Early operations and deployment with the 6th Fleet Midway was
laid down 27 October 1943 in Shipway 11 at
Newport News Shipbuilding Co.,
Newport News, Virginia;
launched 20 March 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Bradford William Ripley Jr.; and
commissioned on 10 September 1945 (eight days after the
surrender of Japan) with Captain Joseph F. Bolger in command. After
shakedown in the Caribbean,
Midway joined the
U.S. Atlantic Fleet training schedule, with
Norfolk as her homeport. From 20 February 1946, she was the
flagship for
Carrier Division 1. In March, she participated in Operation Frostbite testing the
Ryan FR Fireball and helicopter rescue techniques for cold-weather operations in the
Labrador Sea. In September 1947, a captured German
V-2 rocket was test-fired from the
flight deck in
Operation Sandy, the first large-rocket launch from a moving platform, and the only moving-platform launch for a V-2. While the rocket lifted off, it then tilted and broke up at . On 29 October 1947,
Midway sailed for the first of her annual deployments with the
6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Between deployments,
Midway trained and received alterations to accommodate heavier aircraft as they were developed. In June 1951,
Midway operated in the Atlantic off the
Virginia Capes during carrier suitability tests of the
F9F-5 Panther. On 23 June, as Cdr.
George Chamberlain Duncan attempted a landing in BuNo
125228, a downdraft just aft of the stern caused Duncan to
crash. His plane's forward
fuselage broke away and rolled down the deck, and he suffered burns. Footage of the crash has been used in several films, including
Men of the Fighting Lady,
Midway, and
The Hunt for Red October. In 1952, the ship participated in
Operation Mainbrace,
North Sea maneuvers with
NATO forces.
Midway had an angled runway painted on the flight deck in May for
touch-and-go landings following early trials of the technique aboard . Successful demonstration of the possibilities caused widespread adoption of the
angled flight deck in future aircraft carrier construction and modifications of existing carriers. of 15,000 Chinese nationalist troops and 20,000 Chinese civilians, along with their livestock.
1950s & 60s Controversy arose during the cruise when
Midway around January 1955 docked in
Cape Town,
South Africa.
Democratic senator
Herbert Lehman sent a telegram to
Secretary of the Navy Charles Thomas when he learned of a supposed United States Navy plan to segregate 400 non-white members of the crew of
Midway while it was in Cape Town. Fellow Democratic senator
Hubert Humphrey soon joined Lehman, additionally sending a letter to the
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, asking that "immediate steps be taken to see that equal treatment is given to American service personnel allowed shore leave in South Africa, or eliminate Cape Town as a
port of call", and saying that "To me this is a shocking act of discrimination that should not be tolerated by our Government. Every American soldier or sailor is an American regardless of race, color or creed, and is entitled to be respected and treated as such anywhere in the world." An anonymous Navy official stated that the Department of the Navy did not know of the arrangements that were to be made between the officers of
Midway and South African authorities, and that
African-American members of the crew would not be segregated while still aboard
Midway. As
Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces, these helicopters transported hundreds of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese people to
Midway and other U.S. ships in the South China Sea. touching down On 29 April 1975,
Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) Major Lý Bửng (also spelled Buang-Ly or Buang Lee) loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat
Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from
Con Son Island. After evading enemy ground fire, Buang headed out to the South China Sea, found
Midway, and began to circle overhead with his landing lights turned on.
Midways crew unsuccessfully attempted to contact the aircraft on emergency frequencies. When a spotter reported that there were at least four people in the two-seater aircraft, all thoughts of forcing the pilot to ditch alongside were abandoned. After three tries, Major Buang managed to drop a note from a low pass over the deck: "Can you move the helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly for one hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 child." Captain
Larry Chambers, the ship's commanding officer, ordered that the arresting wires be removed and that any helicopters that could not be safely and quickly moved should be pushed over the side. He called for volunteers, and soon every available seaman was on deck to help. An estimated worth of
UH-1 Huey helicopters were pushed overboard. With a ceiling, visibility, light rain, and of surface wind, Chambers ordered the ship to sail at into the wind. Warnings about the dangerous downdrafts created behind a steaming carrier were transmitted blind in both Vietnamese and English. To make matters worse, five more UH-1s landed and cluttered up the deck. Without hesitation, Chambers ordered them jettisoned as well. Captain Chambers recalled that Buang was escorted to the
bridge where Chambers congratulated him on his outstanding airmanship, and his bravery in risking everything on a gamble beyond the point of no return without knowing for certain a carrier would be where he needed it. The crew of
Midway was so impressed that they established a fund to help him and his family get settled in the United States. The O-1 that Major Buang landed is now on display at the
Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. Major Buang became the first Vietnamese pilot ever to land a fixed-wing aircraft on an aircraft carrier deck. Upon completion of ferrying people to other ships,
Midway returned to Thailand and disembarked the Air Force helicopters at
U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield. The CH-53s then airlifted over 50 RVNAF aircraft to the ship. With almost 100 helicopters and aircraft of the former RVNAF aboard, the ship steamed to
Guam where the aircraft and helicopters were offloaded in twenty-four hours. While transiting back to the Philippines to pick up the ship's air wing,
Midway was rerouted to act as a floating airfield in support of special operation forces rescuing the
SS Mayagüez.
Midway picked up the ship's regular air wing again a month later when the aircraft carrier returned
NAS Cubi Point, Philippines. On 30 June 1975,
Midway was redesignated from "CVA-41" to "CV-41".
After Vietnam On 21 August 1976, a Navy task force headed by
Midway made a show of force off the coast of Korea in reaction to an attack on two U.S. Army officers who were killed by North Korean soldiers on 18 August when they attempted to cut down a tree. The U.S. response to this incident was given the name
Operation Paul Bunyan.
Midways participation was part of a U.S. demonstration of military concern vis-à-vis
North Korea.
Midway relieved
Constellation as the
Indian Ocean contingency carrier on 16 April 1979. This unscheduled deployment was due to colliding with the
tanker Liberian Fortune near the Straits of Malacca, with
Midway taking over
Rangers mission while she went in for repairs.
Midway and her escorts continued a significant American naval presence in the oil-producing region of the
Arabian Sea and
Persian Gulf. On 18 November, the aircraft carrier steamed to the North Arabian Sea in connection with the continuing
hostage crisis in Iran. Militant followers of the
Ayatollah Khomeini, who had come to power following the overthrow of the
Shah, seized the U.S. embassy in
Tehran on 4 November and held 63 US citizens hostage. On 21 November
Kitty Hawk arrived, and both carriers, along with their escort ships, were joined by and her escorts on 22 January 1980.
Midway was relieved by
Coral Sea on 5 February. On 17 August,
Midway relieved
Constellation to begin another Indian Ocean deployment and to complement the task group still on contingency duty in the Arabian Sea.
Midway spent a total of 118 consecutive days in the Indian Ocean during 1980. On 16 March 1981, an
A-6E Intruder from VA-115 aboard
Midway sighted a downed civilian helicopter in the South China Sea.
Midway immediately dispatched
HC-1 Det 2 helicopters to the scene. All 17 people aboard the downed helicopter were rescued and brought aboard the carrier. The chartered civilian helicopter was also retrieved from the water and lifted to
Midways flight deck. On 25 March 1986, the final carrier launching of a Navy fleet
F-4S Phantom II took place off
Midway during flight operations in the
East China Sea. ABF2 Paul F. Morehead Jr., fueled aircraft number 111 for the last time. The Phantoms were replaced by the new
F/A-18A Hornets.
Midway continued serving in the western Pacific throughout the 1980s. In order to alleviate persistent seakeeping issues,
Midway received hull blisters in 1986. During her 1986 refit (named "Extended Incremental Selected Repair Availability"), blisters were added to improve the ship's stability. The modification proved counterproductive, as it actually increased the ship's instability in rough seas. She took water over the flight deck during excessive rolls in moderate seas, thereby hampering flight operations. Before another $138 million refit was approved to rectify the stability problems, it was even proposed to decommission
Midway. Nevertheless, she had earned herself the nickname "Rock'n Roll carrier." During a typhoon while in the Sea of Japan during the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, on 8 October 1988,
Midway, which was not supposed to be able to sustain more than 24 degrees of roll, survived a 26-degree roll. On 30 October 1989, an F/A-18A Hornet aircraft from
Midway mistakenly dropped a
general-purpose bomb on the deck of during training exercises in the Indian Ocean, creating a hole in the bow, sparking small fires, and injuring five sailors.
Reeves was south of
Diego Garcia at the time of the incident. Tragedy struck
Midway on 20 June 1990. While conducting routine flight operations approximately northeast of Japan, the ship was badly damaged by two onboard explosions. These explosions led to a fire that raged more than ten hours. In addition to damage to the ship's hull, two crew members were killed and nine others were wounded; one of the injured later died of his injuries. All 11 crewmen belonged to the at sea fire-fighting team known as the Flying Squad. When
Midway entered Yokosuka Harbor the next day, 12 Japanese media helicopters flew in circles and hovered about above the flight deck. Three bus loads of reporters were waiting on the pier. About 30 minutes after
Midway cast her first line, more than 100 international print and electronic journalists charged over the brow to cover the event. The news media made a major issue out of the incident, as it had happened amid several other military accidents. It was thought that the accident would lead to the ship's immediate retirement due to her age, but
Midway was retained to fight in one last major conflict.
Operation Desert Storm On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, and U.S. forces moved into Saudi Arabia as part of
Operation Desert Shield to protect that country against invasion by Iraq. On 1 November 1990,
Midway was again on station in the North Arabian Sea as the carrier of Battle Force Zulu (which included warships from the U.S., Australia, and other countries), relieving . On 15 November, the carrier participated in Operation Imminent Thunder, an eight-day combined amphibious landing exercise in northeastern Saudi Arabia which involved about 1,000
U.S. Marines, 16 warships, and more than 1,100 aircraft. Meanwhile, the
United Nations set an ultimatum deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.
Operation Desert Storm began the next day. On January 17, 1991, at 2:00AM,
Midway launched aircraft from CVW-5 for the first carrier strikes of the Gulf War. An A-6E TRAM Intruder from
VA-185 Nighthawks from
Midway was the first carrier aircraft over the coast. At around 4:05AM, four A-6E TRAM Intruders from VA-185 and
VA-115 Eagles attacked
Shaibah Air Base at around 350 ft, encountering heavy AAA fire, with two of the four aircraft not dropping their bombs. At around the same time, three A-6E TRAM Intruders from VA-115, each loaded with six Mk.83 bombs; attacked
Ahmad Al-Jaber Air Base in occupied Kuwait. The AAA fire at Shaibah led to
Midway's pilots avoiding low-level attacks for the rest of the war. The removal of the threat allowed
Midway and the other carriers
Ranger and to move closer to Kuwait.
NF-104 was painted with a kill marking for the helicopter and was displayed when
Midway returned to Japan. Some of ''Midway's'' F/A-18As also unsuccessfully attempted to intercept Iraqi Mirage F1s during the
Attack on Ras Tanura on January 24, with an
RSAF F-15C later shooting down both of the Mirages. Desert Storm officially ended 28 February, and
Midway departed the Persian Gulf on 11 March 1991 and returned to Yokosuka.
Rest of 1991 In June 1991,
Midway left for her final deployment, this time to the Philippines to take part in
Operation Fiery Vigil, which was the evacuation of 20,000 military members and their families from
Clark Air Base, on the island of
Luzon, after the eruption of
Mount Pinatubo.
Midway, along with twenty other U.S. naval ships, ferried the evacuees to the island of
Cebu, where they were taken off the ship by helicopter. After taking part in the evacuation, the aircraft carrier once again returned to Yokosuka.
Final cruise In August 1991,
Midway departed Yokosuka for the last time and returned to
Pearl Harbor. There, she turned over with
Independence, which replaced
Midway as the forward-deployed carrier in
Yokosuka. Rear Admiral
Joseph Prueher and the staff of Carrier Group ONE moved to
Independence. Prueher was the last admiral to lower his flag on
Midway. She then sailed to
Seattle for a port visit. There the ship disembarked "tigers" (guests of crew members) before making her final voyage to
San Diego. ==As museum ship==