Tag Archives: USS Midway

Phantom spotting

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I dearly love the old F-4 and, while the last one (of 5,195 made) rolled off the assembly line in 1981 (at that time in Japan), they are still fairly abundant in the wild even 45 years later.

At least 96 and perhaps as many as 150 Phantoms are still in front-line military service (including with Iran, at least for now), while easily another 200-300 are in storage, and about that many are on public display everywhere around the globe.

And I do mean everywhere.

Of note, the only “full-time jet fighter” in Iceland is a former 3rd/4th TFW F-4E-53-MC (72-1407) on display in USAF 57th FIS “Black Knights” livery as a gate guardian to the University of Iceland’s Keilir Aviation Academy aboard the old Keflavik AB.

Transferred to Keflavik in 1992 and largely stripped, it wears 66-0300, the number of the last Phantom to leave Keflavik in November 1985 when the Knights upgraded to F-15s

One of my most frequently seen “Spooks” has been on the gate guard to the USS Alabama Battleship Park for years, McDonnell Douglas F-4C-18-MC Phantom II, USAF registration 63-7487 (AF63/487).

Seen back in 2021.

I know she has been there for a couple of decades, as the local Fox affiliate opened its nightly news feed with almost exactly this shot going back to Hurricane Katrina.

She survived the monster storm that caused the 35,000-ton Alabama herself to list.

The circa 1963 warbird served with the 12th TFW and later the 366th TFW in South Vietnam, as well as the 8th TFW out of Ubon RTAB, Thailand, between 1965 and 1970, seeing lots of Southeast Asia service. After that, she saw Cold War duty with the 81st TFW at RAF Bentwaters, the 26th TRW at Zweibrcken Air Base, West Germany, the 52nd TFW at Spangdahlem, and the 401st TFW at Torrejon.

By 1979, she was back CONUS with the 182nd TFS of the Texas Air Guard out of Kelly Field. In her old age, she was converted to a GF-4C ground trainer in 1985 at Sheppard AFB, then retired and eventually shipped in 1991 to join “Big Al” in Mobile.

So it was shocking when I passed by on I-10 and saw that 487 was down from her pedestal and had disappeared.

Now that’s sad.

It turns out that she has been dismounted so that she can be restored, which is awesome.

In the meantime, she is sandwiched next to two very appropriate Vietnam-era airframes.

The first is a circa 1960 Douglas A-4L Skyhawk (BuNo 147787), which had served with VMA-223 and VMA-311 out of MCAB Chu Lai and VA-22 off USS Ranger.

Her second mate on the ground is a circa 1954 MiG-17 Fresco-A (540734) in Vietnam People’s Air Force livery (although she is a former Bulgarian airframe).

Looking forward to seeing 487 refreshed and preserved for future generations.

Speaking of which, the USS Hornet Museum is currently restoring the last Phantom to fly off a Carrier (VF-151 Vigilantes, USS Midway, March 25, 1986).

Museum ship adding to real-world training

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In the Western Pacific, both Australia and Japan could see an increase in American flattops crowding their ports in a time of heightened tensions. The thing is, likely opponents in the region who carriers and LHD/LHAs would be arrayed against field well-trained and likely very dedicated frogman forces who can use some decidedly old-school methods to keep such vessels sidelined.

So how do you train for that?

Well, Clearance Divers from the Royal Australian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force recently conducted a combined training activity, involving the clearance and removal of limpet mines, on the USS Midway Museum Ship in San Diego, California during the current Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 exercises. Ex-USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41) provides a great static training installation as the 1,000-foot long, 65,000-ton warship is the only supercarrier in the world that is preserved as a museum. 

Now that makes a lot of sense.

35 Years Ago: WWII Meets Cold War

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A beautiful port bow view of the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CV-41, ex-CVB/CVA-41) “somewhere in the Philipine Sea” as she is underway with Carrier Air Wing 5 (CARAIRWING FIVE) embarked, early January 1987.

Laid down on 27 October 1943 at Newport News as the lead ship in a class designed to carry a whopping 137 aircraft to fight the Empire of Japan, Midway was a week and a day too late for her intended task, commissioned on 10 September 1945.

Much modified with an enclosed bow and an angled flight deck in a three-year conversion in the mid-1950s, she would continue to operate in the jet era, largely with CVW-5 embarked. Midway took CVW-5 to Vietnam twice (April 16, 1971 – November 6, 1971 and September 11, 1973 – October 5, 1973) then continued to operate the wing, forward deployed to Naval Air Facility Atsugi, until August 1991.

Notably, her 1987 deployment was the first for Midway to carry the F/A-18A/B Hornet. VF-151 of CVW-5 had, on 25 March 1986, conducted the final carrier launching of a Navy fleet F-4S Phantom II off the carrier during flight operations in the East China Sea, closing out an era.

She carried three F-18 Hornet squadrons, as she was unable to operate F-14s for an extended amount of time and the F-4 had been retired.

Her Hornet squadrons included VFA-195 (Dambusters,) VFA-151 (Vigilantes) and VFA-192 (Golden Dragons) between 1986 and 1991. NARA DN-ST-93-01289 CVW-5

Decommissioned 11 April 1992– only five years after the above image– Midway is currently the largest naval museum ship in the world, and the only aircraft carrier commissoned after WWII that is preserved and open to the public. With all of the Navy’s conventional flattops now consigned to the scrappers, she will likley hold on to both of those titles.

Meanwhile, CVW-5 is still around and still in Japan, attached to forward-deployed Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5 and flagship USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76)— and yes, they still fly Hornets, albeit of the Super type.

Tomcat Wing vs Hornet Wing, 30 Years Ago Today

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The Forrestal-class aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62) (top), and USS Midway (CV-41) moored beside each other Naval Station, Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, 23 August 1991. Midway was en route from Naval Station, Yokosuka to California, where she was decommissioned the following April, while Independence traveled to Japan to take over as the U.S. Navy’s forward-based aircraft carrier.

Click to big up 2830×1850. Photo by PH Omar Hasan, U.S. Navy. National Archives Identifier (NAID) 6478213

On the occasion of the homeport swap between the two carriers, the above meeting gives a good view of their respective but very different air wings.

Although roughly similar in overall size (for Indy, compared to for Midway), the older carrier was designed in the age of the famed “Sunday Punch” of a carrier wing made up of some 108 prop-driven aircraft– F6F Hellcats, TBM Avengers, and SBD Dauntless dive-bombers, or equivalents. With that, the hangar deck height was a couple feet lower than that of the Forrestal class and later supercarriers. This meant that the hangar was too short to allow for all maintenance tasks (primarily removal of ejection seats) for such tall birds as the F-14 Tomcat and S-3 Viking.

And it is reflected on the decks of the two flattops, with Indy’s crowded by at least 16 visible Tomcats, with their wings swept closed, as well as a trio of Vikings.

Meanwhile, Midway’s mass of F-18s– she carried three squadrons at the time rather than the traditional two and two more of Tomcats for other carriers not in her class– is in full display with no less than 30 early model Hornets on deck along with five A-6E Intruders and two EA-6B Prowlers. To make up for the lack of ASW aircraft, they could carry more SH-3H Sea Kings. She also carried an extra squadron of Intruders to make up for the increased CAP taskings on the F-18s. 

For the record, Midway’s last carrier air wing consisted of:

Compared to Indy’s CVW-14:

The more you know…