In 1958 , the veteran World War II Fletcher Class Destroyer USS Killen ( DD593 ) served as a target ship for wreckage during the atom bomb tests in Operation Hardtack I ( shots WAHOO and UMBRELLA ) . In 1962 it engaged in highly explosive tests in the Chesapeake Bay to assess the structural effects of the ship 's nuclear exposures . '' Killen '' was struck from the Naval Vessel Register and sent to the US Naval Station at Roosevelt Roads , Puerto Rico in January 1963 to be used as a target ship for missile and gunnery practice off the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques where she was eventually sunk/scuttled in a shallow bay in 1975 and still lies as of 2010
Operation Hardtack I
Operation Hardtack I
United States Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico