Commissioned on April 15, 1943, the USS Yorktown was the tenth aircraft carrier to serve in the United States Navy. Originally, it was named the Bon Homme Richard until being renamed in honor of the CV-5 that sunk at the Battle of Midway. The USS Yorktown earned eleven battle stars for service in World War II and received the Presidential Unit Citation. The aircraft carrier was modernized to operate jet aircraft as an attack carrier in the 1950s. Soon it was re-designed as an anti-submarine aircraft carrier and awarded five battle stars for its service in Vietnam. It was famously used to recover the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule. After being decommissioned in 1970, it was towed to Charleston to become the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.
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