Shipmates remember Commanding Officer Captain James Cain; 

Happy to be on the Yorktown...twice

Charleston SC Post Courier  October 15, 1996

The retired warship sprawls in Charleston harbor like a mountain of steel.  From top to bottom, hundreds of tourist explore the 20 level  aircraft carrier Yorktown.  And its former skipper Jim Cain, is right in there with them.  Often word gets out that the former captain is aboard and he poses for snapshots with visitors.

  Several times a year, he comes in from California to walk the ship he commanded during the Vietnam War. Cain, 76, enjoys watching crowds swarm around a famous ship that is now a National Historic Landmark.

  He helped with Yorktown's restoration and donated many personal items for exhibits in the captain's quarters.

   A veteran of three wars, Cain is credited with shooting down 8 1/2 Japanese planes during World War Two and also with sinking a Japanese destroyer.  He flew fighters during two tours in the Korean War and commanded two aircraft carriers during Vietnam.

  He's been a flight instructor, test pilot, movie stunt pilot and technical advisor for such films as "The Hunt for Red October."

   Returning from a mission one night, running low on fuel in his Hellcat, Cain couldn't find his own ship so he had to land instead on the first carrier deck he could find.

  "I asked 'what ship is this' and they said 'It's the Yorktown!'  I went up to the bridge and the Captain said 'Well, what do you think of our little ship?'  I said 'I'd never been happier to be anywhere in my life!'"

   Twenty years later, he got command of the same ship, the USS Yorktown.

 

 

 

 

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Captain James Cain

 
Skipper USS Yorktown 1965-1966

Ensign Oliver D. Johnson
USS Yorktown 1943-1945

Flight Deck Memorial Service presided over by Chaplain Harold Syfrett and Rear Admiral James Flatley (Ret)

Ashes of Captain Cain and Ensign Johnson were spread in Charleston Harbor close to their beloved Yorktown.  Services included US Marine saluting squad and taps by Don Chase and Dropping of the wreaths by representatives of the families.

Flight Deck Memorial Services

 

 




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