Floating Museum Offers an Insight into Life at Sea
by Johnny McDonald

The USS Midway, San Diego’s newest museum docked at Navy Pier, is described as a "work in progress." Although the aircraft carrier is to open to the public next month, there is still much to be done, according to marketing director Scott McGaugh.

"We’ll open with tours that will include about 25 to 30 stops, showing people how sailors lived aboard the ship," he said. "There will be simulated rides and a large model of the ship under Plexiglas. It’s a city at sea."

The flight deck now will feature two Grumman Hawks, an Intruder and a Vought Corsair. As many as 16 eventually will be included.

McGaugh, one of a host of volunteers working to get things ship-shape, said some of the other planes will come from the San Diego Aerospace Museum’s collection.

Midway Museum opens for tours June 7, 2004.

It will be a multidimensional, inter-active, educational and entertainment complex, attracting visitors as one of the only museums of its kind on the West Coast. Included is a below-deck theater.

This is a dream come true for multi-millionaire entrepreneur Alan Uke, a Poway businessman, spearheaded the museum project, which included spending $1.5 million to conduct engineering, environmental and marketing studies. During that period he had to acquire an approval from the Navy Department and the California Coastal Commission. Then, he led a donation campain to acquire $8 million to make it all happen. Even more interesting is that he never served in the military. Also, the Midway, mothballed 47 years, never really belonged to San Diego.

Uke was warned that it would never happen. Millions of dollars had to be raised while plans had to be approved by local, state and federal officials. Just an application to the Navy was 390 pages. It took 10 years to get the ship here.

"We want this to be the flagship of naval aviation," McGaugh said. adding that it will not have features of surface craft such as battleships, destroyers or cruisers but will deal primarily with the Midway’s 40 decades of service.

Four other carriers are on display in the nation: the Yorktown in South Carolina, Intrepid in New York, Hornet at Alameda and the Lexington at Corpus Christi, Texas.

The Midway entered service in September 1945 and was named after the pivotal 1942 sea battle of World War II. The 345,000-ton vessel is 968 feet long, its beam is 113 feet and a draft of 35 feet. Crew complement was 4,104.

Uke intends to organize a foundation for a $30 million to $50 million endowment fund in the next five years. Only two other museums have anything approaching this — the San Diego Museum of Art and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.

Others rely extensively on admissions, hotel tax revenue, memberships and modest donations.

Because of its locale, across from the Fish Market restaurant and near Seaport Village, officials optimistically project an annual attendance of 400,000.