Midway Open for Last Public Tours

The aircraft carrier Midway will be open for public tours today and Sunday in what will be the last opportunity for the public to visit the Navy’s oldest carrier before it is decommissioned in early 1992.

Navy officials said the 46-year-old carrier will be open to visitors between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the North Island Naval Air Station.

The Midway was commissioned at the end of World War II, on Sept. 10, 1945, and has fought in every major military campaign the United States has been involved in since the end of that war.

During the Persian Gulf War, the Midway’s Navy and Marine pilots flew more than 3,300 sorties over Iraq and Kuwait. Planes from the Midway dropped more than 4 million pounds of ordnance without losing any aircraft.

When the Midway was commissioned, she was the largest warship in the world. Today, she is the Navy’s smallest carrier.