Update May 1, 2009
The Vandenberg Has Arrived!

For the latest photos of the Vandenberg's arrival in Key West - click here

 

USNS Vandenberg at port in the Tropics.

Sinking of the Vandenberg

News hit Key West in December of 2008 that the city had purchased the USNS Vandenberg for $1.35 million­ that the city had again invested in her future. Plans are to tow the ship six miles offshore and sink her in water deep enough that the tallest satellite dishes on her deck will be 40 feet down. As Florida's second-largest artificial reef, she will then be inhabited by marine life and by fish and, part-time, by scuba divers. Yes, the Vandenberg is Key West's next tourist attraction.

Records don't show if the Vandenberg has called previously at Key West, but she has wonderful Keys connections.

Wearing her costume as the abandoned Russian vessel in Virus (notice the Cyrilic lettering on her hull,) the Vandy is tugged onto the set.

Air Force Chief of Staff­ and eventual director of the CIA­ Hoyt S. Vandenberg.

The ship's story starts in 1944, when she entered service as a WWII troop transport christened the USS Taylor. After further service during the Korean conflict, the ship was in mothballs in the early 1960s when chosen for retrofit. Relaunched in 1964 and rechristened the USNS Vandenberg, she served another twenty years as a missile range instrumentation ship­ surely sent to Cold War hot spots worldwide but too late to have been called into service at Key West during the Cuban Missile Crisis (see KWHx #11.)

Retired in 1983, she's since been part of the James River Naval Reserve Fleet in Virginia.

 Another one of Key West's favorite celebrity daughters, Jamie Lee Curtis, in Virus. Her dad's Key West movie, Operation Petticoat­ as well as her mom, Janet Leigh, and her dad­ can be found in KWHx issues #14 and #15.

The next Key West connection? One made at the movie theatre. Virus, the 1999 film adaption of a Dark Horse comic book, told the story of an itinerant maritime salvage crew that comes upon a deserted Russian ship dead in the water. Drama and danger ensue as the crew battles "the unknown" aboard the vessel. Heading the cast is none other than Jamie Lee Curtis­ daughter of Operation Petticoat star Tony Curtis and an actress with her own Key West movie connections. And tackling the demanding role of playing the Russian ship? In her only acting role known to date, the part of the ghost ship now seemingly occupied by aliens was played by­ drum roll, please­ the Vandenberg.

It's the kind of kismet that can only happen when Key West is involved.

The Russian ship (aka the Vandenberg) goes boom in Virus.

In May of 2009, the Vandenberg will become a glorious underwater reef for all to enjoy. To celebrate the start of her final Key West connection there will be a week's worth of parties. It's the start of the next chapter in the history of tourism in Key West.