Rare Patch - USS MIDWAY - Bicentennial Westpac Cruise 1976 - Vietnam War - Z.307 For Sale

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Rare Patch - USS MIDWAY - Bicentennial Westpac Cruise 1976 - Vietnam War - Z.307:
$76.00

United States Navy - USS MIDWAY - CV-41

1976 - Post Vietnam War Patch - Bicentennial Westpac Cruise

Measures - 4 inches in diameter (10 cms)

USS MIDWAY – CV-41 – US Navy – Aircraft Carrier

USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41) is an aircraft carrier, formerly of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class.

Commissioned 8 days after the end of World War II, Midway was the largest ship in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the Panama Canal.

She operated for 47 years, during which time she saw action in the Vietnam War and served as the Persian Gulf flagship in 1991's Operation Desert Storm.

Decommissioned in 1992, she is now a museum ship at the USS Midway Museum, in San Diego, California, and is the only remaining inactive U.S. aircraft carrier that is not an Essex-class aircraft carrier.

Vietnam War Service

Midway sailed for the Far East 6 March 1965, and from mid-April flew strikes against military and logistics installations in North and South Vietnam, including the first combat use of AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-surface missiles.

On 17 June 1965 two VF-21 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs flying from Midway were credited with the first confirmed MiG kills of the Vietnam conflict, using AIM-7 Sparrow missiles to down two MiG-17s.

Three days later, four of Midway's A-1 Skyraiders used the World War II vintage Thach Weave tactic to down an attacking MiG-17.

Midway lost an F-4 Phantom and two A-4 Skyhawks to North Vietnamese S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missiles before returning to Alameda on 23 November to enter San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard on 11 February 1966 for a massive modernization which proved expensive and controversial.

The flight deck was enlarged from 2.8 to 4 acres (11,300 to 16,200 square metres (122,000 to 174,000 sq ft)), and the angle of the flight deck landing area was increased to 13.5 degrees.

The elevators were enlarged, moved, and given almost double the weight capacity. Midway also received new steam catapults, arresting gear, and a centralized air conditioning plant. Cost overruns raised the price of this program from $88 million to US$202 million, and precluded a similar modernization planned for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After Midway was finally recommissioned on 31 January 1970, it was found that the modifications had worsened the ship's seakeeping capabilities and ability to conduct air operations in rough seas, which made further modifications necessary to correct the problem.

Midway returned to Vietnam and on 18 May 1971, after relieving Hancock at Yankee Station, began single carrier operations. Midway departed Yankee Station on 5 June, completing the vessel's final line period on 31 October 1971, and returned to the ship's homeport on 6 November 1971.

Midway, with embarked Carrier Air Wing 5 (CVW 5), again departed Alameda for operations off Vietnam on 10 April 1972.

On 11 May, aircraft from Midway, along with those from Coral Sea, Kitty Hawk, and Constellation, began laying naval mines off North Vietnamese ports, including Thanh Hóa, Đồng Hới, Vinh, Hon Gai, Quang Khe, and Cam Pha, as well as other approaches to Haiphong.

Ships that were in port in Haiphong had been warned that the mining would take place and that the mines would be armed 72 hours later.

Midway continued Vietnam operations during Operation Linebacker throughout the summer of 1972.

On 7 August 1972, an HC-7 Det 110 helicopter, flying from Midway, and aided by planes from the carrier and from Saratoga, searched for the pilot of an A-7 Corsair II aircraft from Saratoga who had been downed the previous day by a surface-to-air missile about 20 mi (32 km) inland, northwest of Vinh. Flying over mountains, the HC-7 helicopter spotted the downed aviator with her searchlight and, under heavy ground fire, retrieved him before returning to an LPD off the coast.

This was the deepest penetration by a rescue helicopter into North Vietnam since 1968. By the end of 1972, HC-7 Det 110 had rescued a total of 48 pilots, 35 in combat conditions.

On 5 October 1973, Midway, with CVW 5, put into Yokosuka, Japan, marking the first forward-deployment of a complete carrier task group in a Japanese port, the result of an accord arrived at on 31 August 1972 between the U.S. and Japan.

The move allowed sailors to live with their families when in port; more strategically, it allowed three carriers to stay in East Asia even as the economic situation demanded the reduction of carriers in the fleet.

Aircraft from Midway made both the first MIG kills in the Vietnam War, and the last air-to-air victory of the war.

On 17 June 1965, aviators of Midway's Attack Carrier Wing 2, VF-21, had downed the first two MiGs credited to U.S. forces in Southeast Asia.

On 12 January 1973 a combat aircraft from Midway made the last air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War.

Operation Frequent Wind - On 19 April 1975, after North Vietnam had overrun two-thirds of South Vietnam, Midway, along with Coral Sea, Hancock, Enterprise and Okinawa, were sent to the waters off South Vietnam.

Ten days later, U.S. 7th Fleet forces carried out Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon.

For this, Midway, which had offloaded half of the ship's regular combat air wing at NS Subic Bay, Philippines, steamed to Thailand and took aboard eight U.S. Air Force CH-53 from 21st Special Operations Squadron and two HH-53 helicopters from 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron.

As Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces, these helicopters transported hundreds of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese people to Midway and other U.S. ships in the South China Sea.

On 29 April 1975, Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) Major Buang-Ly (also spelled Buang Lee) loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from Con Son Island.

After evading enemy ground fire, Buang headed out to the South China Sea, found Midway, and began to circle overhead with his landing lights turned on.

Midway's crew unsuccessfully attempted to contact the aircraft on emergency frequencies. When a spotter reported that there were at least four people in the two-seater aircraft, all thoughts of forcing the pilot to ditch alongside were abandoned.

After three tries, Major Buang managed to drop a note from a low pass over the deck: "Can you move the helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly for one hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 child."

Captain Larry Chambers, the ship's commanding officer, ordered that the arresting wires be removed and that any helicopters that could not be safely and quickly moved should be pushed over the side.

He called for volunteers, and soon every available seaman was on deck to help. An estimated US$10 million worth of UH-1 Huey helicopters were pushed overboard.

With a 500-foot (150 m) ceiling, 5-mile (8.0 km) visibility, light rain, and 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) of surface wind, Chambers ordered the ship to sail at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) into the wind.

Warnings about the dangerous downdrafts created behind a steaming carrier were transmitted blind in both Vietnamese and English. To make matters worse, five more UH-1s landed and cluttered up the deck. Without hesitation, Chambers ordered them scuttled as well. Captain Chambers recalled that;

“Buang'saircraft cleared the ramp and touched down on center line at the normal touchdown point. Had he been equipped with a tailhook he could have bagged a number 3 wire. He bounced once and came to a stop abeam of the island, amid a wildly cheering, arms-waving flight deck crew.”

Buang was escorted to the bridge where Chambers congratulated him on his outstanding airmanship, and his bravery in risking everything on a gamble beyond the point of no return without knowing for certain a carrier would be where he needed it.

The crew of Midway was so impressed that they established a fund to help him and his family get settled in the United States.

The O-1 that Major Buang landed is now on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

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