Qualla: USS Oriskany

USS Oriskany: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. Thirty-seven minutes. That is how long it took the USS Oriskany to slip beneath the Gulf of Mexico on May 17, 2006 - stern first, settling upright on the sandy bottom as if she intended to keep sailing. The 888-foot aircraft carrier had survived the Korean War, seven Vietnam deployments, and a catastrophic fire that killed 44 of her crew. She had been sold for scrap, repossessed, towed 15,000 miles around South America, and used as a movie set for Hell itself. Now, resting 24 miles south of Pensacola in about 212 feet of water, she serves the most peaceful mission of her 56-year existence: a reef teeming with amberjack, barracuda, and the occasional diver brave enough to descend to her flight deck.

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Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Oriskany: Born Twice

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. The Oriskany was laid down on May 1, 1944, at the New York Naval Shipyard, one of the last Essex-class carriers built for a war that ended before she was finished. Construction halted in August 1946 with the hull 85 percent complete. She might have rotted at the pier, but the Nav...

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Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Oriskany: From Korea to Tonkin

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stevens, USN, Public domain. Oriskany wasted no time. By October 1952 she was off the Korean coast with Task Force 77, her pilots downing two MiG-15 jets on November 18. She earned two battle stars in Korea, then spent the mid-1950s bouncing between San Francisco overhauls and Western Pacific deployments. Sh...

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Image: Stevens, USN | Public domain

USS Oriskany: Forty-Four Lost

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. The morning of October 26, 1966, began like any other on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Then a young seaman accidentally ignited a magnesium parachute flare. In a moment of panic, instead of throwing it overboard, he tossed it into the flare locker in Hangar Bay 1. The res...

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Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Oriskany: A Long Road to the Bottom

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. Decommissioned in 1976, Oriskany spent the next three decades in a strange limbo. Japanese businessmen tried to buy her for a Tokyo Bay exhibit - Congress considered the deal, but financing collapsed. The Navy sold her for scrap in 1995 to a startup at Mare Island, but nothing ha...

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Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Oriskany: The Great Carrier Reef

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gareth Richards, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 17, 2006, a Navy explosive ordnance disposal team detonated approximately 500 pounds of C-4 charges placed on 22 sea connection pipes deep inside the hull. Oriskany sank stern first and came to rest upright, her flight deck at a depth reachable by advanced recreational div...

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Image: Gareth Richards | CC BY-SA 3.0