploration. It was like a big maze with lots of hallways, stairs and sometimes ladders. There were buttons, and controls to touch and press.

There were many displays on board. There was a room dedicated to women who served in the wars. There were many items used on the ship displayed. Some we could touch and some we couldn't. 

There were many rooms and areas throughout the ship that we got to look at many of the rooms were behind Plexiglas and were dark so the pictures didn't turn out. We saw the mess hall (we could eat lunch there), medical area, sleeping quarters, the quarters of some higher members of the crew (captain), machine shops, clothing repair, mail room, meeting rooms, jails. The list goes on. They basically had everything on this ship and people to run each area. The more sick or the higher ranked you were the more private and better your sleeping quarters were. They took shifts for sleeping for most of the crew. They claimed that when a man would go and lay on his bunk it would still be warm from the man before him. The picture just above was the sign in one of the vending booths. Check out the prices back then!

There were two crew's mess where they were served four meals a day. They got breakfast, lunch, supper, and midrats (midnight rations).

Patriots Point, Charleston, North Carolina

I'm, personally, not all that into military things but my husband and Austyn are interested in it so we drove to South Carolina to get a hands-on experience of what it would be like to live and work as a U.S. Marine. It was very interesting. I recommend it for anyone learning about U.S. history or with kids interested in Military vehicles. It is about a full day to get through everything, especially if you are interested in reading the tour signs. We could touch just about everything. I was amazed at how hands-on it was!There are controls to turn and buttons to push. It was an interesting experience.

I was just going through the pictures trying to decide which ones to share with you guys. I decided that I'd break this up into separate posts so that it's not confusing. There is a large airplane carrier, a submarine, and a Vietnam support base, so I'll do this intro and a post for each section of the museum. From their website and flyer there was suppose to be another ship but we didn't see it there. The air craft carrier that we looked at is called USS Yorktown and takes the longest to tour. It is HUGE! There were over 3500 people serving on it at one time. It has been in World War II and has collected astronauts and the capsules from Apollo space trips including the first trip around the moon. This ship had everything in it! There is a medical section, surgery room, dentist, cafeteria (mess hall), bunkers, area to work on missiles, elevator machine shop area, mail room, printing presses, meeting rooms, a jail, storage rooms, a bakery, a kitchen, a lab, shoe repair, sewing area, and the list goes on.


The submarine, which is called The USS Clamagore was an eye opener. There were about 200 people who served on it. It was very crowded, very hot, and extremely noisy. They only had one engine running when we were in it and we were to imagine it with all three engines in that section running. The sub was so crowded that people were to sleep anywhere they'd fit. They even slept in-between the missiles. If men worked on this ship they'd have to be okay with touching other people all the time because of how crowded it was. Most of the pictures show that the men were very sweaty and had their shirts off because of the extreme conditions.

Here is the website for more information:
http://www.patriotspoint.org/