A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES ON VENERABLE AIRCRAFT CARRIER.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

SAN DIEGO - Directly beneath the bed are 6 cubic feet of storage space, which sailors here on the USS Midway used to call ``coffin lockers.'' But the name would have been just as appropriate for the bunks themselves. They're stacked three high, and it isn't a good idea to rise up too quickly in the middle of the night - for there are exactly 19 inches of space between your mattress and the bottom of the bunk above.

The berthing spaces exhibit is one of many glimpses into life on a warship at the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, housed on the decommissioned Midway along the harbor waterfront.

The ship, which is coming up on its one-year anniversary as a museum, has nearly doubled its projections for first-year attendance. And it's not difficult to understand why.

San Diego has been a pivotal Navy port for decades, yet until now visitors have only been able to gawk at the imposing gray ships from a harbor tour boat. This museum welcomes them aboard, then points the way to the bridge, the flight deck, the engineering room, sick bay, the crew's mess and the berthing spaces.

There are also 15 restored aircraft on board, including some that would have landed on this deck during the Midway's service from 1945 to 1992. It was commissioned just after World War II ended and later saw extensive action in Vietnam and Desert Storm.

But while the museum provides a sense of the life and work on a ship in combat, you don't have to be a geek about this stuff to enjoy the experience. ``We knew we had to appeal to more than just the History Channel guys and the Navy people,'' said Scott McGaugh, who handles marketing for the museum and has written a book about the ship's history. ``We had to focus hard to bring it to life for families and women.''

To that end, a cadre of docents - many of them Navy veterans, some of them veterans of this very ship - convenes a daily class of Aircraft Carrier 101. It's a natural fit, since San Diego is shoulder-to-shoulder with retired Navy folk.

As we toured the cramped quarters of the bridge, one of the guides directed a young girl over to the helm console. ``Go ahead,'' he said, ``give that wheel a turn.''

An audio tour is included with the admission price, and it is a good one. Sound effects and voices of former sailors and aircraft pilots enliven the narrative, and if you're interested in a particular aspect of the ship, more detailed commentary is often available at the punch of a button. You might hear, for example, a fighter pilot talk about trying to locate this speck in a vast ocean, with a fog bank closing in.

As you walk from one end of the flight deck to the other, you'll probably gain a greater appreciation for the skill and courage required in the task of setting a jet down on a short landing strip that would bob and roll in the heavy seas.

Visitors who want to get an even more realistic taste of it can try their hand at flight simulators on the ship. Commanding an F-4 simulator costs $40 per hour, while a device that resembles a video game on your home computer goes for $10 for 20 minutes. A third option is a capsule similar to the Star Tours ride at Disneyland; it costs $6.

Among the aircraft on display, meanwhile, are a sleek-looking F-14A Tomcat - star of the movie ``Top Gun'' - and a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, into the belly of which visitors may climb.

The museum plans to continue opening up other areas of the ship and adding restored aircraft, McGaugh said.

Negotiations are under way with the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla., in fact, to acquire a small, unimposing plane called an L-19 Bird Dog - which has a poignant historical tie to the Midway.

The aircraft carrier assisted with the evacuation of Saigon in April 1975, when every South Vietnamese craft that could float or fly was trying to get to the Midway.

Former Navy pilot Vern Jumper, a docent on the ship today, was air boss on the Midway then, in charge of takeoffs and landings. The little Bird Dog observation plane made a couple of passes, and the pilot dropped a note on the deck in a leather holder, reporting that he was just about out of fuel and requesting that room be cleared on deck so he could land - despite not having a tail hook.

The plane landed safely and Jumper sent crewmen racing out to secure it before it rolled off the end of the deck. A South Vietnamese Army major and his wife got out, then opened the baggage compartment. ``Five little kids, their children, came tumbling out of there,'' Jumper said.

He continued: ``In 30 hours, we took on 3,073 refugees, including the vice president of the country (Nguyen Cao Ky). ... I flew 200 missions in Vietnam. I have a lot of war stories, but none better than that one - saving all those people.''

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: The San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, housed aboard the USS Midway, is at San Diego's Navy Pier, on North Harbor Drive just south of Broadway. It's just a few steps from the harbor tour-boat docks and only a two-block walk from the Amtrak station.

HOURS, COSTS: The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $13 for adults, $10 for seniors (age 62 and up), students with ID and active military with ID, $7 for children (ages 6 to 17). Admission price includes audio tour. Parking at the Navy Pier costs $10 if you want to stay for more than an hour; less-expensive commercial lots are nearby on Broadway.

INFORMATION: www.midway.org; [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) The USS Midway, moored along the San Diego waterfront, has been turned into an aircraft carrier museum.

(2 -- 4) The USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego has proven itself a popular attraction in the year since it opened as a museum. Visitors can inspect its flight deck, left, sit in an old cockpit on the hammer deck, above, and see an F-14 Tomcat, below.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

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IF YOU GO (see text)