This is close to home for some of us and smack dab in Ray's backyard! Keep your
fingers crossed for us!




July18, 2003

Escambia Wins State Backing for Sinking Aircraft Carrier

The Associated Press

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - Escambia County has won the state's backing over four
other Florida counties seeking the retired aircraft carrier USS Oriskany to
sink as an artificial reef. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission voted 5-0 Thursday in Tallahassee to support Escambia's bid for the
888-foot-long warship. It would be the largest vessel ever purposely sunk as a
reef.

The Navy, however, could bypass the selection process and choose a different
Florida site or give the ship to another state. Florida's main competition is
expected from Texas, where the Oriskany is in storage, commission spokesman
Henry Cabbage said Friday.

"We won the primary," said Robert Turpin, Escambia's marine resources
director. "Now we need to win the national election."

Artificial reefs are prized for attracting fish and providing recreation for
divers and anglers.

The next step would be for Congress to pass legislation permitting the Navy,
working with the U.S. Maritime Commission, to donate obsolete warships for
that purpose.

"We're hoping to get a least a couple dozen of these," Cabbage said.

Lawmakers are expected to act by Oct. 1, and the Oriskany could be resting on
the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico 25 miles off Pensacola as early as February,
Cabbage said. The Navy has allocated $2.8 million for the sinking including
cleaning the ship of environmental hazards.

Conservation commission staffers used a variety of factors to rank Escambia
ahead of, in order, Okaloosa, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Escambia was chosen largely because of its environmental conditions, citizen
support and historic role in naval aviation as home to Pensacola Naval Air
Station.

Thousands of pilots have trained at the base, the Navy's first air station,
since 1914. The National Museum of Naval Aviation is a part of the base, and it

is headquarters for the famed Blue Angels precision flying team.

The 27,100-ton Oriskany was built at the New York Navy Yard. Commissioned in
1950, it saw action in the Korean and Vietnam wars. During its second Vietnam
deployment, a fire broke out, killing 44 crew members. The Oriskany was
decommission in 1976 and is docked at Beaumont, Texas.

AP-ES-07-18-03 1844EDT

This story can be found at: <A
HREF="http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGAZVC9SAID.html">http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florid
a/MGAZVC9SAID.html</A>






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Mike Wallace
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