Yankee Do: A Story of Sea Power is a 1960s Navy film promoting the new nuclear USS Enterprise and giving viewers a look at life aboard the Navy’s attack carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most of the film is filmed aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1962 during a cruise to and through the Mediterranean that included NATO exercise assignments, which provides the context for the film’s story: A Scottish NATO Exchange Officer is spending a year with the U.S. 6th Fleet. The film opens with a shot of a harbor (presumably Newport News, VA); a woman launches a houseboat, christening the ship “Yankee Do.” The Scottish pilot and his family are aboard the boat with the American pilot and his family. Women talk while drying dishes inside the kitchenette of the houseboat (03:25). The houseboat passes the USS Enterprise, one the Navy’s first nuclear carrier (04:09). The film shows the various locations on her deck, including the bridges and dome. From up on the tower, the film shows the massive flight deck. The USS Enterprise conducts a catapult test (06:15). The film then cuts to the two men’s time aboard the Roosevelt. A pilot flies what appears to be a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk (06:59). The film shows the Roosevelt carrier from the perspective of an approaching jet and follows through the landing (07:34). All the planes are out on the carrier’s deck (08:26). Jets (likely Skyhawks) take off from the flight deck then return and land. Two Navy ships sail side by side in what appears to be a refueling operation (09:45). There are various shots of Navy men performing different jobs on the ship, including radar operators, cooks, and barbers. An officer briefs pilots on an upcoming sortie (12:00). A jet is lifted up to the flight deck (13:06; 13;34). Jets are moved into parking positions on the flight deck. An unknown enemy plane is shot out of the sky by one of the Skyhawks (15:12). Sailors and pilots stand at attention on the flight deck as the captain addresses the crew over the loudspeakers (15:58). A long-range radar picket plane scans the ocean (17:37). Footage shows the flight crew maneuvering jets into takeoff position and then the jets taking off. There is a good aerial shot of the carrier (20:37). The ship makes a port of call on the Italian coastal city of Genoa (20:39). Sailors visit a cemetery where the fallen soldiers of WWII are buried (22:56). Aerial footage shows the 6th Fleet out at sea (23:46); this is followed by close-up shots of the carrier and some of the other ships of the fleet. The fleet conducts a drill on an island, firing heavy artillery and sending troops to shore in LCVPs and helicopters (24:35). The film concludes with the two men back on the houseboat grilling meat out on the boat’s deck and a look at the new USS Enterprise (26:59), supposedly on her first trial and testing at sea.
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB/CVA/CV-42) was the second of three Midway-class aircraft carriers [and launched on 29 April 1945 and commissioned six months later]. To her crew, she was known as “Swanky Franky,” “Foo-De-Roo,” or “Rosie,” with the last nickname probably the most popular. Roosevelt spent most of her active deployed career operating in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the United States Sixth Fleet. The ship was decommissioned in 1977 and was scrapped shortly afterward.
USS Enterprise (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, is a decommissioned United States Navy aircraft carrier. She was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier [in service from 1961-2012] and the eighth United States naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed “Big E”. At 1,123 ft (342 m), she is the world’s longest naval vessel ever built. Her 93,284-long-ton (94,781 tonnes) displacement ranks her as the 12th-heaviest carrier, after the 10 carriers of the Nimitz class and the USS Gerald R. Ford. Enterprise had a crew of some 4,600 service members.
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