** USS Oriskany - Before And After **

[aue-mike]

Just some quick info and pics - I will get a more extensive report and lots of pics up on the AUE website in the next day or so.
The ORISKANY is upright. Depth to the flight deck is 137 feet adjacent to the island and on the stern; shallowest depth was 71 feet. Rusty sediment is still coming from the hangar and interior. Time to sink was 37 minutes.

 

[aue-mike]

Pics from the first dive on her yesterday morning; these were from an assessment dive right after EOD cleared the wreck.

 

[diverbob]

Awesome pics...Thanks!!!!

I really cant wait to get down there in a few weeks.

 

[Tom Winters]

Well good - you got the Oriskany dive out of the way. Ok, time for the next wreck...
Cool that it's upright.

 

[scubapro50]

does anyone know how she is sitting on the bottom .... straight up or shifted to one side ?

 

[mike_s]

AUE-Mike,

were you on the dive? there seems to be some quesions about the flight deck depth. The news media reports that the Navy stated that it's 150'. Jim from MBT says it's 130'.

Here's a video that the Navy released of their divers on the wreck. FYI all.
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060519/VIDEO/60518019/1006

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Great pics! She looks a hellovalot cleaner UW than she did on the surface I can't wait to dive her.

As far as I'm concerned, if 12 divers agree with a ~130' flight deck depth, I'll disregard anything else I hear.

 

[Buoyant1]

Great stuff! In related topics, does anyone know when they plan on sinking the Vandenberg?

 

[mike_s]

Great stuff! In related topics, does anyone know when they plan on sinking the Vandenberg?

Heh.. that's funny... (I mean I really laughed at that.).

They've been saying they were going to sink the Vandenberg for so long that with the USS Oriskany being the "hot topic" that I'd forgotten about the Vandenberg...


Any Key West folks on here that can answer that? (You've got me curious now)

 

[aue-mike]

AUE-Mike,

were you on the dive? there seems to be some quesions about the flight deck depth. The news media reports that the Navy stated that it's 150'. Jim from MBT says it's 130'.

Yes, I was the first on it after the EOD guys cleared the wreck. Depth gauge reading directly on the deck was 137 feet adjacent to the island. I got the same depth on the extreme stern (on the deck) as well and did not notice any list to either side.