USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg

Launched in 1943 as the troopship USS General Harry Taylor, this hull carried soldiers home from Europe before the Air Force and then the Navy rebuilt her for a stranger career: tracking missiles and spacecraft. Renamed for General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, she watched over Atlantic launch ranges through the space race, her deck crowded with the huge parabolic radar dishes that remain her signature. She even played a Russian science ship in the 1999 film Virus before decades of rust in the reserve fleet. After one of the most expensive reefing preparations ever undertaken, she was scuttled off Key West in May 2009, going down in under two minutes to land upright on sand at about 43 meters — at the time the second-largest ship ever purpose-sunk as a reef. The two radar dishes, one tilted as if still listening, give divers a skyline found on no other wreck. Amberjack and barracuda arrived within weeks; goliath grouper and a thickening fur of sponges have followed, and Key West operators now treat her as the town's premier dive.

How she sank: Deliberately scuttled as an artificial reef seven miles off Key West, 27 May 2009.

Condition: Upright and intact; masts, kingposts and both tracking dishes standing, with slow collapse only in lighter upper structures

Penetration: Full With Training. Access holes were cut throughout during preparation and popular routes exist on the upper decks, but the ship is vast — interior work belongs to wreck-trained teams with lights and redundancy. Entering any overhead environment requires specific training — a wreck certification at minimum, technical wreck training for full penetration.

Recommended certification: Advanced Open Water

Current: Moderate · Visibility: 10–30 m

Marine life: Goliath grouper and barracuda patrol the superstructure, amberjack spiral over the radar dishes, and sponges, hydroids and cup corals steadily thicken along the rails.

Hazards: Depth, offshore current, and disorienting scale — following the wrong companionway burns bottom time fast

Within Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary — mooring buoys are required and removing anything is prohibited