Quoted:
How about somewhere where coral will actually grow on it - isn't pensacola and some of this other sites too far up north? I vote Key West or West Palm Beach or something like that!

Still - no matter where it goes, a 900-ft carrier will be awesome to dive!  I dove the Yukon (a destroyer) off the coast of San Diego once, and that was pretty cool.

Quoted:


Or turn it into a floating prison.

Quoted:


Actually, I'd think a place where coral reefs cannot "grow" would be optimum - a place where reef-type fishes can live and birth other reef fishes, and therefore attract some open water-type denizens for the occasional quick meal.

From what I understand, the oil rigs have proven to be havens for a myriad of sea life where none were able to establish a permanent foothold before.  


** edited fer spaelung **

Quoted:

My dad served on the "Big O" during VietNam.  One of the anchors still sits in Oakland, CA. in Jack London Square (at least it did quite a few years ago).  Any of you guys that served on board remember the fire?  Hope she finds a good home.

Quoted:
Sad to see the carrier go. What a waste to send all that $$ to the bottom for a bunch of fish. Why can't they just mothball it like so many others?

Quoted:
Why not keep it manned and in Coast Guard service with say 6 older intercepter class jet aircraft like A-6s or F-4s, 3 on perm stand by, for homeland defense off the coast of LA or New York. The ship itsself doesn't have to move ever again, just the jets. They can run intercepts as far as AZ or vegas depending on the range of the aircraft.

Or turn it into a floating prison.

Quoted:
Why scuttle it?

It was probaly too old, slow & small to be combat effective...

We sink 'em, the Brits & French sell 'em (which is how S American countries end up with aircraft carriers), etc...

"Right Hand Salute! — As the body of Lieutenant Commander Omar R. Ford, USN, one of 44 officers and men who lost their lives in USS Oriskany October 26 fire tragedy, is committed to the deep from Oriskany's flight deck during memorial services at sea in the Western Pacific, November 6, en route to San Diego, California. Fire-scarred Oriskany departed Subic Bay, Philippine Islands, for San Diego November 3." (quoted from the original caption released with this image). Note Oriskany's insignia on the light-colored flag, at right, and three destroyers steaming alongside. Nearest destroyer is USS Chevalier (DD-805). Next outboard is USS Gurke (DD-783). Photographed by JOC Dick Wood.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97411).

Note: the Oriskany fire actually occurred in 1966, not 1967 as is incorrectly printed on the photo.

USS ORISKANY
Two sailors aboard the USS Oriskany were restoring aircraft flares off-loaded from aircraft returning from a mission over Vietnam on October 26, 1966. One of the sailors dropped a flare. The arming mechanism had not been reset to "safe" and somehow the safety lanyard was pulled. Another sailor picked up the actuated flare, threw it into a locker, and closed the door. There were 2.75 inch rocket warheads in the locker!

The flare ignited in the locker, and the heat caused a warhead to detonate, spreading the fire. Subsequent warhead detonations soon followed. Finally, a liquid oxygen tank exploded, [red]killing 44 sailors and injuring 156.[/red] Two helicopters and four aircraft were severely damaged.

USS FORESTALL
Eight months after the Oriskany fire, there was an accident on the USS Forestall. A ZUNI rocket was fired accidentally from an aircraft being readied for a mission on July 29, 1967. The rocket screamed across the flight deck, struck another aircraft and ignited a fuel fire. The initial fire could have been contained, but 90 seconds after the fire started a bomb detonated, killing or seriously wounding most of the fire fighters.

The detonation ruptured the flight deck, and burning fuel spilled into the lower levels of the ship. Bombs, warheads, and rocket motors exploded with varying egress of intensity in the fire, [red]killing 134 and wounding 161 men.[/red] Twenty-one aircraft were destroyed

After this incident, the Navy established a flag level committee to pursue improvements to the systems used to control flight deck fuel fires. An ordnance safety program was also initiated to characterize flight deck fuel fires and study ways to delay the "cook-off" times of munitions. As a result; insulation is now applied to some bomb casings, delaying "cook-off" times 5 to 10 minutes in a fuel fire, but does not diminish the violence of its explosive reaction.

Quoted:
An acquaintance of mine was on the Oriskany in 1967 or so, when the explosions and fire happened- said it was awful. It happened, acc. to him, because the Navy was still using old WW2 ordnance, the walls of which had grown too thin due to inner corrosion (chemical reaction in the explosive versus the casing), and the heaters or blast deflectors (can't remember which) next to the planes on deck got too hot, the ordnance near the planes overheated, and one plane blew up, then many more blew up, in a chain reaction above and below decks. It took them a long time to get the fires under control, because they frankly did not know what to do, since, in his view, this sort of stuff hadn't happened on so large a scale since WW2 and the drills were not up to training the crews how to deal with such a huge mix of fire, explosions, shrapnel, and the downright horror of so many men being hurt and killed at once. He said they just hadn't hadn't been trained enough on how to deal with it.

Lot of people died that day, some not dying till weeks later in hospital.

This fellow was in the Navy for 20 years, but said the services were at their worst in terms of quality of leadership and care for the men in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Buckpassing and the desire to save a buck led to this horror. And I think it happened on another ship, too, the Forrestal, maybe?

Sad to see the carrier go. What a waste to send all that $$ to the bottom for a bunch of fish. Why can't they just mothball it like so many others?

Quoted:
[Official Hijack]Speaking of the Forrestal,

Quoted:
crazy to sink something like that. If it's in any useable condition at all, it should be turned into a floating disaster relief platform - all that hangar and deck space - a floating airfield just begging for tons of helicopter use.

Quoted:
This Oriskany thing is big fiaso waiting to happen. The Pensacola Chamber of Commerce et al have dumped tons of money with the Escambia County Commission dumping the most, about $1 million.
They can't pay for stuff they NEED yet they are gambling a million to possibly get a ship so some divers can play.
Even if P'cola does win it'll take a long time to recover that million.

Ask any fisherman how it is to fish the USS Massachusetts when the sea monkeys descend upon it.
There's plenty to dive around here now, let the Big O's tombstone be placed elsewhere.

Oh yeah...and the taxpayers want their million back!

Quoted:
Perhaps I am missing somthing here?

Can someone enlighten me?!?!

Quoted:
My beef with it being sunk off Pensacola is that the local govt is spending gobs of money for tourism sake. Divers have long been coming here so its not going to bring in much more money.

Quoted:


Really?

I've been diving for years, and I have NEVER heard of any reason to go diving in Pensacola.  What's currently there to draw divers?