yup... will make a nice site. here's a story:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Retired aircraft carrier to be sunk off Pensacola coast
By BILL KACZOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The retired aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, a combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, will be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola's coast this summer to serve as an artificial reef, the Navy announced Monday.
Pensacola, known as the "Cradle of Naval Aviation," was selected from among four sites proposed by five states as the watery grave of what will be the largest vessel deliberately sunk for that purpose in the United States.
It is unlikely to hold the distinction for long because the Navy this summer also will begin taking applications for 24 other ships including three aircraft carriers, the USS Forrestal, USS Independence and USS Constellation, said Patricia Dolan, spokeswoman for the Naval Sea Systems Command. Each displaces more than twice the Oriskany's 27,100 tons.
The 888-foot Oriskany is the first vessel in a new program designed to dispose of obsolete warships by sinking them as a cheaper alternative to the scrap yard.
Escambia County, in the Florida Panhandle, last year won an endorsement from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in competition with a South Florida group. The Navy will transfer the ship to state ownership.
"This is a quantum leap in terms of fishing and diving and economic opportunities for Northwest Florida," said Escambia marine resources director Bob Turpin. The ship also will serve as an underwater military memorial.
South Carolina and Georgia proposed a joint site in the Atlantic Ocean off their shared border, while Texas and Mississippi submitted individual applications.
Florida's selection received an enthusiastic response from retired Chief Petty Officer Lee Puglia. He is secretary-treasurer of the Oriskany Reunion Association, which campaigned hard for Pensacola because of its key role in the founding of naval aviation and as a pilot training base.
"It's going to make a lot of people happy," Puglia said from his home in Hooksett, N.H. "There is a lot of emotion associated with this ship."
Much of it stems from a magazine fire that killed 44 crew members off the coast of Vietnam in 1966 and the pilots, many Pensacola-trained, who were lost in combat.
The Oriskany's former crew members include Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was shot down and taken prisoner in North Vietnam after taking off from the ship in 1967. It was just three months after he narrowly avoided death aboard the Forrestal in another fire that began when an errant missile hit his plane on the flight deck.
No date has been set for the sinking with controlled charges in 212 feet of water 22 miles southeast of Pensacola. The Oriskany will be towed from Corpus Christi, Texas, where it is being cleaned of potential pollutants.
Other being made available for sinking include five guided missile cruisers, two frigates, eight destroyers, three guided missile destroyers, a landing ship dock, a supply vessel and a patrol boat.
The Forrestal is now at Newport, R.I., and the Independence and Constellation are at Bremerton, Wash. The other vessels are at Bremerton; Philadelphia; Benecia, Calif.; and Panama City.
More ships are expected to be added to the list as they become available, Dolan said.
Congress created the Navy's artificial reef program last year as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act. Until then, only the U.S. Martime Administration, which is assisting the Navy with its program, had the authority to transfer obsolete vessels for artificial reefs.
.
