The USS ORISKANY

The retired US aircraft carrier Oriskany saw 25 years of service during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, as well as in the Mediterranean Ocean during the Cold War. After being decommissioned, instead of being cut into scrap, was sank on 17 May, 2006, 24 miles south of Pensacola, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. The Oriskany will be used to form the world's largest artificial reef. It took 37 minutes from the time of the first detonation, until the 888-foot ship sank below the surface of the water. 
The Oriskany, named for the township of Oriskany, New York, the scene of a great battle which turned the tide of the Revolutionary War, was launched from the Brooklyn Ship Yard on 25 September, 1950, just as the Korean War was getting underway. After the war, the movie "The Bridges Of Toko Ri" starring William Holden and Mickey Rooney was filmed aboard the ship. In the mid-sixties, the Oriskany sailed to the South China Sea, where over 23,000 combat sorties were launched off her decks for mission over North and South Vietnam. On 26 October, 1966, a fire broke out onboard and 44 sailors and pilots lost their lives. The ship was decommissioned in September of 1976. On 15 December, 2004, the carrier was towed from its moors in Corpus Christie, Texas, by 4 tugboats to Pensacola, where it was stripped and made ready for the sinking.

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