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A Visit To The Historic Aircraft Carrier - The USS Midway
Fall Amtrak Vacation Trip 2006
A Visit To The Historic Naval Ship
The USS Midway
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
 
   The USS Midway was built in 1945 for the U.S. Navy and is named after the famous battle that was a turning point in World War II. The ship was decommissioned in 1992 after having served in Operation Desert Storm. It is now on permanent display at its home port of San Diego and is an absolutely incredible floating museum. It's definitely worth a trip to San Diego to check this out especially if you're a fan of Military Aviation or just the U.S. Navy in general! Enjoy the photos!!!
 
                
Above Left: A view of the Flight Deck, which is wide open and has lots of aircraft on display. Above Right: The Island Superstructure (Bridge & Primary Flight Control area).
 

If you've ever seen the movie "Top Gun", you'll be very familiar with this plane,
The F-14 Tomcat. Interestingly enough, there was an article in USA Today
just a week prior that said the Navy was retiring this plane altogether after
over 30 years of excellent service. It was an honor to be able to stand next
to this and all the other incredible aircraft on this ship!
 

The F/A-18 Hornet. I may have flown this on some previous version of
Microsoft Flight Simulator, but never in real life!
 

The A-6 Intruder.
 

The H-3 Sea King Rescue Helicopter. This chopper was also open for interior inspection!
 

The A-7 Corsair II.
 

The F-8 Crusader.
 

The F-4 Phantom.
 

The E-2 Hawkeye.
 

The RA-5 Vigilante.
 

The S-3 Viking.
 

Part of the San Diego Skyline as viewed from Midway's Flight Deck.
 

The sign says it all!
 
   What I've shown here is only a sample of what's actually on display here. You'll want to plan out spending almost an entire day here to fully experience everything on the ship. There is a self-guided audio tour on the ship that will take you about 3 1/2 hours to complete. I don't think I ever thought I'd step foot on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in my life since I'm not a member of the Military. I did however come to a conclusion when I was a kid that if I had ever joined the military, I'd want to be a pilot in the Navy! There were many members of our great Navy on the ship answering questions and talking with patrons while I was there. I could hear the Top Gun Anthem playing in my head while walking around and seeing these incredible planes. The next time you come to visit San Diego, check out this museum, you'll really enjoy it! There's more photos from this trip to be seen by clicking below...