Midway museum off to star-spangled start

[Eagle3]

By Ronald W. Powell
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 8, 2004

The aircraft carrier Midway was festooned with red, white and blue bunting yesterday, shedding its identity as a warship and launching into a career as a center for naval aviation history.

On its debut as the floating San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, the Midway drew a mix of locals and tourists, some overcome by nostalgia, others filled with curiosity.

Navy veterans and civilians began lining up about 9 a.m. at Navy Pier, where the 1001-foot-long flattop is moored along the North Embarcadero. Gates opened at 10 a.m., and by the end of the first hour 500 visitors had paid admission to board the 59-year-old warship.

Mac McLaughlin, the nonprofit museum's chief operating officer, said his dream is that tourists coming to San Diego will one day mention the Midway with the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park and SeaWorld as must-see attractions.

"We've got to earn our place on the waterfront," McLaughlin said. "You earn it by providing value and service to the community."

The museum's opening culminates more than 12 years of work by businessman Alan Uke of Del Mar and a group of supporters who assembled financing for the project and permission from the Navy to use the vessel, which was decommissioned in 1992.

While the museum group steered the project through local, state and federal rules, environmentalists and others criticized the museum, saying it would block views of San Diego Bay and was too big in comparison to other businesses and structures on the North Embarcadero.

The museum group prevailed, receiving Navy permission to take control of the Midway last summer.

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Complete article;
San Diego Union Tribune (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040608-9999-1m8midway.html)

[Eagle3]

USS Midway makes debut as public museum
By Jessica Gresko
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:22 a.m. June 7, 2004

SAN DIEGO – The menu in one of the USS Midway's galleys still reads: macaroni & cheese, biscuits and gravy, and apple cobbler in bright orange letters. It's a menu left over from the Desert Storm era when the aircraft carrier was decommissioned.

But with this ship opening Monday as the fifth and largest aircraft carrier museum in the nation, visitors can expect instead to be served a healthy helping of history – and maybe some lunch at a new visitors cafe.

The ship, now the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, is the first major attraction to open in the city of San Diego in decades. It's expected to draw about 400,000 visitors annually.

"Most people have never been on a war ship. It is totally different from a commercial vessel. It is totally utilitarian and a really difficult environment," said Alan Uke, whose vision it was to bring the ship to San Diego. He said the Midway fills an "unexpected vacuum" for a city that has a long naval history and even has two carriers, the USS Nimitz and USS John C. Stennis, home-ported in San Diego Bay.

In the past, and especially after the Sept. 11 attacks, the public has not had access to active duty ships. But, now visitors will have a chance to board a carrier, something they have been asking about for years, said officials at the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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- more - (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20040607-0022-ca-midwaymuseum.html)