SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - For his 97th birthday one of Ed Stankowski's sons asked if he'd like to visit the USS Midway. The WWII veteran was on the ship for her maiden voyage in 1945.
“He shot him down initially and says no I can’t go, you know I can't do that, he says, how am I going to get around?" said Paul Stankowski, another one of Ed's sons. “By 7 o' clock the next morning he was calling my brother up and says, hey when can we go!”
Surrounded by four generations, Ed traveled from Wisconsin to San Diego. He got a private tour of the ship and told stories along the way.
“Ha! My first night at sea I was seasick like a dog!" remembers Ed.
One of the first stops on the tour was visiting the area he once worked in.
“I was a Radioman, I was teaching the new recruits the radio code, international Morse code, and the procedure that they use for communicating," said Ed.
Ed says he enjoyed his time in the Navy and that being back on the ship brought back memories.
“I was very happy to get on a ship like that. It was the biggest ship we had in the Navy at the time and something to be a part of.”
