In Search of the Yorktown

Listen to part 1

Listen to part 2

June 3 - 4, 1998 -- Last month an expedition searching for aircraft carriers sunk during the World War II Battle of Midway made their first discovery. Led by Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard, the National Geographic Midway expedition found the USS Yo rktown on the floor of the Pacific Ocean 200 miles northeast of Midway Island where it sank in June 1942.

NPR Correspondent Neal Conan spent two weeks with the expedition aboard the search vessel Laney Chouest. Listen, as in the first of two reports on Morning Edition, he describes why and how the search was undertaken, talks with Japanese and American veterans of the Battle of Midway, analyzes the expedition's technical problems and successes, and reflects on the speculative na ture of expeditions.

In the second report of the latest National Geographic/NPR Radio Expeditions, Neal Conan describes the technical problems slowing down the mission to find the USS Yorktown in the depths of the northern Pacific Ocean

The Yorktown report is the latest in the popular Radio Expeditions series on NPR's Morning Edition.