Journey's end for the Midway ? new duty: museum

[thedrifter]

Journey's end for the Midway ? new duty: museum




By Jonathan Heller
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
11:00 p.m. January 5, 2004



As a full moon cast a soft, silvery light on its massive structure, the aircraft carrier Midway slipped ghostlike Monday into San Diego Bay.

People who had waited on Broadway Pier for up to six hours watched in silence as the 58-year-old warship was towed into its new home port, where it will take on a new mission as a floating museum and tourist attraction this spring.

"I wasn't going to leave until I saw her," said Ken Cohea, whose father, Baryon Cohea, served on the Midway in the 1960s. He died in April.

The 968-foot-long flattop, which was mothballed in 1992, was completing a six-day journey from Oakland, where it was spruced up for its new role.

Hundreds of people were lined up all day along the Embarcadero and Broadway Pier, and at Cabrillo National Monument at the tip of Point Loma, to greet the Midway. As the sun set, splashing orange and crimson across the bay, they had their cameras ready to capture the moment. But 10 minutes passed, then 20, and still no sight of the aircraft carrier.

Andy Campbell, 24, a downtown resident who is applying to become a Navy pilot, made four trips to the Embarcadero to try to get a glimpse of the carrier, but ultimately left after waiting until 30 minutes after sunset.

Those who hung around in the blustery dark had to settle for a glimpse of its silhouette.

"They're bringing the ship under a full moon; that's got to be good luck," said Russ Gatlin of Clearlake.

The designation "41" was just barely visible on its tower as the massive ship moved past, blotting out the lights of Point Loma behind it.

Hal Strong of Spring Valley brought his 8-year-old grandson, Austin, to witness the event. "It's like the Queen Mary coming in," said Strong, a retired Army helicopter mechanic.

The Midway was commissioned in 1945 and saw action during the Vietnam War and during the Persian Gulf War. Joe Ciokon, a retired Navy journalist from Poway, recalled crouching in a foxhole in Vietnam when the Midway's jets roared overhead on an airstrike.

"Its air wing came over and saved our bacon," Ciokon said.

Alan Uke, founder of the nonprofit San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, spent nearly a dozen years working to get the Midway for San Diego.

"I'm so excited, I'm tingling," Uke said. "It's like seeing a baby being born."

The Midway will be tied up at North Island Naval Air Station until Saturday while cranes lift refurbished carrier fighter jets aboard to be placed on exhibit.

On Saturday, the ship is scheduled to take its final voyage across the bay to Navy Pier, where it will take up its new duty station.

Riley Mixson, a retired rear admiral, will serve as executive director of the museum. He was skipper of the Midway from 1985 to 1987, when it was home-ported in Japan.

The ship, with a crew of 4,800, was "at the tip of the sword," the first in line to respond to a crisis in the Pacific or Indian oceans, he said.

"I could tell stories all day," Mixson said as he waited at the Broadway Pier for the Midway to arrive. "We were always at 24/7 readiness. Nothing was too hard. The impossible was just average for that crew."

Staff writers Helen Gao and Luis Monteagudo Jr. contributed to this report.

Jonathan Heller: (619) 542-4578; jonathan.heller@uniontrib.com


DAN TREVAN / Union-Tribune
With the lights of San Diego in the background, the carrier Midway heads toward its new home on San Diego Bay.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...106midway.html


Sempers,

Roger