Fireworks Dazzle Over Midway
Space and infrastructure limitations kept F-14 Tomcat squadrons from ever being assigned to the USS Midway’s airwing. The ship’s arresting gear and catapult systems weren’t designed for long-term F-14 operations, and the hangar deck wasn’t tall or expansive enough to allow for proper maintenance functions.
On a frigid and deplorable-weather day in September 1982, however, an F-14 pilot made history and became a member of an exclusive naval aviator club. Rick Berg was a young Tomcat pilot who had just reported to Fighter Squadron 114 (VF-114) aboard the USS Enterprises (CVN-65). He found himself in a untenable situation during NORPAC 82, a large joint training exercise in the Northern Pacific, and was unable to return to his carrier. His only option, short of ejecting over icy waters just south of the Aleutian Islands, was Midway.
Move over Park Place and Board Walk, and make room for Balboa Park and the USS Midway Museum. San Diego has just joined other California cities like Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe and Santa Barbara with the launch of its own…
As the Freedom Park at Burnham Navy Pier project enters its fourth year, the pace of progress is accelerating rapidly. Much of the advanced engineering and preparation work on Navy Pier – building demolition, structural pier repairs and stabilization, utilities…
The contributions made by women to the war effort during World War II, both in the civilian sector and in the military, are nothing short of monumental.
As America’s active-duty military forces swelled to more than 16 million by war’s end, women moved into traditional male positions working as welders, machinists, mechanics and other skilled tradespersons in the manufacturing industry that built airplanes, ships and other equipment crucial to the U.S. war machine.
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, is considered a seminal, pivotal and defining moment in U.S. history. Not only did it end the country’s isolation policy, it catapulted America into World War II. “Pearl Harbor may…
Magazines tell stories. Unlike a newspaper article or a 45-second report on the evening news, magazines afford the writer the ability to explore their subjects at a more in-depth level. Even in this day and age of the “news snippets”…
Food For Thought
“The liberation of Kuwait has begun. In conjunction with the forces of our coalition partners, the United States has moved under the code name Operation Desert Storm to enforce the mandates of the United Nations Security Council.”President George Bush, announcing the start of Operation Desert Storm
during an Oval Office address to the nation on Jan. 16, 1991Midway Partners
