Aircraft Carrier to Become Artificial Reef

The retired U.S. aircraft carrier Oriskany will be sunk off the Florida coast near Pensacola this summer to serve as an artificial reef, the Navy announced.

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. The ship also will serve as an underwater memorial.

Much of the emotion associated with the ship stems from a magazine fire that killed 44 crew members off the coast of Vietnam in 1966. Some of the ship’s pilots were also lost in combat.