Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

About the Ship's Name

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS James Monroe (SSBN 622)

USS JAMES MONROE was the fifth LAFAYETTE - class nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine. Completed with the Polaris A2 missiles, the JAMES MONROE received the 2500-mile range Polaris A3 in 1968-70 and was refitted with the Poseidon missiles between 1969-78.

Decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on September 25, 1990, the JAMES MONROE spent the next years at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., until she entered the Navy's submarine recycling program. Recycling was finished on January 10, 1995.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS JAMES MONROE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS JAMES MONROE memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Name:

Born in Westmoreland County, Va., 28 April 1758, James Monroe interrupted his education at William and Mary College in 1776 to join the Continental Army. He saw extensive action during the Revolutionary War receiving a wound at the battle of Trenton. In 1780 he began the study of law under Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, and 2 years later was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates to begin a legislative career which took him to the Confederation Congress and the United States Senate.

He served the executive branch as Minister to France, Spain, and Great Britain. He joined Robert R. Livingston in negotiations with the French government leading to the Louisiana Purchase. President Madison appointed him Secretary of State in 1811 and added the War-Department portfolio to his duties during the closing months of the War of 1812.

Elected fifth President of the United States in 1816, Monroe led the country during a period remembered as "The Era of Good Feeling." His administration witnessed the settlement of several long standing disputes with Great Britain, the acquisition of Florida, the Missouri Compromise, and the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine.

At the end of his second term Monroe retired to his estate, "Oak Hill" and died 4 July 1831 while on a visit to New York.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS JAMES MONROE History:

USS JAMES MONROE was a LAFAYETTE-class fleet ballistic missile submarine designed to provide part of the seaborne leg of the United States strategic deterrent throughout the Cold War. Ordered in 1961 and in commission from December 1963 until September 1990, she carried first POLARIS and later POSEIDON ballistic missiles, completed a total of 78 strategic deterrent patrols, spent almost fifteen years of her life submerged on patrol, and steamed more than 750,000 nautical miles before entering the nuclear Ship-Submarine Recycling Program in the mid-1990s.

Her ship's motto, "Watchful Waiting", deliberately echoed President James Monroe's cautious foreign-policy posture and captured the essence of the continuous, quiet deterrent patrols that defined her career. The contract to build the submarine was awarded on February 3, 1961, to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia. Her keel was laid there on July 31, 1961, as the shipyard's first LAFAYETTE-class ballistic missile submarine. She was launched on August 4, 1962, with Miriam Thorne Gilpatric, wife of Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell L. Gilpatric, acting as sponsor.

After fitting out, USS JAMES MONROE was commissioned on December 7, 1963. Commander William H. Sandeford took command of the Blue Crew, while Commander Warren R. Cobean Jr. commanded the Gold Crew, reflecting the two-crew system used to maximize time on station for ballistic-missile submarines. Following commissioning, USS JAMES MONROE conducted her shakedown operations in warmer waters. She cruised to the British West Indies and visited Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before moving to the Cape Kennedy area off the Florida coast for intensive trials of her POLARIS A-2 missile system. As part of the broader test program for the LAFAYETTE-class boats, she made her first Cape Canaveral missile-range launch on February 3, 1964, one of a series of test firings intended to validate both the missile and fire control systems.

On February 17, 1964, Blue and Gold crews carried out the submarine's first POLARIS launch from her own tubes, an important benchmark in demonstrating that the new boat was fully ready to join the operational deterrent force. With testing complete, USS JAMES MONROE transitioned quickly into operational service. On June 1, 1964, she departed Charleston, South Carolina, carrying sixteen POLARIS A-2 missiles and setting out on her first strategic deterrent patrol.

Charleston served as the off-crew homeport, where Blue and Gold crews alternated between patrols and training, while at sea the boat operated under the growing POLARIS deployment in the Atlantic. Initially, she was assigned to Submarine Squadron 16, operating out of the POLARIS replenishment anchorage at Rota, Spain, one of the two main European forward sites that allowed the United States to keep ballistic-missile submarines close to their patrol areas with minimal transit time.

On June 1, 1965, as POLARIS operations in the Atlantic matured, USS JAMES MONROE was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 14, based at Holy Loch, Scotland, while still using Rota as an alternate support site. Through the mid-1960s, she rotated steadily between deterrent patrols and refits, moving between Holy Loch and Rota. On January 17, 1967, she completed her twelfth deterrent patrol, having already operated from both European anchorages as part of the continuous at-sea deterrent posture that characterized the U.S. response to the strategic environment of the post-Cuban Missile Crisis era.

By the time she prepared for her first major overhaul, USS JAMES MONROE had completed sixteen POLARIS A-2 patrols. The first overhaul marked both a technical and operational transition. On January 9, 1968, USS JAMES MONROE entered Charleston Naval Shipyard for a comprehensive refit in which her S5W reactor was refueled and her missile system upgraded to carry the longer-range POLARIS A-3. She was noted at the time as the first submarine equipped with POLARIS A-2 missiles to enter an overhaul specifically to receive A-3 capability, reflecting the ongoing modernization of the "41 for Freedom" fleet. During the yard period, her navigation and sonar systems were modernized along with the strategic weapon system. The overhaul was completed in September 1969, after which she conducted the usual post-refit trials, including a shakedown cruise to Caribbean waters. In late 1969, both crews successfully test-fired POLARIS A-3 missiles off Cape Kennedy, confirming the new configuration.

On December 31, 1969, after a short final refit in Charleston, USS JAMES MONROE left the East Coast and headed south for the Panama Canal. Transiting the canal, she proceeded to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which became her intermediate base as she shifted to the Pacific Fleet in the context of the Navy's effort to distribute the ballistic-missile force between the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. After arrival at Pearl Harbor and crew consolidation, she departed again on January 24, 1970, bound for Guam. There, she joined Submarine Squadron 15 at Polaris Point in Apra Harbor, operating from Refit Site III as part of the expanding Pacific POLARIS presence during the later years of the Vietnam War and the early strategic arms limitation talks.

From Guam, USS JAMES MONROE began a new series of POLARIS A-3 deterrent patrols in the western Pacific. On March 3, 1970, she departed on her second on-line patrol cycle in the Pacific with sixteen A-3 missiles aboard. Her refits at Polaris Point were supported primarily by the submarine tenders USS PROTEUS (AS 19) and later USS HUNLEY (AS 31). In December 1971, HUNLEY relieved PROTEUS as the primary tender at Apra Harbor. In January 1973, PROTEUS returned after overhaul, resuming support for Squadron 15's SSBNs.

The boat's performance during this period was formally recognized. She received a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation as a member of Submarine Squadron 15 for operations spanning July 1968 to October 1971, a timeframe that covered her late Atlantic and early Pacific patrols. On August 22, 1972, USS JAMES MONROE and her crews were awarded a second Meritorious Unit Commendation for consistently high readiness, outstanding performance in inspections, and completion of a series of successful Polaris deterrent patrols, as well as for notable success in career motivation and retention programs.

By the mid-1970s, as the U.S. strategic missile force shifted from POLARIS to POSEIDON C-3, USS JAMES MONROE's Pacific phase drew to a close. She ultimately completed nineteen strategic deterrent patrols in the Pacific from Guam, bringing her cumulative total to thirty-five patrols since commissioning. In October 1974, she returned to Pearl Harbor for crew consolidation and then sailed back to the U.S. East Coast for a second major overhaul. After leaving the Pacific Fleet in November 1974, she proceeded to Newport News Shipbuilding, where she entered the yard in January 1975 for nuclear refueling and conversion to carry POSEIDON C-3 missiles. Official program records list the POSEIDON conversion period for USS JAMES MONROE as running from January 15, 1975, to May 14, 1977. This second overhaul fundamentally reshaped the submarine's capabilities. Her reactor was refueled and upgraded to a longer-life core, her strategic weapons compartment was reconfigured for the larger and more capable POSEIDON missiles, and related navigation, fire-control, and survivability systems were modernized in line with mid-1970s standards for the LAFAYETTE/MADISON/BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-classes.

When the yard work ended on May 14, 1977, she began a Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO) in the Caribbean, culminating on August 3, 1977, when the Blue Crew successfully launched a POSEIDON C-3 missile to prove the new system at sea.

With POSEIDON trials complete and both crews certified, USS JAMES MONROE departed on December 14, 1977, for her first operational deterrent patrol in her new configuration. She was once again based at Charleston, with Holy Loch as her main forward support site under Submarine Squadron 14, returning to the familiar pattern of Atlantic SSBN operations now under the SALT I and early SALT II strategic framework.

Her POSEIDON era soon brought another homeport transition. During these patrol cycles, the boat's thirty-ninth patrol ended at Rota, Spain, under Submarine Squadron 16. On July 2, 1979, the submarine tender USS SIMON LAKE (AS 33) arrived at Kings Bay, Georgia, to establish a new East Coast ballistic-missile submarine base. Four days later, on July 6, 1979, USS JAMES MONROE entered Kings Bay from Rota and moored alongside SIMON LAKE to begin a routine refit in preparation for another deterrent patrol. This evolution marked the start of Kings Bay's continuous service as an operational submarine base for the U.S. SSBN force. After that refit, she returned to Holy Loch in October 1979 and continued to alternate patrols between the Scottish anchorage and the newer base at Kings Bay as the Atlantic POSEIDON posture matured.

To extend the time between full shipyard overhauls, the Navy scheduled a series of extended refits for selected POSEIDON boats. For USS JAMES MONROE these occurred in September 1981, April 1984, and May 1987, allowing major preventive maintenance and critical repairs to be carried out without withdrawing her from service for another lengthy overhaul.

Her operational performance during the early 1980s was recognized repeatedly. For fiscal years 1981, 1982, and 1983 she received the Battle Effectiveness Award ("Battle E") while assigned to Submarine Squadron 14 at Holy Loch, indicating sustained superiority in readiness, tactical performance, and material condition compared with her squadron peers. She also accumulated a series of departmental awards, including Anti-Submarine Warfare "A", Engineering "E", Damage Control "DC", Communications Green "E", Supply Blue "E", and other recognitions for excellence in support areas such as food service and medical readiness.

Missile testing remained part of her routine even in mid-career. On July 28, 1983, the Blue Crew of USS JAMES MONROE conducted a Follow-on Operational Test (FOT) in which four POSEIDON C-3 missiles were successfully launched, demonstrating continuing reliability of the submarine-based strategic weapon system after years of operational use.

By July 1985, the submarine had completed her sixty-fifth deterrent patrol, highlighting the tempo of Cold War SSBN operations in the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea approaches during a period of heightened U.S.-Soviet naval activity. On September 12, 1987, the Gold Crew carried out another FOT, again successfully launching four POSEIDON C-3 missiles. This event also marked her final Cape Canaveral missile-range launch, closing a test record that stretched back to 1964 and encompassed thirteen Cape launches over the life of the boat.

As the Cold War began to wind down in the late 1980s, USS JAMES MONROE neared the end of her service life. Patrol 77 began at Holy Loch and ended at Charleston, reflecting a gradual shift of emphasis back to her U.S. East Coast support infrastructure. The final crew combination, consolidating Blue and Gold into a single crew for the last phase of operations, took place on May 17, 1989. After completing Patrol 78, conducting a strategic weapons offload, and performing local operations, the submarine left Charleston for Bangor, Washington, to rejoin the Pacific Fleet in her last months of active service. On this final transit, she passed again through the Panama Canal, crossed the equator during a brief diversion, and made a port visit to San Diego, California, giving many crewmembers one last glimpse of a major U.S. naval port from the decks of their boat.

Deactivation followed soon after this final voyage. USS JAMES MONROE was administratively deactivated on October 14, 1989, and on February 5, 1990, she formally began dismantlement preparations as one of three nuclear-powered submarines scheduled for inactivation in that fiscal year. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on September 25, 1990, after nearly twenty-seven years of commissioned service.

The hull was transferred to the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, where the boat was cut up and her nuclear components prepared for long-term disposal. Recycling was completed on January 10, 1995. As part of the process, her sealed reactor compartment was loaded onto a barge, transported from Puget Sound to the mouth of the Columbia River, and then upriver to the port of Benton, Washington, from which heavy-lift transporters carried it overland to the Hanford Reservation burial grounds for reactor compartments from decommissioned nuclear submarines.

Over twenty-six and a half years in commission, USS JAMES MONROE completed seventy-eight strategic deterrent patrols, spending almost fifteen cumulative years submerged on station and maintaining an operational tempo of roughly seventy percent, an indication of how intensively the LAFAYETTE-class boats were used during the Cold War. Around 2,600 officers and enlisted men served aboard her during that period, rotating through Blue and Gold crews that operated from Charleston, Rota, Holy Loch, and Kings Bay in the Atlantic, and from Pearl Harbor and Polaris Point, Guam, in the Pacific.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS JAMES MONROE Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Ballistic Submarines list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.