Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 97408:  USS Oriskany off New York City, December 1950

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Oriskany (CV-34, later CVA-34 and CV-34), 1950-2006

USS Oriskany, a 27,100 ton Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier, was built at the New York Navy Yard. Though she was launched in October 1945, construction was suspended in August 1947 and she was completed to a revised design that was also used in modernizing several other ships of the Essex and Ticonderoga classes. Commissioned in September 1950, Oriskany deployed to the Mediterranean Sea between May and October 1951 and steamed around Cape Horn to join the Pacific Fleet in May 1952. She made one Korean War combat cruise, from September 1952 to May 1953.

Following the end of the Korean conflict, Oriskany continued her Pacific Fleet service for more than two more decades, deploying regularly to the Western Pacific for tours of duty with the Seventh Fleet. She was out of commission from January 1957 until March 1959, during which time she was modernized with a new angled flight deck, steam catapults, an enclosed "hurricane" bow and many other improvements that permitted safer operation of high-performance aircraft. In 1961, she became the first aircraft carrier to be fitted with the revolutionary Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS).

Oriskany's second war began with her 1965 WestPac cruise, during which her planes hit targets in North and South Vietnam. Several more combat tours followed as the Southeast Asian conflict waxed and waned. Tragedy struck the carrier on 26 October 1966, during her second Vietnam War deployment, when fire ravaged her forward compartments, killing 44 members of her crew and air group. Oriskany was repaired in the U.S., returned to the war zone in mid-1967 and rendered assistance to USS Forrestal when that carrier also suffered a major fire. Following twenty-six years of service, USS Oriskany was decommissioned in September 1976. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1989 and sold for scrapping in 1994. However, after a prolonged effort that exhibited the perilous state of the domestic ship-breaking industry at the end of the Twentieth Century, she was repossessed in 1997 and spent nearly a decade awaiting final disposition. On 17 May 2006, following careful preparations, Oriskany was deliberately sunk off Pensacola, Florida, to serve as an artificial reef and sport diving attraction.

This page features selected views concerning USS Oriskany.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 97408

USS Oriskany (CV-34)


Off New York City, 6 December 1950, while en route to conduct carrier qualifications off Jacksonville, Florida.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97409

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


Underway off the coast of Southern California, 27 January 1955, with four F2H "Banshee" jet fighters on her flight deck.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97410

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


Off the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, California, on 27 April 1959, following installation of her new angled flight deck and hurricane bow.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1117395

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


Catapulting an A-4 "Skyhawk" during operations off Vietnam, 30 August 1966.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 595 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1117395.

 
Photo #: KN-15081

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


En route to the Western Pacific for operations off Vietnam, 23 June 1967.
Photographed by PH1 F.L. Blair.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-KN-15081.
Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-13048 (Color)

USS Oriskany (CV-34)

With a North American AJ-1 "Savage" attack plane on her flight deck.
Photographed by W.M. Cox. The image is dated 29 August 1952, when Oriskany was operating off the U.S. west coast, preparing for her first Korean War deployment.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 97412

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


One of a series of photographs "taken by a Navy F2H-2P 'Banshee' as it followed another 'Banshee' in for a carrier landing on the USS Oriskany (CVA-34), somewhere off the coast of San Francisco, California. The photo plane was equipped with a forward firing aerial mapping and reconnaissance camera installed in its nose. The camera was a type K-48 aerial camera with a 24-inch lens, a red A-25 filter, 1/200 second exposure, an exposure interval of two (2) seconds, and film size of 9x18 inches. The speed of the aircraft during approach is approximately 110 knots." (quoted from the original caption released with this image)
Photograph was taken on 8 February 1955.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1118303

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


M-117, 500-pound and 1000-pound bombs line the carrier's flight deck during Vietnam War combat operations in the South China Sea, 21 August 1966.
Photographed by PHAA C.B. Vesper.
Planes parked nearby include A-4, F-8 and A-1 types.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 550 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1118303.

 
Photo #: USN 1121718

USS Oriskany (CVA-34) Fire, 26 October 1966


Smoke pours from Oriskany's Hangar Bay #1, during the fire which killed 44 of her officers and men.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 580 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1121718.

 
Photo #: NH 97411

USS Oriskany (CVA-34) Fire, 26 November 1966


"Right Hand Salute! -- As the body of Lieutenant Commander Omar R. Ford, USN, one of 44 officers and men who lost their lives in USS Oriskany October 26 fire tragedy, is committed to the deep from Oriskany's flight deck during memorial services at sea in the Western Pacific, November 6, en route to San Diego, California. Fire-scarred Oriskany departed Subic Bay, Philippine Islands, for San Diego November 3." (quoted from the original caption released with this image)
Note Oriskany's insignia on the light-colored flag, at right, and three destroyers steaming alongside. Nearest destroyer is USS Chevalier (DD-805). Next outboard is USS Gurke (DD-783).
Photographed by JOC Dick Wood.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 132KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: K-42269

USS Oriskany (CVA-34)


Navy pilot Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Denny Earl, with both legs shattered by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire, successfully lands his A-4 "Skyhawk" attack plane aboard the Oriskany in the Gulf of Tonkin, 20 October 1967.
The nylon emergency barrier assures the wounded pilot that he will not have to make more than one attempt to land his plane.
Photographed by PHC Neal Crowe.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 595 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-K-42269.
Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 1 November 2000
Text revised 8 June 2006