A Year of Midway Magic

As we bid farewell to 2022, all of us at the USS Midway Museum want to wish the readers of San Diego Veterans Magazine a very happy holiday and wonderful new year. Through our monthly Midway Magic columns, it’s been an honor to bring you stories of service, sacrifice and adventure from former USS Midway sailors, museum volunteers, as well as heroic servicemen and women.

Gary Chapman started our year as the Veteran’s Spotlight in the magazine’s January issue. Chapman, a 1962 graduate of Point Loma High School and a Midway volunteer docent for the last 12 years, took part in multiple combat deployments and in-country assignments with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. After his initial assignment on a destroyer, which came under attack while operating in the Tonkin Gulf, he later served with River Assault Flotilla 1 (RAF 1) where he spent a year in the Mekong Delta.

“Many people didn’t realize how successful the mobile riverine force was,” said Chapman, whose unit came under attack multiple times while patrolling the main river channels as far as the Cambodian border. “The enemy was effectively driven out of the area after some hard fighting.”

March’s column focused on Volunteer Month and theselfless contributions of Midway volunteers like Robin Paine who not only enjoys making a difference in the lives of others but revels in developing new friendships. It provides me the possibilities to learn about other cultures and points of view while having loads of fun.”

Eternal friendship took center stage in May’s column when we highlighted the life-long relationships that are a hallmark of military service. This spring, 11 former Midway shipmates reunited on the deck on the museum 40 years after serving together. Time may have added a few pounds here and there, and thinned their hair a bit, but their connection to each other remains as strong as ever.

“It was a wonderful experience reuniting,” said Carl Shoemaker, who served on Midway from 1980-1983. “We saw what we’ve turn into from young adults to grandpas. Some of us were not destined to make it as far as we did without the Navy. Most of all, as young men, the Midway helped us with those Y-in-the-road life decisions.”

The courageous story of a quiet hero was told this summer.

Dick Bradley is one of the few Navy pilots to successfully crash land his helicopter in the ocean at night after experiencing a catastrophic flight-control failure. His actions saved the lives of his crew.

“Without my training, I wouldn’t be here today,” said Bradley, a 17-year Midway volunteer docent who was forced to ditch his H-34 Seabat helicopter into the Pacific Ocean in 1964. “As the pilot, the final responsibility was mine. I was very happy we all made it out. We knew what to do and we did it. Fortunately, we made the right decisions that night.”

“The volunteer mindset is so important to the strength and well-being of our communities,” said Paine, a member of museum’s outreach team since 2012. “Volunteering on the Midway is a win-win proposition. As one of the few Navy ships to receive a second chance to serve as a floating museum after being decommissioned, Midway has never forgotten the sailors who walked her decks over the course of 47 years.

Shortly after opening to the public in 2004, volunteer

Margaret Riggs

became the driving force behind the Midway Sailor program that has reconnected nearly 6,000 Midway eterans with the ship.

“My greatest satisfaction is helping these veterans relive their experiences aboard Midway and listening to their stories,” said Riggs, a retired biochemical genetic researcher who began volunteering for the museum in 2004. “Their military experience influenced our culture in interesting unforeseen ways.”

The spirit of the USS Midway has been kept alive for nearly 80 years by a retired tool maker from Millerstown, Pa.

Lee Owen, one of Midway’s original crewmembers reporting aboard the ship in March 1945, celebrated his 100th birthday in 2022. For Owen, his tour of duty on the carrier is as vivid in his mind today as it was nearly eight decades ago.

“I am prideful to be able to say I served on the Midway and I feel I was lucky to have served on the biggest ship in the world at the time,” said Owen, who was an aviation machinists mate. “Just the fact that I served our country, all those years ago, to make us truly free, yet today. I’d love to visit her again.” www.midway.org/give-join/volunteers

For those interested in becoming a USS Midway Museum volunteer, more information along with the volunteer application can be found www.midway.org/give-join/volunteers. volunteers@midway.org

www.midway.org