Silent Service - The USN Submarine Forces

[Salvage Sailor]

USS TULLIBEE (SSN-597) In service 1960 to 1988. 

She was a very unique submarine as she was was the smallest nuclear-powered attack submarine in the fleet

 

Tullibee was the result of Project Nobska, a study ordered in 1956 by Admiral Arleigh Burke, then Chief of Naval Operations, from the Committee on Undersea Warfare of the National Academy of Sciences. That report emphasized the need for deeper-diving, ultraquiet submarine designs using long-range sonar to accomplish the anti-submarine (ASW) 'hunter-killer' mission. Tullibee incorporated three design innovations inspired by Project Nobska.  First, it incorporated the first bow-mounted spherical sonar array. This required the second innovation: angled torpedo tubes amidships. Thirdly, Tullibee was propelled by a very quiet turbo-electric transmission powered by a S2C reactor and producing 2500shp

 

During her career, Tullibee achieved much and conducted many submarine firsts. During her commissioned service she submerged and surfaced 730 times and traveled approximately 325,000 nautical miles (602,000 km; 374,000 mi) equal to the distance from the earth to the moon and halfway back.

[Salvage Sailor]

USS ARCHERFISH (AGSS-311) Balao class in service 1943 to 1968

Dedicated to 'Operation Sea Scan'  a scientific and oceanographic survey of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from 1958 to 1964 

 

 

 

and her "non PC" patches too

 

USS ARCHERFISH (AGSS-311) Playboys of the Pacific - They had a 100% bachelor complement and the "COMHOGPAC Staffers" refers to their chasing "Hogs" in every Westpac liberty port.

 

 

If you look up their history you'll see that they kept photos of their conquests on a tote board for all to see, with the consent of their CO....something that would never happen today.

[Salvage Sailor]

USS HARDER (SS-568) Cold War Tang class in service 1952 to 1974 - Her namesake, USS HARDER (SS-257), one of the most famous submarines of World War II, received the Presidential Unit Citation.  Her skipper throughout her service, the resolute and resourceful Commander Samuel D. Dealey (1906–1944), "a submariner's submariner", was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, as well as four Navy Crosses during his lifetime.  A vigorous depth charge attack had sunk the Harder with all hands.  The United States Navy declared her lost January 2, 1945.  Dubbed "Hit 'Em Harder," she had wreaked havoc among Japanese shipping and her record of aggressive daring exploits became almost legendary. All six of her patrols were designated successful.

 

Harder received six battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation for World War II service. In accordance with Navy custom, the citation was presented to the second Harder (SS-568) upon commissioning.

 

 

In March 1959, Harder (SS-568) participated in SUBICEX during which she cruised 280 miles beneath the ice packs off Newfoundland, further than any conventionally powered submarine had previously gone.

 

 

Harder (SS-568) with three shark-fin arrays, known as Puffs, passive fire-control system, BQG-4, circa 1968.

 

In 1967, Tang, Wahoo, Gudgeon, and Harder received an additional 15-foot (4.6 m) section (five additional frames between frames 42 and 43) to accommodate the BQG-4 Passive Underwater Fire Control Feasibility System (PUFFS) passive ranging sonar installation, with three tall domes added topside, and additional fire control equipment that enabled the use of the Mark 45 nuclear torpedo. This left the boats similar in size and capability to the GUPPY III conversions

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

 

USS DENTUDA (SS-335)

Balao class in service 1944 to 1946

 

Assigned as USNR Training submarine for 12th Naval District until 1967

 

 

 

USS DENTUDA (SS-335) at Maui

 

[Salvage Sailor]

Starboard side view of the Carbonero (SS-337), cruising off the coast of Hawaii, 1963

 

USS CARBONERO (SS-337) Balao class in service 1945 to 1970

Vietnam Aviator Plane Guard, Vietnam, WESTPAC 1965

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

On 12/30/2020 at 4:10 PM, Salvage Sailor said:

USS RAY (SSN-653) Sturgeon class nuclear attack submarine in service 1967 to 1993

 

Gemsco version 1960's

 

 

Personalized set of patches from a Cold War era Sonar Technician,

 

USS RAY (SSN-653) Sturgeon class in service 1967 to 1993

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

Sennet (SS-408), port side view, circa 1944-45
Heavy gun batteries were of somewhat limited value because they lacked fire controls. The next step then, was to add a surface-ship type fire control system: an Mk 6 stable element, and an Mk 6 computer driving gun-order repeaters at the guns.  The most striking change was internal: a gun plot was installed in the forward crew quarters. She also had a pair of single 40 mm guns.  Note too that the usual wartime SD air warning radar had been replaced by the big antenna of the late war SV, on the auxiliary mast abaft the periscope shears and conning tower.

 

USS SENNET (SS-408) Four WWII War Patrols 1945

Balao class in service 1944 to 1968

 

[Salvage Sailor]

USS SCABBARDFISH (SS-397)

Balao class in service 1944 to 1965

Five war patrols WWII

Commissioned USS Scabbardfish (SS-397), 29 April 1944; along with three other U. S. submarines - Razorback, Redfish and Ronquil - a record 4 submarine launching and christenings in a single day at one shipyard.

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

SUBMARINE FORCE ATLANTIC FLEET

SUBLANT

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

USS GUDGEON (SS-567)

Tang class in service 1952 to 1983

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

On 12/2/2014 at 1:21 PM, Bearmon said:

USS Blenny

 

Different version, USS BLENNY (SS-324)

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

USS CAPITAINE (SS-336)

Balao class in service 1945 to 1977

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

The ill fated USS MIAMI (SSN-755)

Los Angeles class in service 1990-2013

To quote Navsource, "First to fire (in more ways than one); Miami (SSN-755) patch 1998-99."

MIAMI was the first submarine to fire in combat since WWII initiating Operation Desert Fox & again in Operation Noble Anvil

USS MIAMI was destroyed by an arson fire in 2012 during a shipyard overhaul and written off as a complete loss.

 

[Salvage Sailor]

USS VON STEUBEN (SSBN-632)

James Madison class ballistic missile submarine in service 1964 to 1994

 

 

Another WESTPAC Von Steuben

[Salvage Sailor]

USS GUAVINA (SS/SSO/AGSS/AOSS-362)

Was supposed to be a Balao class but was built as a Gato class

in service 1944 to 1959, Six WWII War Patrols, converted to submarine tanker

AGSS-362 Circa 1951-1957

[Salvage Sailor]

USS QUEENFISH (SSN-651)

WESTPAC 1971

 

 

La Reine De La Mer "The Queen of the Seas"

 

 

 

 

 

Still new in the wrapper

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

On 6/29/2017 at 10:36 AM, Salvage Sailor said:

Balao class USS TREPANG (SS-412) as Reserve Training Submarine at Mare Island 1960's

 

The second USS TREPANG (SSN-674)

Sturgeon class attack submarine in service 1970 to 1999

 

Could be made by Gemsco but it looks like a Swiss Tex

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

USS TAUTOG (SSN-639)

Sturgeon class in service 1968 to 1997

 

Pierside Aloha, Submarine Base Pearl Harbor

 

    Oil on canvas painting by the artist Jim Christley entitled "Trailing".
During the Cold War the US Naval Submarine Force was tasked with keeping tabs on Soviet Naval movements in particular, the Soviet Submarine Force. Submarines of the Sturgeon Class were well suited to this task and often trailed Soviet submarines for days reporting on their movements and recording noise signatures. In this image, such a trailing has turned into a close aboard encounter as a Soviet Viktor III Class has turned to port to check his baffles (to listen to see if anyone is immediately astern). A trailing Sturgeon has stopped his screw and gone quiet. Extending far behind the US submarine is its towed array sonar which assists in giving a clear picture of the ocean's acoustics

 

Tautog (SSN-639), underway off the Hawaiian Islands

Collision with K-108, 1970

On 20 June 1970, Tautog was patrolling the North Pacific Ocean near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, on the Soviet Union's Kamchatka Peninsula, which was a major base for missile-armed submarines of the Soviet Navy. Tautog was attempting to trail the K-108, a Soviet Navy Echo II-class guided-missile submarine nicknamed "Black Lila". The Soviet submarine was "close aboard" with Tautog, unaware that Tautog was in the vicinity, and the two submarines were within feet of one another for a lengthy period. Unable to determine the depth of K-108, as new depth-finding hydrophones had not yet been installed, the American submarine was at a disadvantage in such close quarters. At some points, the hydrographic equipment aboard Tautog registered zero distance between the submarines. At another point, Tautog's hydrophone operators assumed K-108 had risen to near the surface, placing the Soviet submarine directly above Tautog. Then, the operators determined the Soviet vessel was descending. The trace on the oscilloscope that gave the American submariners at visual reference as to the distance of K-108 disappeared. Just as the captain began to say the Soviet sub was coming close aboard again, K-108 slammed belly first into the top of Tautog's sail, proof the Soviet vessel had been descending from directly above. The K-108's massive screws came into contact with the steel of Tautog's sail and lost one screw. This was confirmed by hydrographic sound of a turbine running away aboard the Soviet sub, being no longer coupled to a propeller. Tautog suffered damage to her sail. As Tautog proceeded away from the site of the incident, her crew heard what they believed was K-108 breaking up and sinking. When Tautog arrived in Pearl Harbor, a large portion of one of K-108's screws was found embedded in her sail. Over 30 years later, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, K-108 was revealed to have actually been able to return to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The former captain of K-108, Boris Bogdasaryan, was able to provide a concise narrative of the collision, which resulted in no casualties aboard either submarine.

 

K-108, Echo II Class Soviet 'Kamikaze'  Cruise Missile Submarine

 

Though the occurrence of this event was adamantly denied by the United States and the Soviet Union, Tautog's sail was permanently bent at a 2° angle, which made dry-docking problematic.  In 1991, the Chicago Tribune broke the story about the collision. The Discovery Channel mentioned it in their TV program Sharks of Steel, and the full details were finally made public in 1999 in the book Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage

 

[Salvage Sailor]

USS CARP (SS-338)

Balao class In service 1945 to 1971

 

 

USS CARP (SS-338) entering the Pearl Harbor Sub Base pens in December 1955

 

Japanese made 1950's

 

US made 1960's

 

[erichjr]

USS Thresher.

[erichjr]

USS Thomas Jefferson (unofficial patch) Purdums Pirates SSBN 618.

[erichjr]

USS Theodore Roosevelt SSBN 600.

[erichjr]

USS Albacore 569

[Bearmon]

USS Bream SSK 243. Japanese manufacture 11 inches tall. 8 1/2 inches at the widest. Great looking patch

[Salvage Sailor]

Something new...

 

USS COLORADO (SSN-788)

Virginia attack submarine class in service since 2018