USS Midway was conceived during the Second World War as the lead ship of a new class of large armored-flight-deck carriers. Newport News Shipbuilding laid its keel in 1943, but commissioning came on 10 September 1945, eight days after Japan's formal surrender. Midway therefore did not fight in the war for which it was built. Its size, strong deck, large air group, and extensive machinery made it briefly the world's largest ship and required a crew numbering in the thousands to operate as both airfield and self-contained floating city.

Early service included cold-weather experiments and Operation Sandy, the 1947 launch of a captured German V-2 rocket from the flight deck. Modernization repeatedly transformed the ship for heavier jet aircraft: an angled deck, steam catapults, enclosed bow, elevators, radar, weapons, and other systems changed its profile and internal arrangements. Midway deployed through the Cold War and moved its home port to Yokosuka, Japan, in 1973. These conversions extended service while leaving the vessel materially different from its September 1945 configuration.

Midway aircraft flew combat missions during the Vietnam War. In April 1975 the carrier participated in Operation Frequent Wind, evacuating people from Saigon as South Vietnam collapsed. A South Vietnamese pilot famously landed a small aircraft after helicopters were moved overboard to clear deck space, saving his family. The ship later supported operations in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean. During the 1991 Gulf War its air wing struck Iraqi targets. Decommissioning in 1992 ended forty-seven years of service spanning dramatic changes in naval aviation and United States foreign policy.

After years in reserve, Midway was donated to a nonprofit organization and brought to San Diego, opening as a museum in 2004. Conservation combines hull and deck repair, corrosion control, painting, machinery maintenance, and restoration of hundreds of compartments. A displayed collection of aircraft illustrates several periods, but not every plane served aboard Midway and many are restored in representative markings. Visitor stairs, lifts, barriers, signs, theaters, and event systems are modern. The flight deck, hangar, island, engineering spaces, and many living areas remain historic ship fabric altered across decades.

The nonprofit USS Midway Museum operates the carrier at Navy Pier as a ticketed attraction, with self-guided audio interpretation, docents, and specialized tours under current schedules. San Diego's active waterfront and naval identity frame the ship, though Midway was homeported in Japan for much of its later career. Accessibility varies because ladders, narrow passages, and machinery spaces were designed for military crews. The museum preserves not a pristine 1945 carrier but a layered vessel whose continual rebuilding records the transition from propeller aircraft to jets, from early Cold War experimentation to Vietnam evacuation and Gulf War combat.