USS Midway, first of a three-ship class of 45,000-ton large aircraft carriers, was built at Newport News, Virginia, and commissioned in September 1945. Following shakedown, she began eight years' service with the Atlantic Fleet. In March 1946, Midway made an cruise to Arctic waters for experimental cold weather operations. The following year, her flight deck was the site of a at-sea test launching of an ex-German V-2 ballistic missile. Also in 1947, the carrier undertook the first of several Sixth Fleet tours in the Mediterranean sea. She also periodically deployed to North Atlantic waters, including participation in the NATO Operation "Mainbrace" in 1952. In October of that year, she was reclassified an attack aircraft carrier, changing her hull number from CVB-41 to CVA-41

Late in 1954, Midway left the Atlantic, steaming past the Cape of Good Hope to join the Seventh Fleet in the Far East. In September 1955, following this cruise, she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for the first of her two major modernizations. Recommissioned two years later, as the work neared completion, Midway now had an angled flight deck, enclosed bow, three steam catapults and other features that enabled her to better operate high-performance aircraft. She conducted a Seventh Fleet deployment in 1958 and was a regular visitor to Asiatic waters during the next eight years. Her 1965 Far Eastern tour included active participation in the then-expanding Vietnam War. From February 1966 until mid-1970, Midway was again in shipyard hands, receiving an extensive modernization that included installation of a greatly enlarged flight deck.

Upon her return to commissioned service, Midway again took part in Southeast Asian conflict combat operations. In October 1973, she changed her homeport to Yokosuka, Japan, allowing the Navy to maintain a greater carrier presence in the Far East than would have been possible from a U.S. base. During this time, she was active in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf areas. The ship was redesignated CV-41 in June 1975 and received a major refit in 1986. In 1990-91, Midway participated in Operations "Desert Shield" and "Desert Storm", which contained and then reversed Iraqi aggression against Kuwait. After additional activity in the Philippines area and elsewhere in the Seventh Fleet area, the ship returned to the United States for the first time in some eighteen years. USS Midway was decommissioned in April 1992 and placed in the Reserve Fleet. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in March 1997, she remains in Navy custody awaiting probable new employment as a museum ship at San Diego, California.