For 50 years, Patriots Point has welcomed visitors to explore the ships, exhibits, and stories that highlight American service and sacrifice. Home to the historic aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, the famed destroyer USS Laffey, the immersive Vietnam Experience exhibit, and the Medal of Honor Museum aboard the Fighting Lady, the museum offers visitors a powerful way to step into history.
Helping preserve these experiences is a passionate community of supporters known as the Friends of the Fleet. Through the Patriots Point membership program, members play a direct role in sustaining the museum’s mission by supporting ship preservation, educational programming, and exhibits that connect visitors to the past.
For some members, that connection is deeply personal.
Dale Shotwell, U.S. Navy.
Dale Shotwell knows the Yorktown not only as a museum, but as the ship where he once served. Shotwell joined the U.S. Navy on his 17th birthday after meeting a recruiter at his high school in Seattle. While in boot camp in June 1950, he and his fellow recruits learned that war had broken out in Korea. Just a few years later, he was assigned to the USS Yorktown as an aviation mechanic in the ship’s V-4 division, serving two tours during the Korean War.
Dale Shotwell serving aboard the USS Yorktown.
Decades later, seeing the ship preserved at Patriots Point carries deep meaning. For Shotwell, membership represents an opportunity to help ensure that the realities of service, and the lessons learned from it, are not forgotten. Today, he sees the museum as a powerful way for younger generations to understand both the evolution of naval aviation and the people who made that history.
For others, membership is about connection—both to history and to the community built around it.
Katherine "Kat" Jack as a child at Patriots Point.
Katherine “Kat” Jack has been visiting the Yorktown since she was eight years old. Now, nearly five decades later, that connection has only grown stronger. Her interest in military history deepened over time, especially after meeting her fiancé, Tom, who shares that passion.
“I love being a member of the Fleet Circle because I feel part of the group,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed being part of special events and feeling appreciated.”
Some of her most meaningful memories are still ahead. Kat and Tom are planning to be married aboard the Yorktown someday—beneath the F-14 Tomcat, a fitting play on their names and their shared love for Patriots Point.
Kat Jack at Patriots Point today.
Membership helps ensure that stories like these—past and present—continue to be part of Patriots Point. This mission is especially worth celebrating during Member Appreciation Month, held each March. Throughout the month, new members can receive $10 off any membership level. As a special thank you this year, members who join in March are also invited to Sunset Salute on March 26, an evening aboard the Yorktown celebrating the museum’s supporters during its ongoing 50th anniversary year.
While membership includes benefits like free museum admission, discounts, and exclusive events, many members say the most meaningful part is knowing they are helping preserve a place where history can still be experienced firsthand, and where new memories are still being made.
Learn more about becoming a Friend of the Fleet at patriotspoint.org/membership.