USS Midway



USS Midway at Sea



The Guys

Friends on Midway Flight Deck

Volunteer Explaining Catapult System

Diagram of Steam Catapult System

One of two Steam Accumulators for Catapult

Captain's Bridge (background)

Flight Deck Control Bridge

We had the pleasure of touring the USS Midway with our good friend Rob, who came to visit us over the weekend.  We drove from our marina to downtown San Diego where the USS Midway is moored along Harbor Drive and purchased our tickets to this unique museum.  Commissioned after the end of WWII and completed in 1945, Midway was the first US warship that was unable to utilize the Panama Canal due to her size.  The Midway sailed every ocean of the world and spent time at many strategic ports around the globe.  She sailed numerous times to the Mediterranean, operated in the Philippine Islands, and was stationed at Yokosuka, Japan in the early 1970’s.  Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s she was sent to the coast of Vietnam and South Korea where she launched over 6,000 missions in support of allied operations, laid mine fields, and flew over 40 sorties shuttling U.S. personnel and Vietnamese refugees out of Saigon.  During the late 70’s and early 80’s she was sent to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf; and in 1989, stood off the waters of South Korea after the massacre in Tiananmen Square in China.  In 1990 while celebrating 45 years of service, Midway received the official announcement of her decommissioning to take effect in 1991.  Meanwhile the United Nations set an ultimatum for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.  Aircraft from Midway flew the initial air strikes of Operation Desert Storm and dropped ordinance on targets in Iraq and occupied Kuwait.  During her career, the Midway had been refitted several times, twice in the 1950’s followed by operations off Taiwan in support of the Quemoy-Matsu crisis.  In February of 1966, Midway was decommissioned in order to undergo the most extensive and complex modernization ever seen on a naval vessel.  The upgrade took four years to complete.  The flight deck surface area was increased (changed from an axial-deck to an angled-deck layout), new deck-edge elevators were added, plus new powerful steam catapults.  In 1991 she departed for the last time from her home base in Japan and cruised to Hawaii, then on to Seattle for a three-day open house public tour before sailing to San Diego where the crew began preparations for decommissioning.  Midway was decommissioned in San Diego April 1992 and stored in Bremerton, WA at the Navy Maintenance Facility.  Eleven years later in 2003, Midway was towed by Foss Maritime Company tugs to Oakland, CA where restoration was completed and then towed to San Diego where she opened in 2004 as a proud maritime museum.  One of the highlights of our tour aboard the Midway included seeing the flight deck and learning about various procedures and operations of the ship given by retired military volunteers.  The steam catapult system was especially intriguing.  The Steam Catapult System consists of a track on the flight deck with steel plates on each side of the track.  Underneath the track below the flight deck are two giant tubes holding huge pistons.  A shuttle piece attached to the pistons extends above the flight deck and is attached to the airplane positioned for proper tension.  High pressure, high temperature steam is put behind the pistons – how much depends on the weight of the aircraft.  The plane then revs-up to full power and is held in place by a single small piece of steel that’s shaped like a dog bone.  When the catapult is fired, the “dog bone” breaks apart when a certain pressure is attained launching the plane from a standstill to 170 miles per hour within seconds.  The dog bones were machined differently and color coded for each type of aircraft.  These dog bones have since been replaced with a launch bar.  The water brake is another interesting aspect of the catapult system; water is used to slow down the action of the pistons after firing.  The planes and helicopters on the flight deck were also of interest, representing various types and models over the years that served on USS Midway.  After our tour, we enjoyed lunch at the Midway Café and then headed back to the marina to prepare a fish barbeque for later that evening.