USS Yorktown (CV-5) - in Culture

In Culture

In the 2001 science fiction novel by Connie Willis entitled Passage, one character, a loquacious elderly man named Ed Wojakowski, claims to be a World War II veteran in the United States Navy who served on the Yorktown.

"My background, huh? Well, I'll tell ya, I'm an old navy man. Served on the USS Yorktown... Aircraft carrier. Best damn one in the Pacific. Sank four carriers at the Battle of Midway before a Jap sub got her. Torpedo. Got a destroyer that was standing in the way, too. The Hammann. Went down just like that. Dead before she even knew it. Two minutes. All hands."

While unreliable (something of a psychopathical liar), Wojakowski is charming and full of truthful anecdotes, whether they happened to himself or otherwise. Willis has written extensively about war, particularly World War II, in her novels, and through her character Ed Wojakowski she celebrates numerous acts of war-time bravery. Among the stories he tells are of John James Powers and his self-sacrifice during the Battle of the Coral Sea, of the Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō, of Malakula, and of being attacked by Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters.