Posted on 05/17/2006 10:15:29 AM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
IN THE GULF OF MEXICO — Navy divers detonated explosives Wednesday aboard the USS Oriskany, sending the retired aircraft carrier on a 212-foot plunge to bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to create the world's largest intentional reef.
Hundreds of Korean and Vietnam War veterans on charter boats watched as the carrier slowly sank about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach.
The 888-foot-long ship, known as the "Mighty O," was commissioned in 1950 and was home to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., when he served in Vietnam. It was also among the ships used by President John F. Kennedy as a show of force during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
The Oriskany was decommissioned in 1976 and now becomes the first ship sunk for reefing under a new Navy program to dispose of old warships.
Clouds of brown and gray smoke rose in the sky after more than 500 pounds of plastic explosives went off about 11:30 a.m. EDT. The ship took about 45 minutes to go down.
The Environmental Protection Agency in February approved the sinking of the ship with chemical toxins in electrical cables, insulation and paint still aboard. EPA officials said the toxins will slowly leach out over the estimated 100 years it will take the carrier to rust away and should pose no danger to marine life.
Local leaders hope the carrier reef will bring a long-awaited economic infusion from sport divers and fishermen. A 2004 Florida State University study estimated Escambia County would see $92 million a year in economic benefits from an artificial reef.
It's only about 60 nm. west of here (Panama City) and you'd be surprised how fast it will be colonized by marine critters and fish. Oils rigs do the same thing, but the pols won't let us have any.
After a fire nearly sunk her she became known as "The Torch"
Note the "Whale" aft of the island. Can't imagine landing one of those on a 27 Charlie.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-o/cv34.htm
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Oriskany (CV-34, later CVA-34 and CV-34), 1950-1994
USS Oriskany, a 27,100 ton Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier, was built at the New York Navy Yard. Though she was launched in October 1945, construction was suspended in August 1947 and she was completed to a revised design that was also used in modernizing several other ships of the Essex and Ticonderoga classes. Commissioned in September 1950, Oriskany deployed to the Mediterranean Sea between May and October 1951 and steamed around Cape Horn to join the Pacific Fleet in May 1952. She made one Korean War combat cruise, from September 1952 to May 1953.
Following the end of the Korean conflict, Oriskany continued her Pacific Fleet service for more than two more decades, deploying regularly to the Western Pacific for tours of duty with the Seventh Fleet. She was out of commission from January 1957 until March 1959, during which time she was modernized with a new angled flight deck, steam catapults, an enclosed "hurricane" bow and many other improvements that permitted safer operation of high-performance aircraft. In 1961, she became the first aircraft carrier to be fitted with the revolutionary Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS).
Oriskany's second war began with her 1965 WestPac cruise, during which her planes hit targets in North and South Vietnam. Several more combat tours followed as the Southeast Asian conflict waxed and waned. Tragedy struck the carrier on 26 October 1966, during her second Vietnam War deployment, when fire ravaged her forward compartments, killing 44 members of her crew and air group. Oriskany was repaired in the U.S., returned to the war zone in mid-1967 and rendered assistance to USS Forrestal when that carrier also suffered a major fire. Following twenty-six years of service, USS Oriskany was decommissioned in September 1976. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1989 and sold for scrapping in 1994. However, after a prolonged effort that exhibited the perilous state of the domestic ship-breaking industry at the end of the Century, she was repossessed in 1997 and is presently in U.S. Government custody awaiting her final fate.
This page features selected views of USS Oriskany.
"After a fire nearly sunk her she became known as "The Torch" "
Hmmmm... McCain was on this ship and the Forest fire, er, Forrestal. Maybe it's him? *kidding*
"Too bad we cant sink John McCain with it."
I took a shot too, but I was sure to include I was kidding. Despite his politics, I don't forget what the man gave to our country.
From the drawing:
It was sunk with jets still on deck?! :)
Every bit of fish caught (within the legal limits) there will end up on someone's plate, no matter who it was that caught it. At today's prices, nobody throws away or wastes a red snapper or a grouper.
They put her in a good place for fishing. She's surrounded by a virtual "underwater desert" with no features on the bottom to hold fish. There is a huge "housing shortage" for fish in the Gulf. The little ones need a place to hide and the bigger ones need a place to hunt for the little ones.
When you catch a fish from one of these reefs (artificial or otherwise) his 'apartment' becomes available and the next tenant moves in. It's the closest thing to a true "win-win" situation I've ever seen.
The destroyer my Dad served on (1946-7) was sold to the Taiwan Navy in 1976 and Taiwan retired it in 2000 by sinking it to form a reef. I guess it's common practice.
And giant sting rays, too!
Your posted image makes it look like the ship was sunk near Miami. It wasn't. Pensacola is just about as far from Miami as you can get (and we like it that way) and still be in Florida.
"It's the closest thing to a true "win-win" situation I've ever seen."
Explain that to your Red Snapper dinner. :)
The USS Leonard F. Mason
If you cook them right, you don't have to explain.
This is a subject near and dear to my heart as I have run fishing charters out of Panama City since the 1970's. The water is much more clear here than most can imagine (looks blue) and when reeling in your fish, you can see him 40 or 50 feet down and he looks small, but he has your pole bent double....it's a lot of fun.
When you're running the boat and locating the fish, every fish your passengers catch is one that you "caught" too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.