Page 122 May 25, 2012
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Charleston (Continued from previous page.) Revolution and the Civil War. Outside one building is a plaque with the headline DISSOLVED. In the building, the sign says, the government of South Carolina voted to dissolve the Union in 1860. They were the first state to do so. On our tour, we passed a lot of signs on front lawns that simply said JOE. I asked the guide about them. “Joe is our Mayor. He’s running for re-election again.” She told me Joseph P. Riley had been Mayor for 31 years. “It’s the only job he’s ever had,” she said. One day, we went out to tour the aircraft carrier Yorktown, which is tied up along a shore a few miles away at Patriots Point. I knew from my history that the Yorktown had been sunk at the Battle of Midway in 1942 at the beginning of World War II. I was curious what this was. What I didn’t know was that a second Yorktown was built and in operation in the Pacific Ocean about 17 months after the first one was sunk. It served through the majority of that war and saw much action. As we approached the long gangplank that went out to this carrier, I saw at the foot of it what appeared to be a company of soldiers in camouflage uniforms standing at attention in 10 rows of ten. There was a sergeant issuing them orders. As we got closer, I realized that all these soldiers were about 11 years old. I learned they would be sleeping aboard the carrier and were getting their final instructions. It was some sort of program offered by the military. I have rarely seen 11-year-olds so focused, so serious and so excited standing at attention there. Charleston, it turns out, starts kids out young for military careers. (The Citadel military academy is in Charleston.) We entered the carrier in the aircraft bay below decks. About 80 aircraft could be stored there and then brought up by elevator to the open-air deck above for launch when needed. But, for this exhibit, practically all the planes below deck were propeller fighter planes from the Second World War—most notably Hellcats and Wildcats, both built by Grumman Aviation here on Long Island. They were the masters of the Japanese Zeros and helped shorten the war. There was also an exhibit in this below deck aircraft hangar for training pilots—an aircraft simulator—that 15 people could climb into and bounce around as it zigged and zagged on its steel legs. While I stared at it trying to decide if I wanted to do that—eventually I decided it would make me seasick—my wife went into an adjacent exhibit that honored all of this nation’s Medal of Honor winners. Shortly afterward, I went in to find her. Inside the entrance was a display of the names of all 3,458 winners since the first one got that award in 1862. Then, just beyond that, the exhibit wound its way through a darkened passage past lots of displays of different brave deeds done by these winners. I found my wife at the very first one just past the entrance. “The first person in America ever awarded the medal of honor,” a recorded voice was announcing, “was Jacob Parrott, who was given this medal by President Lincoln in 1864 by (Continued on page 124.) order of Congress.” scourmont77 /Flickr
balls around, and then one pops up. In our case it was number 3. Then, the uniformed officer comes outside with a license plate with the number 3 on it and attaches it to the back of the carriage. You are now officially licensed and you are going on Tour 3. “Only thing they haven’t quite figured out,” our guide said as the plate was being affixed, “is how to keep from having to do the same tour over and over and over.” Perhaps Sag Harbor could learn something from this information. Perhaps not. Charleston is a city of churches, docks, mansions, colleges and military installations. Much of it concerns the
Horse-drawn carriage in Charleston.
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