There’s so much to see in this one-hour episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in May 2008. The USS Midway and the USS Hornet are both veterans of the Second World War, but they’ve seen many other types of service over the years. Both ships are still in open to the public, the USS Midway in San Diego and the USS Hornet at the site of the former Naval Air Station in Alameda.
California has a rich maritime history and has been at the forefront of naval warfare since the beginning. In this adventure, Huell visits two aircraft carriers that are now museums in the waters of California. First it’s off to San Diego to visit the USS Midway, which has steamed through a 47-year career of service. Imagine a carrier that was commissioned in 1945 and served as a flagship in Desert Storm in 1991. No other carrier served as long as the U.S.S. Midway. She opened in 2004 as a naval aviation museum and is now the pride of San Diego’s waterfront. Next it’s off to Alameda to visit the carrier U.S.S. Hornet that is a national treasure, having participated in two of the greatest events of the 20th century — World War II and the Apollo 11 manned space mission. This floating museum even has the Airstream trailer that the Apollo astronauts lived in for three days after returning to earth.
(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)
