Seventy years after its service in World War II, NOAA, working with private industry partners, has confirmed the location and condition of the USS Independence. Resting upright in 2,600 feet of water off California’s Farallon Islands, the aircraft carrier’s hull and flight deck are clearly visible in sonar images, with what appears to be a plane in the carrier’s hangar bay. Independence (CVL 22) was the lead ship of its class of light aircraft carriers that were critical during the American naval offensive in the Pacific, and later was one of more than 90 vessels assembled as a target fleet for the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests in 1946. After returning to the United States, the blast-damaged carrier was scuttled in 1951.