This website was created and maintained from May 2020 to May 2021 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Stars and Stripes operations in the Pacific.
It will no longer be updated, but we encourage you to explore the site and view content we felt best illustrated Stars and Stripes' continued support of the Pacific theater since 1945.
Readying the Midway for another trip out
Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, June, 1977: Seaman John Sotak, spattered with paint, takes a break from his chores on the USS Midway in drydock at Yokosuka Naval Base. The 32-year-old aircraft carrier was undergoing two months of painting, remodeling and refitting.
By STARS AND STRIPES | STARS AND STRIPES June 28, 1977
YOKOSUKA NB, Japan — She's nearly 32 and, like everyone, needs occasional respite from normal routine to get herself back into tip-top shape.
And for the past few weeks, the aircraft carrier Midway has lain at rest in a drydock here, being massaged and pampered and painted by a crew of Japanese and Americans — including much of her own crew of nearly 5,000 — to restore her to peak condition.
Long hours at sea have given way to hours which sometimes seem even longer, working with chipping tools and paint brushes, scraping away the residue of months of sea time, refurbishing worn fittings, splicing new wire into an electrical system which could support a small city.
And for the crew, drydock periods offer a time with the family, time to get reacquainted with the kids, time to fall in love with the wife again.
Photographer Bob Wickley caught these studies of the ship in one of Yokosuka's drydocks during a day at the naval base 35 miles south of Tokyo.
