'Midway Magic' finally home: Aircraft carrier to become floating naval museum

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer | Saturday, January 10, 2004 9:20 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- For much of the 47 years it was in service, sailors and airmen aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway spoke proudly of "Midway Magic" ---- an almost indescribable elan and spirit that saw the ship's successive crews through mission after successful mission until it was retired in 1992.

Saturday that old Midway Magic came to life again and was shared by about 1,000 passengers as the Midway reached its permanent home at water's edge of downtown San Diego.

Between about 9 and 11 a.m. Saturday, the 1,000-foot-long, 58-year-old aircraft carrier made its final voyage across San Diego Harbor from North Island Naval Air Station to the Navy Pier at North Embarcadero, where it will soon become a floating naval museum.

The ship's spell captivated the passengers on the flight deck as two determined tugboats pulled and pushed the gray giant across the channel and into the slip between the Navy Pier and Tuna Harbor.

The passengers were mostly former crew members, retired sailors and airmen who donated money to the nonprofit group that brought the Midway to San Diego. They crowded the deck to watch the final mooring and relive voyages of long ago.

"I tell ya, it's like I'm 19 all over again," said Tom Kaufman, 52, of San Jose, who served aboard the Midway during the ship's first mission to Vietnam in 1969. "The memories are incredible. If you were onboard (in the past), this is a big deal."

Other old Navy hands beamed as the ship slowly pulled away from the North Island docks.

"It's incredible," said Mike Helms, 58, of Oakland, who stood behind red-white-and-blue bunting that bordered the deck. He gazed off the port bow as the Midway started to spin around toward the adjacent nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis.

"I spent three years of my life on here," he said, shaking his head and staring at the deck as if lost in reflection.

Helms said he flew to San Diego with his father-in-law just to take the Midway's final trip Saturday, and he had visited the Midway in the Port of Oakland several times in the last two months while it was being spruced up for its duty as San Diego's next big attraction.

The Midway was towed from Oakland on Dec. 31 and arrived at North Island on Monday.

Helms said he was pleased that the public would soon be able to tour the ship and learn about life at sea.

His father-in-law agreed.

"I think it's very appropriate for the city of San Diego to get a ship museum," said Fred Ulin, 81, who served aboard Navy destroyers during World War II and was once stationed in San Diego. "We've had a lot of ships in here over the years."

Ship has storied history

Since it was commissioned in 1945, more than 200,000 men and women had served aboard the Midway by the time it was retired in 1992.

Built during World War II at Hampton Roads, Va., it was the largest vessel in the U.S. fleet at the time and was the first ship in the world too big to transit the Panama Canal.

It was originally built with a straight deck on the hull of a cruiser, but was overhauled many times over the years to accommodate new weapons systems and aircraft.

The Midway first saw action during the Korean conflict in the early 1950s.

It served three long combat deployments during the Vietnam War and its air wing helped evacuate more than 3,000 refugees when Saigon finally fell to communist forces April 29, 1975.

After Vietnam, the Midway responded to many international crises, including the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.

Stationed in Japan through much of the 1980s, it spent its last years as the flag ship of the armada that projected an American presence in the west Pacific and Indian Ocean during the twilight years of the Cold War.

The Midway last saw combat during the Gulf War in 1991, and was decommissioned shortly thereafter and sent to the Navy's West Coast graveyard at Bremerton, Wash.

Midway set for new duty

Alan Uke, the local businessman who hatched the idea of bringing the Midway to San Diego more than a decade ago, said the ship's arrival at its final berth was not as easy as it looked during the two-hour trip Saturday.

"We worked 12 years on this, but we're here!" he said, as the ship inched toward Navy Pier. About 200 people lined the boardwalk and an additional 100-some spectators crowded the naval memorial park along Tuna Harbor.

Uke said his group raised more than $14 million for the project and $250,000 more in the last few days alone.

He and other members of the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum board of directors have said the museum planned for Midway will evolve over time and offer new collections and exhibits to attract visitors again and again.

In addition to the three exhibits already onboard, an assortment of vintage naval aircraft will be displayed onboard, Uke said.

Retired Rear Adm. Riley Mixson, who skippered the Midway in Japan from 1985 to '87, said the ship's bridge will be fitted with plasma screens over the windows that will simulate the motion of the ship at sea and show aircraft taking off and landing as if it were happening right outside.

Mixson, who was the interim executive director for the museum group, said the museum will open in late April or May, and will officially launch with a grand opening celebration June 5. It will be the fifth aircraft carrier museum in the country, and the Navy's 47th floating ship museum.

Watching from the flight deck as the Midway docked at Navy Pier at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, board members Mixson and David Flohr patted each other firmly on the back.

"We made it," Flohr said.

"Yeah," said Mixson, "we made it."

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 740-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.