Mississippi Vying to Sink Aircraft Carrier as Reef

WLOX (Biloxi, MS) ^ | 12/13/03 | AP

[bourbon]

Mississippi is one of five states that has proposed a site in a competition to become the watery grave for an aircraft carrier. The 888-foot USS Oriskany is a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars.

It will be the largest vessel deliberately sunk as an artificial reef in the United States, probably in August or September 2004.

The Oriskany will be the first to go down in a new Navy program to get rid of obsolete warships by sinking them as a cheaper alternative to the scrap yard.

Mississippi is competing with Florida and Texas for the site, along with South Carolina and Georgia, which have proposed a joint site in the Atlantic Ocean off their shared border.

The Gulf Coast states see the Oriskany as an economic magnet attracting divers and anglers. The Atlantic site, however, would be a marine sanctuary, with diving and bottom fishing banned, to restore over-stressed species such as the snowy grouper.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[LoneConservative]

You're right... 26 Oct. 1966. A lit flare was tossed into a closet containing 650 of them. The resulting fire killed 44 sailors, and gutted the fwd part of the ship from the Hangar Deck upwards. I found this Info at www.Hazegray.org if you're interested.

[Pukin Dog]

I think it would be a noble burial for the old girl. Before I die, every carrier that I landed on is going to be in this shape, and while I have sentimental feelings for all of them, having been very happy to see them at night in the rain in the middle of the ocean; in the end, they are nothing more than man's ingenuity and brilliance formed into steel monuments to our love of country. I would rather the old girl be productive then be cut up to be sold as scrap.

[IGOTMINE]

I suppose you're right. There's only so many floating museums we need.