Never a Good Day When you Sink a Warship [VIDEO]

It’s always a sad day when a ship is scrapped, but to see a ship destroyed or sunk in a ferocious manner may turn your stomach, particularly if you’ve served on that ship.

In recent years, many of the United States Navy’s Spruance-class destroyers have seen a particularly violent exclamation point at the end of their useful service life.  Here are some videos and images showing a few of the different ways these ships have ended up at the bottom of the ocean…

A combination of missiles, 5-inch rounds, small arms, and a Mk 82, 500-pound bomb dropped from a F/A-18 Hornet…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gii_MS-zFt4

Mark 48 torpedo…

The Radford’s sea chests and hatches were left open and the ship was sent to the bottom gently…

Harpoon Missiles, Laser-guided bombs, and Maverick Missiles…

The Oriskany was rigged with high explosives and is now a destination for divers in the Gulf of Mexico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39wV_vi43YU

Test of a 23kT nuclear fission bomb – Operation Crossroads, Image courtesy U.S. Army Photographic Signal Corps