A friend's father landed a jet on this carrier back in the early sixties. This is probably one of the last photos of the Oriskany as it was towed to final preparation before being turned into an artificial reef. Much of the ship had been removed, but it was still a magnificent sight as it passed our project location a few years ago.
It now sits on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Due to it's size, the island structure is around 80 feet deep, which is at the limits of sport diving. The flight deck is around 145 feet deep, which makes much of the carrier beyond the depths of sport divers.
* I have to add how big it was. what's most amazing is that one of the reasons for decommisioning was it wasn't big enough for modern requirements.
I seem to remember something about the Oriskany being involved in a terrible fire back in the Sixties, started because a magnesium parachute flare ignited on the hangar deck and a sailor, instead of throwing it overboard, panicked and THREW IT INTO A LOCKER FULL OF MORE MAGNESIUM FLARES (!!), starting a series of chain-reaction explosions that killed numerous sailors and did horrific damage to the ship.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read, the flare design was a big part of the problem. Jarring the flare could cause it to ignite, which led to the incident.
ReplyDeleteForty four men died during the incident.