Officials say the 563-foot Arthur W. Radford will be the longest vessel ever sunk as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean.
The sinking is scheduled for Wednesday. The ship's been prepared for it at a Philadelphia shipyard.
Its resting spot is to be in the Del-Jersey-Land reef created by the states of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. It's about 26 miles off the Indian River Inlet in Delaware; Ocean City, Md., and Cape May, N.J.
The ship was retired in 2003 after 26 years of use by the Navy.
It will join many other manmade items in that part of the Atlantic, including retired New York City subway cars.
