Wednesday, 12 May 2010 - A Trip to the USS Midway

Dominik, my roommate, and I got up at 07:15 a.m. and we ate our breakfast -cornflakes as usual. It took us about 15 minutes to walk to the station. We took the bus #41 to the "VA Medical Center" and then we changed to the bus #30 which brought us to the school. We were a bit in hurry because the bus was pretty late.

After class we had our lunch at 'Smashburger', a nice little restaurant next to the school. As usual we liked and enjoyed every single bite. After lunch we went to the beach for about fifteen minutes and then we were ready again to sit our afternoon classes.

Soon after the afternoon school I had the possibility to visit the USS Midway, a World War II aircraft carrier, with Mr. Hediger, our English teacher and Marcel H. This carrier was turned ito a museum and it will remain an unforgettable adventure for me.

My teacher, together with Marcel H. and myself, spent a long time on board exploring more than 60 exhibits with a collection of 25 meticulously restored aircraft – from World War II to Operation Desert Storm – such as the F-4 Phantom, the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-14 Tomcat and and and.... All of these aircraft are on display for the visitors aboard the USS Midway. The self-guided audio tour, narrated by Midway sailors, brought the carrier's history to life.

Mr. Hediger offered to pay for a flight aboard one real training-simulator of the US Air Force with the F-4 Phantom and it was incredible! We were 'taken to the sky'.

Before we took off, a real American navy pilot instructor briefed us and explained to us how to fly the plane and operate all the instruments. And then we were ready to take off. Wow! What an incredible feeling. I was the pilot and Marcel was my navigator. For twenty minutes we fought against the so called 'bandits' over North-Korean territory. We were under a lot of stress and shot down quite a few 'bandits'. Fortunately, we were never hit despite the fact that we were always attacked by the enemies. After our flight, we safely landed on our carrier and a trainer of the USAF pilots told us that we were an awesome team, that we did a fantastic job and that he was totally impressed by us.

I absolutely enjoyed this trip and I'm positive that it was the best thing I had ever done on vacations. And that together with a teacher!

That was one of the best days in my life!

Remo Baumann, PET course, Ibach