Doubly Blessed at the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier in the Rain

The first evening we were in San Diego, we met our next door neighbor in the campground, Leslie. We asked her for advice on things to see in San Diego, and she told us about the USS Midway aircraft carrier. We recognized that it was the top-rated thing to see in San Diego, but the tickets are pricey. That's when she gave us two free tickets! We were blessed by someone we had just met!

We didn't realize what a great blessing it was until we saw the weather forecast. San Diego was supposed to get rain all day. That's a problem, because most of our planned activities involved spending most of our time outside. Suddenly, we had an indoor activity for our rainy day--and it was going to be free!

We arrived (in the rain) shortly after the USS Midway museum opened. The museum is actually the 972 foot long aircraft carrier that was the largest ship in the world when it was built in 1945. The USS Midway is parked at the Navy Pier in downtown San Diego. Admission includes self-guiding audio-phones that have recordings describing the details of what we were seeing.

There are 29 airplanes on board the aircraft carrier, but we really came to see the ship. When it was in service from 1945 until 1992, it was a city on the sea. There were usually over 4,000 men on board at one time, so they didn't have much personal space. The enlisted men's beds were stacked three high, with only a tiny walkway in between.

Someone as claustrophobic as Mark doesn't even like to think about sleeping in such tight quarters, with someone right above and right below. The audio-phone included stories from sailors that spent time on the Midway. They mentioned that the snoring was deafening in these confined quarters.

Each enlisted man's possessions had to fit in the cargo area under his bed, and a single small locker beside it. That's considerably less storage space than we have in the motor home.

We also visited the room that housed the chains attached to the anchors. Each of those chain links weigh more than Denisa. The audio-phone told us that the entire ship vibrated when those giant chains ran out to the ocean when the anchor was dropped.

The most special thing about visiting this floating museum is the volunteer docents that are scattered throughout the ship. Most are retired military veterans, who have interesting details to share about life on a Navy ship. We met Chris Davis about thirty minutes into our visit. We immediately liked him when he told us he spent a year of his military career in Clinton, Oklahoma, in 1962. That's just 15 miles away from where we retired.

He must have liked us as well, because he spent the time to tell us wonderful details about how these Navy ships operated. For example, this glass display board is used to keep a visual record of other ships or airplanes in the area. But the sailor posting the new information can't be standing in front of the board, because that would make it impossible for the rest of the people in the room to see. So the Navy specially trains that sailor how to write backwards, posting the information while standing behind the glass panel. All this printing was done with a white marker behind the glass while writing backwards. We would have never known that detail without Mr. Davis's help.

He described the brig, where sailors were held if they broke the Navy's rules. Interestingly, there are Marines aboard Navy ships to police the brig. For some reason, Mr. Davis thought Denisa should be in the brig picture.

He asked what we thought the most common injury on the ship was. Denisa was pretty sure it came from tripping over all the doorway thresholds, because they had already tripped her up a couple times. He pointed out those raised doorways are part of ships because they would help to keep water compartmentalized if there should be a water leak.

Mr. Davis pointed out that it was head injuries that sent most sailors to the medic. The low doorways and ladders caused some problems for Mark, but Denisa didn't even notice them. We also found out what the series of numbers to the left of door meant. They are posted all over the ship, describing the exact locations, as well as the person in authority of that area.

There are over 60 different rooms and displays open to the public throughout the ship. We had completely stopped listening to our audio-phone by now, as we had our own personal tour guide taking us from room to room. When we got to the room with keepsakes from different squadrons, Mr. Davis pointed out this picture of his squadron. There he was, standing on the second row on the right hand side back in 1973. Everyone in the picture had a nickname, and his was "Earthquake."

Earthquake stayed with us for over two hours, telling us stories and pointing out things that we would have missed on our own. Denisa is sitting on one of the airplane ejection seats, with her right hand gripping the cord that would start the ejection process. He described how it worked, and why it was definitely a pilot's last option.

Mr. Davis pointed out the model of the Navy's newest aircraft carrier on the left--the USS Gerald Ford. He described how the planes will be catapulted off the front using new magnetic technology, rather than the steam power used on the USS Midway. He also described the process of planes landing on the deck, including the trip cords that catch them. He pointed out that modern carriers have an angled landing strip just in case the landing is unsuccessful. The model on the right is of the first aircraft carrier. With that straight landing area, a missed landing resulted in crashing all the planes parked on the flight deck. Our day was so enriched by the little interesting bits of information we received from our own private tour guide.

Mr. Davis knew about all the planes, and he had lived on many different Navy ships. We appreciated his service to our country, and today we so appreciated his personal tour. It made our experience at the USS Midway so much richer!

He let us tour the next part of the ship on our own, so we were back to our audio-phones for descriptions. We learned about the process of feeding over 4,000 men working day and night shifts from a kitchen that never slept. The picture below is part of the fancy officer's dining room, where only dress uniforms were worn. Mr. Davis had already pointed out that officers usually preferred to wear their work clothes and dine in the less fancy mess hall rather than taking the time to dress for a meal.

We also saw the barbershop, the dental office, the hospital, the tailor shop, the laundry, the engine room, the chapel, the store . . . It takes a mind-boggling amount of food and supplies to run a ship with this number of people. It was also interesting to think of all the jobs on a ship. We had never thought of all the things a sailor might do that seem far removed from the planes flying off the flight deck.

This was a great way to spend a rainy day, as most of our time had been spent indoors so far. But we wanted to see the flight deck, so we zipped up our rain coats and braved the rain that hadn't stopped all day.

Normally, we would have spent an hour looking at all the planes on the flight deck. But today the steady rain made it too uncomfortable to stay outside for too long.

The good news is that there was no line for the "island tour" because of the rain. Only 20 people at a time are allowed in the tower that oversees the action on the flight deck. It is the equivalent of the air traffic control tower of the ship. Through the rain-streaked windows we could see more of the flight deck from a bird's eye view.

We could also see downtown San Diego behind us, shrouded in the rain.

Our final stop in the island was the control room. We learned about the ways that navigation changed from 1945 to 1992. Denisa got to steer this monster-sized ship.

After almost six hours aboard the USS Midway, our legs were tired and our stomachs were hungry. We wanted a picture of the outside of the ship, but it was just too big to fit into the camera lens.

We stopped for a few minutes at the pier to see some famous statues in the area. The kissing sailor doesn't look that big with the Midway in the background. That's why Mark is braving the rain to give some scale of size to that kiss.

The Bob Hope statue was more life-sized. He is immortalized with some of the many troops he entertained over the years.

The rain continued for the rest of the day, AND through the night. It was a 24-hour rain storm that the local meteorologist described as "unprecedented and record-breaking." Another retired military docent admitted that it wasn't chamber of commerce weather, but he would sure be happy to get off water rations in San Diego. Most of California has been in a severe drought for years. But the recent storms have brought the lake levels back up to normal and removed the drought through most of the state. It dampened our first day of San Diego sight-seeing, but we felt doubly blessed in spite of the weather. We were blessed with the free tickets, and blessed with a personal tour. It was a great day!