Aerial view of the San Francisco Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point, sometime between April and July 1968. USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) and USS Hancock (CVA-19) are easily identifiable. Also visible in this photo are Midway (CVA-41), undergoing her SCB-101.66 modernization in the drydock just aft of Coral Sea, and USS Oriskany (CVA-34), undergoing an 8-month overhaul in the background.

VADM Allen M. Shinn, COMAIRPAC, speaking at the Re-Commissioning Ceremonies of USS Midway (CVA-41) at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, 31 January 1970.

Midway coming alongside Vega (AF-59), 1970s, place unknown.

Yokosuka, Japan, 1970s.

NAS Alameda, 1970s.

A Flight Deck Director signals an F-4 Phantom II fighter into position on the starboard catapult, in preparation for launching, 5 August 1970. Photographed by PH2 Kevin J. Freedman.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97635).

Good view of the aircraft lift added to her starboard side forward of her island.

Note: This one and the photo below were probably taken within minutes from each other.

USS Midway (CVA-41) underway in the Pacific Ocean, 19 April 1971.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph (photo # KN-19524).

USS Midway (CVA-41) underway in the Gulf of Tonkin during operations off North Vietnam, June 1971.

VNAF Major Buang lands his Cessna O-1 Bird Dog on the deck of USS Midway (CVA-41) during Operation Frequent Wind.

"It was April 30, 1975. Rain had soaked the deck. The men of Midway were bringing order out of chaos. An armada of helicopters, flown by and filled with Vietnamese, flocked to the floating sanctuary. At one point a tiny silhouette appeared on the horizon, heading toward the carrier. It was soon identified as a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, used as an observation aircraft in the war."

"The diminutive plane circled Midway. The Vietnamese Major at the controls tried to toss a note to the flight deck. He failed twice. But on the third attempt he succeeded. Scribled on a torn nav chart was a crude but eloquent appeal:"

"Can you move these helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly 1 hour more, we have enough time to move.
Please rescue me.
Major Buang Wife and 5 child"

"On the bridge, Midway's C.O., Captain L.C. Chambers didn't wait long to act. He directed the flight deck crew to clear the landing area."

"Moments later the O-1 pilot turned into the groove and guided his craft, sans tail hook, toward the deck. He crossed the fantail, touched down, bounced, struck the ship again, rolled forward and stopped with plenty of room to spare."

(Quoted from Naval Aviation News magazine, July 1975 issue, pages 32–33.)

Photo taken in 1980 at Cubi Point, P.I., immediately before the collision with Panamanian freighter Cactus (see 0241aa).

At 0720 CDT on 29 July 1980 USS Midway (CV-41) collided with the 450-foot Panamanian freighter Cactus while transiting between the Palawan Island and North Borneo, 450 miles southwest of the U.S. naval base at Subic Bay, the Philippines. There was no significant damage to the carrier (catwalks and deck supports on the port side were damaged, an elevator jammed and three holes were punched in the ship's hull plates) but several parked F-4J and RF-4B Phantom II aircraft on the flight deck were damaged. Two sailors were killed and three injured onboard Midway.

U.S. Navy photo taken on 31 July 1980.

Panamanian freighter Cactus, after collision with USS Midway (CV-41).

A port beam view of the aircraft carriers USS Midway (CV-41), closest to camera, and USS Ranger (CV-61), background, with the guided missile destroyer USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) and the combat stores ship USS San Jose (AFS-7), underway in the Philippine Sea, May 1982, during exercise Readex '82. US Navy photo by PH1 Barbante (DVIC id: DNSN8207484).

A port quarter view of the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CV-41) underway in the Pacific Ocean, 2 December 1982, while participating in Hong Kong Exercise Search and Rescue '82. The Midway was being used as a base of operations for aircraft involved in the exercise. US Navy photo by LT Douglas Dotson (DVIC id: DFST8309958).

Photo taken on 13 April 1983, during exercise FleetEx 83-1, in the North Pacific Ocean. The three carriers are, clockwise from left, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), USS Midway (CV-41), and USS Coral Sea (CV-43).

Then LT Jim Petroski was aboard the Big E in the Reactor Dept., as RC division officer, and comments: "I spent some time up on the signal bridge during this photo op and got some great pictures of aircraft flying over us. Our air wing was the only one which could fly that day as the sea was quite rough—wave splashes were coming over the hurricane bow—and neither the Coral Sea nor Midway could launch/recover a/c. The frigate to starboard of "E" went up to 1/2 under in the waves, and the Coast Guard cutter to port came about 2/3 out of water. Quite a sight that day."

"The April 13 date sounds correct. We were crossing and re-crossing the international date line a lot at that time. So some days were 46 hours long, and others were 2 hours long. It was easy to forget what day it was!"

USNS Navasota (T-AO-106) underway during a Replenishment at Sea of USS Midway (CV-41) and USS England (CG-22) in the Pacific, late 1983. US Navy photo.

"Aircraft Carrier Midway, modernization along program SCB-101." (From a Russian publication).

This drawing shows Midway's final appearance, in the second half of the 1980s-1992, with SPS-48C and SPS-49 radars, two 8-cell BPDMS launchers and Phalanx.

5,000 feet above Midway, North Arabian Sea, February 1988.

Dolphin under Midway's Golden Anchor.

Battle Group Alfa, Persian Gulf, 1990.

An overhead view of the flight decks of the aircraft carriers USS Independence (CV-62), top, and USS Midway (CV-41), bottom, moored beside each other, Naval Station Pearl Harbor, 23 August 1991. A great detailed photo, showing the various aircraft of their Air Wings. Midway was en route from Naval Station, Yokosuka, Japan, to Naval Air Station, North Island, California, where she would be decommissioned in the spring of 1992. Independence would travel to Yokosuka to take over as the Navy's only forward-based aircraft carrier. US Navy photo by PH2 Omar Hasan. (Available from DefenseImagery.mil as photo # DN-ST-9203042.)