USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum – A Piece of US History

While in San Diego, Jeff & I visited the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum.  Altho I primarily suggested it because I thought Jeff would find it interesting, I have to admit, I was truly impressed by it, and by what life may be like for all those who serve on aircraft carriers!

The Kiss

Just outside the Midway, in a sort of park area, there is this large statue of what is probably one of the most famous photos from the World War II era.  I think of it as “The Kiss”.  When victory was declared, a sailor turned to a nurse next to him, and swept her up in a kiss.  A lucky photojournalist captured that and it has become symbolic to capturing the joy that was felt at that moment.  The two didn’t know each other, but have been forever linked in history!

How Carriers Have Changed

Aircraft carriers have certainly changed over the years.  This exhibit in the Midway shows models of two carriers – the USS Langley, the first aircraft carrier, and the USS Gerald R Ford, one of the more recent ones.  The USS Midway lies in between these two, in terms of when it was built.  The Midway is the 20^th century’s longest-serving carrier, from 1945 – 1992.  As a museum, it hosts 1 million visitors annually, and many of the docents in the museum/on the ship served either on the Midway or on another aircraft carrier when they were in the military.

Moving Around

Altho not the largest aircraft carrier in existence, the Midway was plenty large enough to me!  It has 18 decks, and based on the annotations of the location, I would have been in a perpetual state of “lost” had I served on this ship!  In the photo in the upper left of this compilation, you can sort of see what I’m talking about in the markings in the yellow box.  It’s all gibberish to me, but apparently, it tells you what deck, its location on the ship, etc., etc. you are on.  Also, check out how steep the ladders are that get you from one deck to the other!  The photo in the upper right shows you what a typical hall walkway below deck looks like.  And, the bottom photo is looking down several decks to where the bombs would have been stored/loaded onto the ship.  Impressive.

Everyday Life

Here are some photos of what the servicemen encountered in everyday life.  The ship’s chapel is shown in the upper left corner.   A good place for quiet and reflection.  Altho you can’t see it, behind me in the chapel is a wall containing the names of all the servicemen who lost their lives while serving on the Midway.  A true reminder of what the cost of freedom is.  The bottom left photo is of the sick bay, certainly something that most likely got a lot of use when servicemen were first on board, before they got their “sea legs”! When operating, the Midway had 5 physicians (and 3 dentists) on board.  And, the photo on the right is of the barber shop – I’m guessing unisex barber shop in the later years of the Midway’s commission, when both men and women would have been on board.  Better make an appointment!  And, hope for someone who had some talent in cutting hair, as well as the other chores below deck (laundry, kitchen help, etc.).  With the exception of cooks, doctors and dentists, it appears that the servicemen took turns doing the other jobs!

1G of Memory

Because I’m married to a “techie”, this image got solo billing!  It’s the memory for all the computers and equipment that had been used on the Midway, a whopping 1G of memory!  Just as a comparison, the camera with which I took this image has a memory card of 64 in it!  How times have changed!!

Cabins

When operating, there were about 4500 crew!  Here’s an idea of where and how they slept.  The top 2 photos are of the captain’s office and his bedroom – yes, he had his own bath, too, but I didn’t photograph it!  The middle photo is pretty much what most of the other crew would sleep in, altho perhaps sometimes they’d have 2 to a cabin.  The bottom cabin is the cabin right off the bridge of the ship. 

Laundry

It takes a lot to keep the clothes clean for 4500 crew members, and the laundry set-up below deck on the Midway was quite impressive!  Apparently, once they were clean, the clothes were hung in what looks to be like a dry cleaning shop.  But, behind the scenes, there were many washers and dryers, and an entire room devoted to pressing or ironing the clothes! 

Kitchen

Needless to say, the kitchen set up was really big on the Midway.  The cafeteria set up and dining tables weren’t exceptionally large.  I’m guessing the crew ate in shifts.  On average, tho, about 13,500 meals were served daily on the Midway, including 500 pies when pies were served!  Can’t forget dessert!

Flight Deck

After viewing all the interesting things below deck, we then went up on the flight deck.  The deck itself was just over 4 acres, and it is about 3 ½” thick.  Altho the day wasn’t all that hot, on the flight deck, it felt extremely warm.  I found it hard to imagine what it felt like for the servicemen who worked on the flight deck day in and out over the years.

Planes on the Flight Deck

There were quite a few planes on the flight deck – here are a few that caught my eye.  The top plane had what I thought was a rather whimsical name, and whimsy isn’t something I thought I’d see on an aircraft carrier!  In case you’re having a tough time reading it, it’s “Easy Way Airlines”.  The other two photos displayed how bombs were loaded under the wings.  I also really think it’s rather cool the way the wings fold up – makes for more efficient storage of planes!

Pri-Fly and Chart Room

We then took a tour of what is commonly called “The Island” – it’s what looks like a control tower on an aircraft.  And, part of it is like a control tower, except it’s called the Pri-fly room.  I believe that’s short for Primary Flight Control room.  That room acts much like a control tower in an airport, and the top photo is the view from that room (through a screened window, which it why the photo looks a little odd).  The chart room is where the navigation was done, and much of the time the Midway was in operation, there wasn’t really a GPS!  Instead, tools like what are shown in the bottom were used.  The tool on the right in that photo is a sextant.

On the Bridge

The last stop on the tour of “The Island” was the Captain’s Bridge.  As we all filed onto the bridge, the docent giving the tour kept telling folks that someone was more than welcome to sit in the Captain’s chair.  I was in the back of the group at that point, but since the chair was still open, I took the opportunity to sit and rest for a bit!  It was actually quite high up, tho, so the climb to get into it was a little tricky.  Still, I didn’t make a fool of myself, thank goodness!  The top photo is the view from the Captain’s chair, looking out over the front of the flight deck and beyond.  The lower photo is Jeff standing in the small protected room contained within the Bridge.  He’s listening very intently to the docent!

Sailboats from the Captain’s Bridge

I thought I’d leave you with this lovely final image from our visit to the USS Midway.  I was still sitting in the Captain’s chair, and saw these sailboats over the shoulder of the docent. I couldn’t resist capturing them, and then converting the image to a watercolor painting.

Enjoy!