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USS
Midway set for new life as naval museum
And
June 7-11, 2004 is Midway Magic Launch Week!!!
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The
USS Midway will soon take its place as a museum of naval aviation and San
Diego's biggest new tourist attraction in years.
"Someday, we’d
like to be talked about in the same breath as Sea World and the zoo,"
said Scott McGaugh, a museum spokesman. "It’s remarkable to think
San Diego has almost a 100 year history with the Navy and yet has no has
naval aviation museum."
The Midway will
fill that void in San Diego, the West Coast’s largest Navy port.
Backers have raised $8 million and spent a decade clearing regulatory
hurdles to bring the ship to San Diego. |
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"I’ve
been dreaming about the ship coming in for 10 years," said Alan Uke,
a 51-year-old businessman who came up with the idea in 1992. The
Midway will become the nation’s fifth and largest aircraft carrier
museum.
The Midway was the world’s largest warship when it was launched on
March 20, 1945, and it held that distinction for a decade. It served three
combat tours during in Vietnam and launched warplanes over Iraq in 1991
during Desert Storm. The ship saw many firsts, including the first jet takeoff
from a carrier and the dawn of naval missile warfare when a captured German
V-2 rocket was launched from its deck in 1947. |
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was decommissioned in Coronado in 1992, making it the longest-serving carrier
in U.S. Navy history. About 200,000 sailors and airmen called the Midway
home over the years. Backers of the Midway museum say San Diego’s long
association with the Navy make it an ideal site for a carrier museum. San
Diego is home to both a third of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet and the largest
number of military retirees anywhere in the country. |
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Story courtesy of The Associated Press
1/6/04. Source is the Desert Sun, http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2003/state/20040106005003.shtml
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