Vandenberg

What I did this Summer: On this day we dove on the wreck of USS Vandenberg. This missile tracking ship was employed off Cape Canaveral during the Apollo era. The 520-foot Vandenberg can be found off Key West, Florida in 140 feet of water. Diving on this huge ship is adventure akin to spacewalking.Hoyt S. Vandenberg was Commander of the Ninth Air Force during WW2 and later Air Force Chief of Staff. His name also survives in Vandenberg Air Force Base, site of many Space launches. This ship began life as USS General Harry Taylor, a transport launched at Richmond, California in 1943. In 1961 the ship was transferred to the Air Force and converted into a missile tracking ship. During the 1960's rocket launches from Cape Canaveral were of utmost importance. The renamed USS Hoyt S. Vandenberg played an integral part of America's Space program.Over 20 years the Vandenberg tracked launches from both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Her job completed, the ship was retired in 1983. On May 27, 2009 she was sunk as an artificial reef off Key West. Here we found the ship with her masts barely 50 feet below the surface. We descended ...