Visiting the USS Midway

As some of you know, a few years ago, Dwayne and I volunteered on the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor. Dwayne had visited the USS Midway back in 2004; it had just opened then. We drove down into San Diego to visit the USS Midway Museum today. Joe Krenek had kindly provided tickets for us, so not only did we not have to pay, we also didn't have to wait in line to purchase.

Arriving at USS Midway at 10am

We started on the hangar deck. I think they said that the normal complement of planes would be 68, and when they were in the hanger (which I think was 4 acres large) that there would barely be room to walk. They were setting up for some event this evening and had brought in couches that you see there in the middle.

RVers know all about "Navy" showers - though I don't know anything about purple pipes in the shower.

Then we went up on the flight deck.

The docents were GREAT!

Docent on the landing operation

Docent on the bridge tour

Docent on the take-off (catapult) operation

The folks on the Midway are volunteers - I asked about volunteering - thankfully to volunteer on the Midway takes a larger commitment (40 hour class, I think) - so we won't be coming back to volunteer here!

Some of the helicopters on the flight deck from the point of view of flight control (way up on the superstructure).

Flight control

Looking off the front of the boat from the bridge - that's the USS Ronald Reagan (a nuclear carrier) off the bow.

Can you decode the message?

Can you see the flags spelling out the message?

These were the lenses off the side of the Midway that would be used to tell the pilot if he was on target or to waive him off to make another run

Dwayne and some of the airplanes on the Midway

This aircraft wasn't assigned to the Midway - I think the audio recording said that they thought it was too big to land on the Midway. But, two of them had had to land on the Midway when the carrier they were associated with was caught in too bad weather to return to their assigned carrier.

It was a fascinating day - we were there 10am - 3pm, and walking and climbing and listening pretty much continuously!  Thank you, Joe!!!