i've posted some photos from last weekend's visit to USS Midway. You can find them here. It was interesting walking around a carrier with my dad, who served on one back in the day (not the Midway). We really got the inside story.

According the the Midway's website, it was the longest serving carrier in the U.S. Navy.

The USS Midway set new standards of naval aviation in the latter half of the 20th century. A captured German V-2 rocket was launched off the USS Midway in 1946—the dawn of naval missile warfare. The USS Midway blazed new trails of sub-Arctic air operations off the coast of Greenland. It was the first carrier homeported in a foreign country, calling Yokosuka, Japan home for 18 years. When others came home, the USS Midway remained at the “tip of the sword” on an odyssey shared by 200,000 Americans that spanned the surrender of Japan in WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam, the era of détente and Desert Storm.

Posted by: annika at 10:12 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 We literally must've been in SD at the same time, last week I went and saw the exhibit too! It is a great exhibit, definitely everyone should check it out. If only I'd known, then... then what?!

Posted by: Scof at July 31, 2005 12:09 AM (4P1HE)

2 The movie that goes best with this post is: "The Bridges at Toko-Ri" (1955) staring William Holden and Grace Kelly.

Posted by: Jake at July 31, 2005 07:57 AM (r/5D/)

3 Bloody tourists, and civilians! I was dining in the panoramic dining room of the University Club last night, and observing that most unique of sights, no carriers at North Island. Could the nippers be sneaking up on us again? In any case, when they parked the Midway at the foot of Broadway, they diminished the view of San Diego from the island, and limited the view down the bay in both directions from the SD side. The people running this concession are a bunch of idiots. I could go on at length, but witness the fifty dollar home depot park bench sitting at the business end of the flight deck. Good gawd, I wish they'd move it to Long Beach with the rest of the relics.

Posted by: Casca at July 31, 2005 08:21 AM (qBTBH)

4 Uh, were you drunk when you took these pictures?

Posted by: Casca at July 31, 2005 08:24 AM (qBTBH)

5 Scof: i was there on Monday, what a coincidence! Jake: got it on DVD. Casca: if there was any doubt that you're a Marine, it's gone now.

Posted by: annika at July 31, 2005 09:00 AM (tuV7q)

6 btw, Dad remarked about the lack of carriers too.

Posted by: annika at July 31, 2005 09:02 AM (tuV7q)

7 this dosent have much to do with it, but my Uncle was a sailor on the Enterprise when it got set on fire by Kamakazis. He described the battle to me when i was a kid and it sure was an eye opener. He was a crusty ol fart who had some sage advice, about tatoos: He told me only bikers and whte trash get tatoos unless you are a sailor or marine then you can have a goddam anchor on your arm. about male jewlry: "the only men who where earings are pirates and butt pirates" about women: "Get one who can cook, you stop having sex after a year anyway." true stuff.

Posted by: Kyle at July 31, 2005 02:48 PM (H5KE9)

8 For a sailor, I kinda like your uncle.

Posted by: Casca at August 01, 2005 06:29 AM (qBTBH)

9 Wow, yet another thing we have in common, Annika. My dad worked on carriers, too. He was a civilian electronics technician. He would often get sent out for weeks at a time to meet the Midway wherever it happened to be (San Diego, Bremerton, Hawaii, Japan, or the Philippines usually). He also worked a lot on the Coral Sea, the Enterprise, and the Nimitz. I didn't know the Midway had set up shop in San Diego. I'll have to check it out next time I'm there...

Posted by: Score Bard at August 01, 2005 12:51 PM (IZAv6)

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