The ex-Oriskany is a 910 ft decommissioned US Navy Essex Class aircraft carrier that was built after World War II and had decorated service in the Korean War and Vietnam War eras. The carrier is one of many ships in the US Navy decommissioned fleet. The US Navy’s Inactive Ships Program (PMS-333) chose this vessel as the first of its kind to be disposed of as an artificial reef in accordance with the EPA’s Best Management Practices for reefing ships. RESOLVE along with a partner company was chosen as the contractor to perform this important environmental remediation and sinking support. This project was truly ground breaking and the first of its kind as a large scale US Navy funded artificial reef project. The initial contract for environmental remediation commenced in January 2004. RESOLVE towed the vessel from Beaumont, Texas to a site in the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas to perform the remediation. The remediation project was massive during which time a staff of over 150 personnel opened and cleaned all the tanks on the vessel (500+), removed a large quantity and variety of hazardous materials, and performed a variety of other specific remediation functions including lead paint removal, PCB removal, etc. Once the base remediation contract was successfully completed, the Navy extended the contract to remove the entire wood flight deck, which contained very high PCB levels. The RESOLVE team was then tasked to tow the carrier to the Port of Pensacola, Florida where final preparations were made by RESOLVE to sink the vessel off of Pensacola as an artificial reef which was successfully accomplished on May 17, 2006.