"Naval Legends"
In this episode: Aircraft carrier Midway
a pioneer in the jet era.
Well, no city would be complete, even at sea, if it didn't have a hospital.
Well, Midway had a hospital: 18 beds, two surgeons, about 40 core men with complete capabilities here on this ship.
There were two operating rooms, and X-ray room, a pharmacy, intensive care unit, 18 beds for post-op patients.
So, sailors aboard Midway had a complete range of medical services,
especially important when it came to accidents nd injuries up on the flight deck.
There were plenty of such incidents aboard Midway, especially when she began to receive her first jet aircraft.
What is a jet aircraft in the 1940s? It's basically a flying shell.
There's little knowledge about the flight system, about the jet engine's behavior in the air,
and about the landing, especially on board an aircraft carrier.
Assume an airplane like that landed on the deck of Essex and exploded—the carrier would be knocked out.
And here we have Midway with an armored deck.
That's why the Midway-class carriers became the platform for testing the first jets in the US Navy.
Midway and her sister ships Coral Sea and Franklin D. Roosevelt became pioneers in the jet era.
On July 21, 1946, Lieutenant Commander James Davidson made the first jet landing
on the deck of Franklin D. Roosevelt, flying a prototype XFD-1 Phantom.
In September 1947, USS Midway made the historic launch of a ballistic missile, which was the captured German V-2.
The event was attended by a group of American missile designers headed by Wernher von Braun
And though the launch was not successful, it demonstrated the vistas of ship-based missile armament.
Having missed World War II, the Midway-class carriers came just in time for the nuclear missile race.
So many things had to be changed on Midway to accommodate jets and get rid of most of the propeller planes.
The cannons all around the edge of the ship were taken away to reduce weight, because they were no longer needed.
A second angled deck was added to the ship in the mid-1950s,
so that there will be a landing area as well as a take-off to accommodate the faster, more powerful jets.
The catapults and the arresting gear wires, they all had to be modernized
and strengthened to accommodate jets.
So when you are standing aboard Midway, you are standing aboard 47 years of naval aviation
from the beginning of the jet age in the late 1940s all the way through 1991.
In 1955 it was decided to modernize Midway to make her adequate for modern challenges.
The modernization cost almost as much as her construction in the 1940s and took even more time.
But the political situation in the world at the time required constantly increasing attack forces.
Midway and her sister ships became the key players of the so-called "aircraft carrier diplomacy"
by regularly visiting regions that were in conflict at that time.
Many people are surprised to learn that for most aircraft carriers,
on average they only spend about 10% of their entire life in actual combat.
Their primary role is one of deterrence.
Though if combat is necessary, that's certainly what an aircraft carrier is for.
And for the USS Midway that was primarily during Vietnam.
It deployed to Vietnam several times: in the mid-1960s and then again in the early 1970s.
Around-the-clock flight operations, combat operations took place right here on the flight deck.
Midway holds several distinctions during the Vietnam War.
Its aviators shot down the first enemy aircraft of the war in the mid-1960s
and the last enemy aircraft of the war in the early 1970s.
So USS Midway played an important role in Vietnam both in combat and later on
from a humanitarian standpoint, later on in the 1970s.
USS Midway completed her mission in Vietnam with a rescue operation.
Early in the morning of April 29, 1975, the US Command organized an urgent evacuation
of more than 7,000 citizens of the United States and other countries from the besieged Saigon.
Helicopters bringing people from the roof of the US embassy landed on the aircraft carrier's deck every minute
and, after dropping off their passengers, returned to Saigon.
In the afternoon a small single-engine Cessna with its landing lights lit appeared over the carrier.
With low clouds, rain, and winds it attempted to land on the Midway's deck several times, but without success.
The ship was unable to establish radio contact with the aircraft,
but on the third approach the pilot threw out a holster with a note.
"Can you move the helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway,
I can fly for one hour more, we have enough time to move.
Please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 child."
Larry Chambers, the ship's captain, understood that in order to save the refugees
he had to make the only possible decision, which could have serious consequences for his military career.
Regardless of the risk of being court-martialed,
Chambers ordered the crew to push several helicopters overboard
and turn the carrier to make the landing easier for the Cessna.
Several minutes later, the aircraft stopped on the deck,
accompanied by the cheers of the ship's crew.
Major Buang, his children, including a one-year-old baby,
and his wife were unharmed.
The Midway-class aircraft carriers, and namely Midway,
played an outstanding role in the development of naval armaments.
She was laid down as a secondary ship with a powerful aircraft wing.
However, she became the most powerful ship of the US Navy.
Her further progress made her crucial for the development of carrier jet aviation.
As a result, these were the Midways who became prototypes for all US aircraft carriers that were built later.
In 1991, Midway participated in the Gulf War and it was her last combat mission.
The final entry in the carrier's service record was another humanitarian operation:
she helped the people of the Philippines and the personnel of the US Naval Base Subic Bay
after the eruption of the Pinatubo volcano on the island of Luzon.
USS Midway served for 47 years, the longest serving carrier of the 20th century.
In that time more innovations took place including the angled flight deck,
testing autopilot technology that we all benefit from today.
It was something that really set the stage for future generations of aircraft carriers
that began with the Forrestal in 1955.
USS Midway stayed in the public eye throughout her entire career,
but even after being decommissioned she continues to draw people's attention.
Her mission now is to preserve the history of the US Navy
and share it with anyone who visits her in San Diego, California.
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