Days til WTD9 2011
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Joined: Mar 2009
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From: Miami
well thats good
a chuckle like as in thats not gonna happen? thats not so good
dont worry we will be standing by with flame throwers and hedge clippers and such
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,614
Likes: 11
From: Northern VA
USS Midway (CVB-41, later CVA-41 and CV-41), 1945-2003
USS Midway, first of a three-ship class of 45,000-ton large aircraft carriers, was built at Newport News, Virginia, and commissioned in September 1945. Following shakedown, she began eight years' service with the Atlantic Fleet. In March 1946, Midway made an cruise to Arctic waters for experimental cold weather operations. The following year, her flight deck was the site of a at-sea test launching of an ex-German V-2 ballistic missile. Also in 1947, the carrier undertook the first of several Sixth Fleet tours in the Mediterranean sea. She also periodically deployed to North Atlantic waters, including participation in the NATO Operation "Mainbrace" in 1952. In October of that year, she was reclassified an attack aircraft carrier, changing her hull number from CVB-41 to CVA-41
Late in 1954, Midway left the Atlantic, steaming past the Cape of Good Hope to join the Seventh Fleet in the Far East. In September 1955, following this cruise, she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for the first of her two major modernizations. Recommissioned two years later, as the work neared completion, Midway now had an angled flight deck, enclosed bow, three steam catapults and other features that enabled her to better operate high-performance aircraft. She conducted a Seventh Fleet deployment in 1958 and was a regular visitor to Asiatic waters during the next eight years. Her 1965 Far Eastern tour included active participation in the then-expanding Vietnam War. From February 1966 until mid-1970, Midway was again in shipyard hands, receiving an extensive modernization that included installation of a greatly enlarged flight deck.
Upon her return to commissioned service, Midway again took part in Southeast Asian conflict combat operations. In October 1973, she changed her homeport to Yokosuka, Japan, allowing the Navy to maintain a greater carrier presence in the Far East than would have been possible from a U.S. base. During this time, she was active in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf areas. The ship was redesignated CV-41 in June 1975 and received a major refit in 1986. In 1990-91, Midway participated in Operations "Desert Shield" and "Desert Storm", which contained and then reversed Iraqi aggression against Kuwait. After additional activity in the Philippines area and elsewhere in the Seventh Fleet area, the ship returned to the United States for the first time in some eighteen years. USS Midway was decommissioned in April 1992 and placed in the Reserve Fleet. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in March 1997, during 2003-2004 she was converted to a museum and is now a prominent attraction at San Diego, California.
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,614
Likes: 11
From: Northern VA
USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG-128), 1917-1956
USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. She was commissioned in December 1917, and operated in the western Atlantic area until July 1919, when she transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific. Over more than a decade, she operated with the fleet's other battleships, conducting exercises and training operations in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925.
During 1931-33 , Mississippi underwent a major modernization that gave her an all-new superstructure, improved armament and enhanced protection. She returned to the Pacific in October 1934 to resume her earlier pattern of regular exercises, Fleet Problems and training. In June 1941, in response to the deteriorating war situation in Europe, she was brought back to the Atlantic, operating between the United States and Iceland during much of the rest of that year.
In early 1942, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mississippi rejoined the Pacific Fleet. She spent most of 1942 along the U.S. west coast and went to the South Pacific late in that year. In 1943, she took part operations against Kiska Island, in the Aleutians, and in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives. Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. Later in the year, she was part of the force that invaded Peleliu and Leyte and defeated a Japanese task force in the Battle of Surigao Strait. Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Lingayen landings in January 1945 and for the conquest of Okinawa in March-June. The battleship was damaged by suicide planes in both operations. She was present in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, when Japan formally surrendered and returned to the United States soon thereafter.
Mississippi was converted to a gunnery training and weapons development ship in 1946, and given the new hull number AG-128. In this role, she carried a variety of old and new guns and radars, while serving with the Operational Development Force in the Atlantic. During the mid-1950s, she was test ship for the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile, the "Terrier". Decommissioned in September 1956, USS Mississippi was sold for scrapping in November of that year, after almost forty years of service.
