Higgins1963

Earl Higgins A couple of weeks after commissioning in May 1963, I reported aboard USS MIDWAY (CVA-41) with homeport in Alameda, California. After the usual operations and one cruise to WESTPAC, the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 changed our operational plans. President Johnson escalated the war, and MIDWAY was an early part of that effort. Instead of an anticipated peacetime cruise that would have taken us to, among other places, Australia, Singapore, and Bangkok, we were ordered to war. MIDWAY departed Alameda in early 1965 for Subic Bay with a stop in Pearl [...]