Page 8 - LPG Expo 2020 Conference Booklet 052019

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MIDWAY BATTLESHIP IN SAN DIEGO
LPG members will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dine aboard the USS Midway. Experience flight simulators, tours of the ship and much more fun!
The USS Midway was the longest-serving aircraft carrier in the 20th century. Named after the climatic Battle of Midway in June 1942, Midway was built in only 17 months, but missed being active in World War II by one week when commissioned on September 10, 1945. Midway was the first in a three-ship class of large carriers that featured an armored flight deck and a powerful air group of 120 planes.
From the beginning of its service, the Midway played key roles in the Cold War. In 1946 it became the first American carrier to operate in the mid-winter sub-Arctic, developing new flight deck procedures. The following year Midway became the only ship to launch a captured German V-2 rocket. The trial’s success became the dawn of naval missile warfare. Just two years after that, Midway sent a large patrol plane aloft to demonstrate that atomic bombs could be delivered by a carrier.
Midway served with the Atlantic Fleet for 10 years, making seven deployments to European waters, patrolling “the soft underbelly” of NATO. A round-the-world cruise took Midway to the West Coast in 1955, where it was rebuilt with an angled deck to improve jet operations.