Navy to Patriots Point: Drydock or dispose of the Yorktown

The First Lady of the USS Yorktown Association has passed away. On behalf of the crew of the Yorktown, we will miss her very much and send our condolences to the Sharkey family. Thanks so much to Irene and Joe for the hard work, love and dedication you gave to our ship and our organization.

Irene Sharkey NEW ROCHELLE, NY - Irene Sharkey, a longtime resident of New Rochelle, died on October 18, 2009. She was 81. Mrs. Sharkey was born on July 31, 1928 in NYC to the late Robert and Margaret (Roper) Fischer. Irene and her husband Joe moved to Mt. Pleasant, SC in 1983 where they worked for many years as executive ship Board Directors for the USS Yorktown Association until she retired in 2008.

The 2009 Reunion kicked off on October 8. I thought you might want to see some of the behind the scenes activity. As the crew, wives and other guests are settling in at the hotels getting registration taken care of, etc. the Association Board of Directors held their bi-annual meetings aboard ship.

This year the BOD meeting included a series of presentations by Dick Trammel to the BOD on recent activities at Patriots Point. Dick shared with the BOD a broad perspective of many PP issues currently under consideration and being worked on. We will provide more details of Dick's comments later, but to highlight a few now Dick spoke about the latest status of the PP fleet with the Laffey now in dry dock for repairs; the Coast Guard vessel Ingham now in the process of being transferred to the Coast Guard museum in Florida; PP studies underway to determine what is the appropriate action to take to preserve the sub Clagamore and, what is in the future for the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point.

The USS Laffey remains “the ship that wouldn't die”. Patriots Point came to the rescue of the Laffey this past summer by obtaining a $9.2 million loan to have the ship towed to dry dock for life saving repairs. Without this effort by Patriots Point, the Laffey would have been lost forever.

Below are a couple of photos taken this past September 9 of the Laffey in dry dock. It will be very exciting to see the Laffey return to Patriots Point in mid-2010 all shipshape and ready for years of more service as a ship museum.

Interim executive director at Patriots Point now is permanent

The man who led Patriots Point through months of turmoil surrounding a sinking warship and empty coffers became permanent executive director at the naval and maritime museum this week.

Dick Trammell, a longtime tourism professional, moved from marketing director to interim executive director in April when Gen. Hugh Tant resigned.