USS Midway Museum

Gordon wrote:
wrote:
DDAY wrote:
I visited the USS Midway museum a few days ago in San Diego, thanks to the
discussion here.

That is a beautifully preserved ship. The volunteers have done a great job
with her. I asked a docent about a few off-limits areas. He said that the
Admiral's quarters should be open to the public in about a year, and they're
hoping to get CIC open as well, but have to deal with PCB issues.

I spent about 3.5 hours walking around and I imagine that when the other
areas are open, it could take a lot longer to see everything.

The planes are beautifully restored. Only downside is that they're a little
light on older aircraft. No Spad, for instance, and they could use some
other Korea era aircraft as well. Also, a Seahawk would be a nice addition.

Seahawk or 'Skyhawk'..A-4...F-4s, I hope and A-7s...

They have a humpback Scooter on the hangar deck. He's right, they
don't have a Crash Hawk, at least not yet. They do have a Corsair II,
a pair of F-4s, and are steadily increasing the size of their "air
wing". I think its great! You can stand on the bow and feel the old
familiar steady wind pushing back against you - it almost feels like
the old girl is straining to pull away from the dock to turn into the
wind for launch, one last time.

v/r Gordon
20+ landings on USS Midway (granted not many, but I still have a
connection to her)

yep, of the 3 CVs I served in, the Midway-maru was a class act...great
flying all the time and no 'workup' blues..we were on cruise all the
time!!

I was in VF-151 at a great time, new F-4S, great CO of the CV, saw all
the places that westpac squadrons long to see, Singapore, HongKong,
Australia, PI about a zillion times, Korea(flew there), all around
great 30 months...

SNIP

yep, of the 3 CVs I served in, the Midway-maru was a class act...great
flying all the time and no 'workup' blues..we were on cruise all the
time!!

I was in VF-151 at a great time, new F-4S, great CO of the CV, saw all
the places that westpac squadrons long to see, Singapore, HongKong,
Australia, PI about a zillion times, Korea(flew there), all around
great 30 months...

Pretty good for flying, like being on buildups the whole time. Tough on the
family if an accompanied tour.

R / John

"John Carrier" wrote...

Pretty good for flying, like being on buildups the whole time. Tough on
the family if an accompanied tour.

HA!

My wife had more fun over there than I did! "Work" was teaching English for
$20-30/hour. Give her $10 for a MAC flight from Yokota, and she was in
Seoul the next afternoon to spend a few thousand bux "saving money"! When
the pay accumulated, she was on a flight to Singapore, to be followed by a
train ride to Bangkok!

While all the wives back in the States had to wait 6 months for "Cruise" to
be over, ours thought 4 weeks was a "long" one! Even 3-month IO cruises
only took 3 months!

They may have tried to make you THINK it was "tough," but it was all a
smokescreen to make you hand over more $$...

....and if you think it was tough on kids, a friend's 4- or 5-year-old
daughter, on being told they were going back to Japan after a couple years
back in the states, was reported to say, "You mean we're going HOME
again?!?"

To fill it all out, our black lab was probably the only American dog ever to
be kicked off the beach in Kamakura (after chasing the tennis ball into the
surf for half an hour). not my fault we couldn't read the signs... :-)

Tough?!? Not unless they WANTED it to be tough!

John Carrier wrote:
SNIP

yep, of the 3 CVs I served in, the Midway-maru was a class act...great
flying all the time and no 'workup' blues..we were on cruise all the
time!!

I was in VF-151 at a great time, new F-4S, great CO of the CV, saw all
the places that westpac squadrons long to see, Singapore, HongKong,
Australia, PI about a zillion times, Korea(flew there), all around
great 30 months...

Pretty good for flying, like being on buildups the whole time. Tough on the
family if an accompanied tour.

R / John

Tell me about it. First 365 days I was in VF-151, I was gone 287 of
them..makes your family better or worse, never stays the same. Glad I
have a bride that wanted to travel, and also a good mama-san for two
little kids.