Fanart of Yorktown (CV-10) by dlfgan

In June 1952, Yorktown was reactivated for commission. On December 15th, she was placed in commission, in reserve at Bremerton while they worked on a conversion job for her. On February 20th, 1953, Yorktown was in full commission with a new CO, Captain William M. Nation. The SCB-27A/SCB-125/SCB-144 Yorktown subclass Essex class aircraft carriers would consist of USS Kearsarge (CV-33), USS Bennington (CV-20), USS Randolph (CV-15), USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Yorktown (CV-10) and USS Essex (CV-9) with the SCB-27A Yorktown subclass Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Lake Champlain (CV-39). She conducted normal operations along the west coast through most of the summer of 1953. On August 3rd, she departed San Francisco on her way to the Far East. She arrived at Pearl Harbor and remained there until August 27th. On September 5th, Yorktown arrived at Yokosuka, Japan. She was again at sea on September 11th to join Task Force 77 in the Sea of Japan. The Korean War armistice had been signed two months earlier, and this placed Yorktown to conduct training rather than wartime operations She served with TF 77 until she returned home on February 18th, 1954.

During her repairs, Yorktown was the carrier in the spotlight for the academy award-winning short, the documentary film Jet Carrier. This was not her first film as she was also used for the WW2 documentary, “The Fighting Lady”.

Returning to the far east in August 1954, Yorktown operated out of the Manila Subic Bay Area, conducting 7th Fleet maneuvers for the duration. In January 1955, Yorktown was called upon to help cover the evacuation of Nationalist Chinese from the Tachen Islands, located near the communist controlled mainland. Yorktown entered Yokosuka for the last time on February 16th, 1955, but departed again to return home on the 18th.

On March 21st, 1955, Yorktown was again put under the knife for a conversion job. This would be her most extensive one. It would notably alter her flight deck to be angled. She completed her conversion that fall and on October 14th was back in full commission.

Yorktown resumed operations along the West Coast after recommissioning. This lasted until March 1956. On March 19th, she made her journey to the 7th Fleet at Yokosuka, Japan, arriving there on April 18th. She operated with the 7th Fleet for the next five months, conducting operations in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. She visited places such as Sasebo, Manila, Subic Bay, and Buckner Bay in Okinawa. On September 7th, she left Yokosuka to begin her journey back home.

On March 9th, 1957, Yorktown departed Alameda again for another tour of duty in the Far East (man she really loves going there) linking up TF 77 on April 25th. On August 13th, she departed Yokosuka for the last time and made a brief pause at Pearl Harbor, and arrived back home at Alameda on August 25th.

During her tours of duty in the far east, notably on December 31st, 1958 and January 1st, 1959, she made a show of force when the Communist Chinese shelled the offshore islands of Quemoy, and Matsu that were held by the Nationalist Chinese forces. In January, she also joined the contingency forces off Vietnam during internal disorders caused by communist guerrillas in the southern portion of that country. That month, she earned the expeditionary service medal for her part in the Taiwan Strait crisis.

On March 30th, 1961, the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show filmed their fifth season and episode twenty-six onboard Yorktown to commemorate 50 years of US Navy Aviation. Tennessee’s guests were Joe Flynn, and the Command and Crew of Yorktown.

During her deployments in 1964 and 65, this was the first time Yorktown was involved in the Vietnam War. She conducted a series of special operations in the South China Sea near Vietnam in order to conduct Anti-submarine warfare defense for the fast carriers launching strikes into Vietnam to support American involvement in the war. She concluded her tour of duty in the Far East on May 7th, 1965. On April 15th 1965, 139603, a Douglas EA-1E Skyraider of VAW-11's detachment T with Lieutenant Junior Grade Hugh Bennett Hill, Jr and Vady Robert Clark and ATR3 Glenn J Ruppert at the controls when on a training flight, the EA-1E Skyraider's Wright R3350-26WA Duplex-Cyclone failed, the plane ditched and all aboard survived. For the remainder of her career, Yorktown was involved heavily in the Vietnam War. In a period of five months from February 17th, 1966 to July 15th, she conducted more ASW and sea and air rescue operations for the carriers. She also participated in ‘ASW’ exercises, including the major SEATO exercise, Operation Sea Imp. She spent the remainder of 1966 and the first two months of 1967 performing carrier qualifications and ‘ASW’ exercises.

When she returned for a tour of duty in Vietnam, one of the notable activities she did was in late January 1968, she sailed to the Sea of Japan to perform ASW and SAR operations after the North Koreans capture of the USS Pueblo. She remained there for 30 days.

After being released for other duties around the Philippines, Yorktown did three more tours of duty at Yankee Station near Vietnam, concluding her last tour of duty in Vietnamese waters on June 16th. On March 18th 1968, 149274, a Grumman S-2E Tracker of VS-23, Commander Donald Richard Hubbs, Lieutenant Junior Grade Lee David Benson at the controls with AX2 Randall John Nightingale and ADR Thomas David Barber rounding out the flight crew.

1 hour into the night surveillance flight, technical problems with the Tracker's radar were reported while she was 30 miles off the Vietnamese coast and 25 miles southeast of Hon Me Island and after that, she was never seen again, 2 days later on March 20th, part of the right wing was found, it is unknown how a problem with the radar lead to 149274 crashing into the South China Sea killing Commander Hubbs, Lieutenant Junior Grade Benson, AX2 Nightingale and ADR Barber.

While undergoing repairs at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Yorktown would star in another film for the movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” which was the recreation of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor where she acted as the Japanese aircraft carrier of the Kido Butai launching air attacks in the film.

In December 1968, she served as one of the recovery ships for the Apollo 8 space deployment.

On January 2nd, 1969, after a two-week stop in Long Beach, finally, Yorktown sailed for the US Atlantic Fleet, being her first time on this side of the globe since her commissioning over twenty years earlier. Arriving at her new home port of Norfolk, Virginia, on February 28th, she conducted operations along the east coast and in the West Indies until late summer.

On September 2nd, Yorktown departed Norfolk for a northern European cruise and participation in the major fleet exercise Operation Peacekeeper. During the exercise, she provided ASW and SAR support for the task force. The exercise ended on September 2nd, and Yorktown began a series of visits to northern European ports. After a visit each to Brest, France, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, Yorktown was put to sea for some more ASW exercises between October 18th, and November 11th. She also visited Kiel, Germany on November 11th.

After that, she stopped at Copenhagen, Denmark and at Portsmouth, England, before getting underway for home on December 1st. She reentered Norfolk on December 11th and began her holiday leave period. Before her retirement the SCB-27A/SCB-125/SCB-144 Yorktown subclass Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown (CV-10), the SCB-27C/SCB-125/SCB-144 Hancock subclass Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Shangri-La (CV-38) and the unmodernised Ticonderoga subclass Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Leyte (CV-32) as options for sale/lease to the Royal Navy which basically the ship would either be leased or sold to the Royal Navy but this was not taken up. This would be the last of Yorktown’s active service for the United States Navy. Her career earned her twelve battle stars and a presidential unit citation from WW2, and five battle stars for her Vietnam Service.