Victory at Sea: Aircraft Carriers Now Museums
Once they were mighty warriors of the oceans, launching planes to fight against the Japanese or North Vietnamese. Now they are floating museums that tell of Americans' bravery, ingenuity, and sacrifice--all in the name of freedom.
USS Midway
The aircraft carrier USS Midway opened for business as a museum on the San Diego waterfront in June 2004.
The carrier, the length of three football fields, had been on active duty for almost half a century. It was commissioned at the end of World War II and served until the first Iraq War in 1991.
It seems fitting that the 74,000-ton warship, the world's largest fighting ship when it was launched in 1945, should come to San Diego, which is the largest home port for the Pacific Fleet.
The Midway did three tours of duty off the Vietnamese coast and its planes also flew over Iraq. Over the years, 200,000 sailors served on the Midway, a floating city of 4,500, which was decommissioned in 1992.
The museum boasts two virtual reality rides that simulate flight: you will think that you are actually flying one of the planes that used to catapult off the deck. And would-be sailors are able to tour parts of the vessel. A "living aboard" program is even in the works.
The Midway is named after the epic 1942 World War II battle in mid-Pacific at a tiny atoll called Midway, where the U.S. Navy fought off a Japanese fleet in what was considered the turning point in the war.
The carrier will have planes from all eras on the flight deck, including the still operational F-14 Tomcat, which was born long after World War II.
One other thing to note is that the Midway's mooring system is designed to withstand a sizeable quake of 7.5 on the Richter scale, an important saftey feature for a museum floating off the California coast! In fact, museum officials figure the carrier could once again be put into service—as a disaster relief center.
USS Arizona
The USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor is a beautiful memorial and final resting place for many of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives during the early morning attack on December 7, 1941. It was the greatest loss of life on any warship in U.S. history. Although not an aircraft carrier, the USS Arizona Museum is certainly worthy of inclusion due to its sweeping architecture and somber significance.
The USS Arizona memorial is accessible by U.S. Navy shuttle boat via scheduled launches from the visitor center, transporting 150 visitors at a time to pay their respects and reflect on the dramatic events. The sunken battleship is commemorated by a 184 foot-long memorial structure that spans the hull of the USS Arizona ship, visible right below the water’s surface, especially in the morning light.
In the center area of the memorial, diagrams display the position and condition of parts of the ship. Many visitors pause and place leis in the water to commemorate those who died during the attack. The memorial also features a shrine room where the names of those who died on the Arizona are engraved on a marble wall.
USS Yorktown
Another carrier museum is tied up at Mount Pleasant, SC, just across the harbor from Charleston.
This warship is the new Yorktown. The original carrier was sunk at Midway. The current Yorktown went into service in 1943 and was part of the fleet for almost 30 years.
The warship battled the Japanese for two years in the Pacific, sinking the largest battleship ever built—Japan's Yamato. It also backed up American troops with heavy bombardment when they landed at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
In 1955, the jets flew off the carrier's new angled flight deck for the first time and during Vietnam, the ship served as an anti-submarine carrier.
Now visitors can tour the ship and wander around the flight deck looking at vintage warplanes.
USS Intrepid
The Intrepid, docked at Pier 86 on New York's Hudson River, was also commissioned in 1943, and sailed into harm's way often in its stormy 31-year career. The ship was hit by bombs seven times and Japanese suicide pilots, called Kamikaze pilots, flew into the ship five times.
But the Intrepid, nicknamed the "Fighting I," kept coming back. In the 1960s, it was the prime recovery carrier for NASA and later served off Vietnam on three tours of duty as an anti-sub carrier, tracking Soviet subs during the Cold War.
It was about to be scrapped when a millionaire, Zachary Fisher, spent $24 million of his own money to rescue the ship.
Visitors can view 25 aircraft on the flight deck, ride in the cockpit of a fighter simulator, and get an unsurpassed view of New York harbor.
Resources
San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum: USS Midway
US Patriots Port Naval & Maritime Museum: USS Yorktown
USS Intrepid: Sear, Air and Space Museum
Books
Find these books online at BarnesandNoble.com
The USS Arizona: The Ship, the Men, the Pearl Harbor Attack, and the Symbol That Aroused America,
By Joy Waldron Jasper, James P. Delgado, Jim Adams, St. Martin’s Press, 2003.
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway,
By Jonathan
Parshall and Anthony Tully. Potomac Books Inc. November 2005.
USS Yorktown at Midway,
By Stanford E. Linzey. Xulon Press. December 2004.
That Gallant Ship USS Yorktown (CV-5),
By Robert J. Cressman. Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Inc. June 1996.
