USS Midway Rocker Patch

USS Midway was commissioned on 10 September 1945, eight days after Japan signed the surrender, and she was still flying strikes in 1991 when Desert Storm opened. Few ships in the Navy can claim that span. She was the lead ship of her class and the largest carrier in the world until 1955. Her crews knew her as Midway Magic. This rocker carries her name and nothing else, which is all a Midway sailor needs.

On 17 June 1965 two VF-21 F-4B Phantom IIs off Midway shot down two MiG-17s with AIM-7 Sparrows, the first MiG kills credited to American forces in Southeast Asia, and a Midway aircraft scored the last air-to-air victory of the war in January 1973. On 5 October 1973 she entered Yokosuka, the first complete carrier task group forward deployed in a Japanese port, with her air wing ashore at NAF Atsugi. During Operation Frequent Wind on 29 April 1975, South Vietnamese Air Force Major Ly Bung landed an O-1 Bird Dog on her deck with his wife and five children aboard, after the crew pushed helicopters over the side to clear room. In January 1991 she was in the Persian Gulf and launched the first carrier strikes of Desert Storm on 17 January. She was decommissioned at NAS North Island on 11 April 1992.

This is a 4 by 0.5 inch arched rocker tab on navy blue twill, finished with a navy merrowed edge and a thin black inner line. U.S.S. MIDWAY runs across it in white block capitals. The curve is cut to ride on top of a ship patch, squadron patch or air wing patch, the same way a name tab sits on a jacket. Plain lettering, easy to read across a room.

Three generations went to sea on Midway, from the postwar Atlantic years through Vietnam, the long run out of Yokosuka and the Gulf. She was rebuilt more than once to handle bigger jets, and she kept going when newer carriers came along. Her crews brought helicopters and refugees aboard off Saigon and went back out again. Since 7 June 2004 she has been open as a museum ship at Navy Pier in San Diego, where her old hands still walk the hangar deck. A Midway sailor carries that history around with him.

Sew it above a Midway or air wing patch on a vest, or mount it at the top of a shadow box over a cruise book photo. It is also a good gift for a father or grandfather who made a Westpac cruise on her. The iron-on backing goes on quick, and a few stitches will keep it in place for good. One name, 47 years at sea.