Laid down in 1944, the Essex Class carrier USS Oriskany was launched in 1945. Due to the end of the war, the ship was mothballed incomplete and did not enter service until 1950. Serving in the Korean War, she provided stellar service, and was the location for the filming of the film 'The Bridges of Toko Ri", staring William Holden and Mickey Rooney. Rebuilt with an angled deck, the ship continued to serve throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and the future Senator John McCain flew off her deck when he was shot down and captured. All told, off Vietnam the "Mighty O"and her crew earned 4 Navy Crosses, 6 Silver Stars, 2 Legions of Merit, 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 6 Bronze Stars, 146 Air Medals, 192 Navy Commendation Medals, 127 Navy Achievement Medals, 10 Purple Hearts, 65 CINCPACFLT Letters of Commendation, 77 COMSEVENTHFLT Letters of Commendation, and 2 Navy Unit Commendations.
The ship was retired in 1976, and stricken from the Bremerton, WA reserve fleet in 1989. In 1994 she was sold for scrap, but the contractor defaulted and the navy repossessed her in 1997, towing her to Mare Island, CA. The ship was transferred to Beaumont, TX, in 1999. Plans to sink her in a live-fire exercise were met with opposition, but efforts to preserve her as a museum failed to gather support or funding. In 2003 the Navy proposed sinking her as a reef, and environmentalists agreed contingent upon the removal of all asbestos, PCBs, lead paint, fuel oil, and other hazardous material. The funding for the project was approved in 2004, and the ship spent almost a year being prepped for sinking. The asphalt on her flight deck was stripped off, as was the wood underneath. Fire extinguishers, coolant, anti-freeze, mercury, old ballast water, transformers, capacitors, machinery lube, batteries, and HALON were removed, and she was then towed out of the Beaumont Reserve Fleet on December 5, 2004.
The old carrier has been towed from Beaumont, TX, to Pensacola, Fl, where she is tied up to the Port of Pensacola berth just off Main Street near the Bayfront Auditorium. In June or July of this year she will be towed 24 miles off shore and sunk as an artificial reef and dive attraction in about 200 feet of water. She is by far the largest vessel ever sunk as a reef, and as one of only two carriers in water shallow enough for sport divers (the other being the USS Saratoga at Bikini Atoll) she is bound to be a popular dive site.
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 Bow on facing Main Street, the ship dominates the waterfront. |
 She may be small by today's standards, but she is still impressive. |
 Age is certainly showing, as there is more rust than paint. |
 The elevators have been removed. |
 Rusted square is a crude patch welded onto the hull/ |
 30 years after her retirement, Oriskany sure looks the worse for wear. |
 The island, and most of the ship for that matter, has been stripped of everything removable. |
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