USS Midway

The Mushy Zone is back in active press with WBM visiting San Diego for the TMS annual meeting.
Arriving Friday 25th on a QANTAS flight to LA from Melbourne that was actually early, I get a good run through customs and immigration (Border Protection seems so much nicer under Obama(!?)and catch my San Diego flight in plenty of time. It was late leaving but early arriving (again!). My luck continues as I arrive at 11:30 and check in is 4pm but my room is ready. Then I head out toward the water front. The forecast is for heavy rain but as soon as I leave the hotel the sun comes out and stays out for the rest of the day.
Having noted the huge grey hulk of the Midway lurking on the water front during the the 10 min taxi ride from airport to the hotel I make my way along the front to check it out. It's a museum. I have some idea the Midway is historically significant. At the ticket counter the gods continue to smile on me as the "senior" in front has a $2 discount voucher but as a senior she already gest a discount so she gives the voucher to me.

There is an informative audio tour that assails me with statistics.
-longest serving US air craft carrier in the twentieth century
--commisioned 1945
-- involved in WWII, Korean war, Vietnam (first and last MIGs shot down from planes off Midway), Flagship of the desert storm operations.
-- too big to go through the Panama canal (trivia question: if you go from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Panama canal, which way are you headed?)
--weighs 69,000 tonnes
--carries a crew of 4,500
--2,000 compartments
--100,000 gallons of fuel used per day
--1001 feet long (308 m)
--20 tonne anchors
--4.02 acre flight deck
-- 18 decks
-- 10 tonnes of food daily
--5 doctors
-- 3 dentists etc.
The cabins etc are all laid out well with lots of info.The animatronics are a bit cheesey. There are many full size planes and choppers on board.The only aircraft I could id w/o assistance where the FA-18 Hornet and the Huey but the excellent sinage and audio tour info tell me all about the different planes (must be nearly 30 different aircraft aboard). Generally you can wander at your own pace except for the bridge and flight command centre where you have to go in a group. Turns out one of my group is an ex captain of the Midway. I think it was captain Robert Owens ( captain in 1982) from the photos of past captains in the captains quarters.

He had a few things to say but the tour guide wouldn't let him tell us much. After his term on the Midway he was flying a desk in the Navy for a while then got bored with that and has now gone back to flying-- with Fedex. I thought it strange that he and his family wouldn't be afforded a private tour or given more respect during the public tour.