San Diego, CA - Tour of the USS Midway

Flight Deck - Towards Stern

Today was BIG fun! First stop was a tour of the USS Midway. We bought our tickets online and got there about 15 minutes before they opened the gates to visitors. We parked by the ship - the $10 parking fee was worth the convenience.

Catapult NCO

I had read that visitors should allow at least 2-3 hours to tour the ship, and we found out first hand that you could spend a lot more time on the USS Midway if you had the energy. Just like most other visitors, we opted to make use of the Audio tour equipment (a headset and handheld playback unit), which was very helpful.

Boiler Control Panel

The USS Midway was commissioned in 1945 and served until 1992, making it the longest serving carrier in the 20th century. For a while, until 1955, the Midway was also the largest ship in the world at 1001 feet long, 258 feet wide, and weighing 69,000 tons. Her flight deck takes up more than 4 acres and, depending on what aircraft she was carrying (this changed over her 47 years of service), she could carry up to 80 aircraft.

The USS Midway was steam-driven by 12 boilers that cranked out a top speed of 33 Knots - fast enough to ski behind. It took a lot of effort to operate and maintain the Midway: the ship had a crew of 4500, including 600 sailors in engineering, 225 cooks, 200 pilots, 40 corpsmen, 5 doctors, and 3 dentists.

Making our way through the ship's corridors, stairways, ladders, and walkways gave us an inkling of what it would have been like to traverse these areas while at sea: the upper decks of the USS Midway stand tall above the water and the ship apparently rolled quite a bit, often tossing sailors into bulkheads, and low-hanging pipes and gear. Ship doctors apparently spent much of their time taking care of head lacerations, etc.

We both really enjoyed touring the USS Midway; we now know more about aircraft carriers, and have a greater awareness of what our Navy brother and sisters do to help keep our country safe.

Starboard Portion of the Flight Deck

Low-Ranking Enlisted Berths

F4U-4 Corsair on the Hanger Deck

Fo'c'sle (Anchor Room)

25-Man Life Raft Pod

Sitting in the Brig