USS Oriskany

30°02′33″N 87°00′23″W / 30.04250°N 87.00639°W / 30.04250; -87.00639

USS Oriskany near Midway Atoll c. 1967
History
United States
Name	Oriskany
Namesake	Battle of Oriskany
Ordered	7 August 1942
Builder	New York Naval Shipyard
Laid down	1 May 1944
Launched	13 October 1945
Commissioned	25 September 1950
Decommissioned	2 January 1957
Recommissioned	7 March 1959
Decommissioned	30 September 1976
Reclassified	CVA-34, 1 October 1952 CV-34, 30 June 1976
Stricken	25 July 1989
Fate	Sunk as artificial reef, 17 May 2006
General characteristics
Class and type	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	30,800 long tons (31,300 t)
Length	888 ft (271 m)
Beam	129 ft (39 m) overall
Draft	30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Propulsion	4 × steam turbines 4 × screw propellers
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Range	14,100 nmi (26,100 km; 16,200 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Crew	2,600 officers and enlisted men
Armor	belt: 2.5–4 in (64–102 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) Hangar deck: 2.5 in (64 mm) Bulkheads: 4 in (102 mm)
Aircraft carried	91–103 aircraft

USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34), (/ɔːrˈɪskəniː/ or /əˈrɪskəniː/), was one of the few Essex-class aircraft carriers completed after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War.

The history of Oriskany differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Originally designed as a "long-hulled" Essex-class ship (considered by some authorities to be a separate class, the Ticonderoga class), she was not completed and construction was suspended in 1946 after the end of World War II. She eventually was converted to an updated design called SCB-27 ("27-Charlie") and commissioned in 1950. This updated version became the template for modernization of 14 other Essex-class ships. Oriskany was the final Essex-class ship completed.

She operated primarily in the Pacific into the 1970s, earning two battle stars for service in the Korean War, and ten for service in the Vietnam War. In 1966, one of the worst shipboard fires since World War II broke out on Oriskany when a magnesium flare was accidentally ignited; forty-four men died in the fire.

Oriskany's post-service history also differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Decommissioned in 1976, she was sold for scrap in 1995, but was repossessed in 1997 because nothing was being done. In 2004, the Navy decided to sink her to create an artificial reef off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. After much environmental review and remediation to remove toxic substances, the ship was carefully sunk in May 2006. She settled in an upright position at a depth accessible to recreational divers. As of 2023, Oriskany is the largest vessel ever sunk to make a reef.^[1]