Carrier Midway Sails for Home and Mothballs

“Sayonara Japan,” read the giant banner stretched along the Midway’s gangplank.

Built at the height of World War II hostilities but now a symbol of close U.S.-Japan military ties, the famed aircraft carrier sailed out of port Saturday and headed for retirement in the United States.

Sailors in white suits lined the ship’s deck and waved at spectators on the shore. As a brass band played on the dock, children and women waved back.

The only U.S. carrier based outside the United States, the Midway was in Yokosuka for 18 years of its 46-year career. It will be replaced by the Independence, which left San Diego last Monday.

The Midway proved that it can still fight when it spent 3 1/2 months in the Persian Gulf. Its planes flew 3,339 sorties over Iraq and Kuwait.

It also served in the Vietnam War, guarded South Korea for the 1988 Olympics, stood by to support Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a 1989 coup attempt and rescued about 3,000 Americans during June’s eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines.