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USS Plunger (SSN 595)

One of the PERMIT - class nuclear-powered attack submarines, the USS PLUNGER was the third ship in the Navy to bear the name. Originally authorized as an SSGN, the PLUNGER was laid down as an SSN. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on February 2, 1990, the USS PLUNGER entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on January 5, 1995. Recycling was completed on March 8, 1996.

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Crew List:

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

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USS PLUNGER History:

USS PLUNGER was contracted on March 23, 1959, as a guided-missile submarine, but she was laid down as a nuclear-powered attack submarine on March 2, 1960, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. She was the third United States Navy vessel to bear the name Plunger, following the early submarine torpedo boat PLUNGER (SS 2) and the World War II submarine USS PLUNGER (SS 179). Her construction took place during the rapid expansion of the Navy's nuclear submarine force, when the United States was moving from the first generation of experimental and early operational nuclear submarines toward quieter, deeper-diving, multipurpose attack submarines. USS PLUNGER belonged to the THRESHER/PERMIT design line, which followed the high-speed SKIPJACK-class but emphasized improved sonar, greater depth capability, quieter operation, and a more sophisticated weapons and fire-control arrangement. Like her sisters, she had four torpedo tubes placed amidships to leave the bow available for a large sonar installation, a design feature that reflected the Navy's increasing focus on long-range detection and antisubmarine warfare.

USS PLUNGER was launched at Mare Island on December 9, 1961, sponsored by Mrs. Clinton P. Anderson, wife of Senator Clinton P. Anderson of New Mexico. During her fitting-out period, she completed the normal sequence of dockside tests, reactor-plant checks, equipment trials, crew training, and preparations for sea. She was commissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on November 21, 1962, with Commander William M. Adams Jr. in command. The commissioning ceremony took place at a yard deeply associated with Pacific Fleet submarine construction and repair. USS PLUNGER's first crew entered service at a time when the submarine force was absorbing the lessons of nuclear propulsion, long submerged endurance, and increasingly complex weapons systems. The boat was smaller than later LOS ANGELES-class submarines but represented a major step in the Navy's attempt to create an attack submarine able to combine quietness, sonar performance, endurance, and deep-water tactical flexibility.

Only days after commissioning, on November 27, 1962, USS PLUNGER departed for Puget Sound to test her torpedo tubes and sound equipment. These early tests were essential because her class placed heavy emphasis on sonar performance and underwater weapons employment. After completing that initial work, she departed Mare Island on January 5, 1963, for shakedown training at Pearl Harbor. The shakedown period introduced the crew to sustained submarine operations in the Pacific and allowed the Navy to test the boat's machinery, reactor plant, diving systems, weapons-control arrangements, sonar performance, communications, navigation, and habitability under fleet conditions.

After shakedown, USS PLUNGER was initially homeported at Mare Island and continued to operate in a testing role. Her work centered on the performance of sonar and fire-control systems, a logical early assignment for a new submarine of a class designed around advanced underwater detection and weapons employment. In April 1963, her home port was changed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On April 1, 1963, she became flagship of Commander Submarine Division 71. The move to Pearl Harbor placed her at the center of Pacific submarine operations during a period of increasing Cold War activity across the Pacific and of growing American concern over Southeast Asia. Pearl Harbor provided access to Hawaiian operating areas, Pacific Fleet training facilities, and the forward routes leading toward the western Pacific.

During the spring and summer of 1964, USS PLUNGER continued in a testing and evaluation capacity off the United States West Coast. This work formed part of the Navy's effort to understand the capabilities of its newest nuclear attack submarines and to match their sonar and fire-control systems with developing weapons and tactics. On September 15, 1964, she proceeded to Wake Island for a Submarine Squadron operational evaluation missile firing. Wake Island, located far out in the central Pacific, offered isolated operating conditions suitable for missile and weapons evaluation. The timing placed USS PLUNGER's work in the same broad period in which American naval attention in the Pacific was sharpening after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 and the expanding United States commitment to Vietnam.

In January 1965, while again at Pearl Harbor, USS PLUNGER was selected to demonstrate the capability of the Navy's newest antisubmarine warfare weapon system to Dr. Donald Hornig, Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. That demonstration reflected the close connection between Cold War weapons development, civilian scientific oversight, and presidential-level interest in submarine and antisubmarine warfare technology. In May 1965, at Wake Island, USS PLUNGER participated in C/S-17, the Submarine Squadron Operational Training Test. By September 1965, she was preparing for a western Pacific deployment that continued into mid-1966.

During that deployment, USS PLUNGER conducted evaluation exercises involving her sonar systems and ranged westward to operating areas that included Okinawa and Subic Bay. She also conducted antisubmarine warfare exercises and carried out oceanographic and port surveys. These missions show the mixed character of early PERMIT-class service: the submarine was not simply a patrol platform but also a technical and tactical evaluation asset. Okinawa and Subic Bay were central nodes in the Seventh Fleet operating network. Okinawa provided a forward position near the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait approaches, and western Pacific patrol areas; Subic Bay in the Philippines served as one of the most important American naval support bases in Asia. USS PLUNGER's deployment took place during the escalation of the Vietnam War, when Seventh Fleet forces were increasingly engaged in sustained operations across Southeast Asian waters.

In 1967, USS PLUNGER was at Pearl Harbor with Submarine Squadron Seven and operated to improve the antisubmarine warfare readiness of the Pacific Fleet. From March 6 to March 22, 1967, she participated in antisubmarine warfare exercises, then continued in advanced type-training work. During in-port periods at Pearl Harbor, she provided services to Fleet Training Program Pearl Harbor. This meant that she was used not only for her own readiness but also as a training asset for other ships, aircraft, and submarine personnel. The work was consistent with the broader Cold War requirement to improve the ability of United States and allied forces to detect, track, and counter Soviet submarines in the Pacific.

During the last six months of 1967, USS PLUNGER was homeported at Puget Sound. She returned to Pearl Harbor on February 1, 1968. Later in 1968, she deployed to the western Pacific. This deployment became politically visible because USS PLUNGER was identified in later summaries as visiting Yokosuka, Japan. Nuclear-powered warship visits to Japan were sensitive because of Japanese public concern over nuclear propulsion, nuclear weapons policy, and potential radioactive contamination. The issue had already become contentious in 1968 after earlier nuclear-powered submarine visits to Japanese ports produced public demonstrations. USS PLUNGER's Yokosuka visit therefore belonged not only to the operational history of the submarine but also to the larger diplomatic setting of United States-Japan security relations during the Vietnam War and the Cold War.

In January 1969, USS PLUNGER conducted a two-month special operations patrol. In mid-1969, she completed another "Pearl-to-Pearl" special operations patrol. Public summaries identify the latter as a North Pacific operation for which the submarine received a Navy Unit Commendation under the command of Commander Nils R. Thunman. The exact operational details remain publicly limited, as is typical for Cold War submarine special operations. During the broader 1968-1970 western Pacific operating period, later summaries identify port calls at Yokosuka, Guam, Sasebo, Okinawa, Subic Bay, Pusan, and Hong Kong. Those ports placed USS PLUNGER across the main American and allied naval support network in East Asia: Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, Korea, Guam, and Hong Kong.

USS PLUNGER's 1968-1970 period also kept her linked to weapons development. Later summaries describe her as a successful test platform for SUBROC, the torpedo-tube-launched antisubmarine missile used to attack submarine contacts at longer ranges than conventional torpedoes of the earlier generation. SUBROC had already been proven in early testing aboard USS PERMIT (SSN 594), but continued testing and operational employment work across PERMIT-class boats helped integrate the system into the attack-submarine force. For USS PLUNGER, this work fit her design purpose: using advanced sonar and fire-control capability to detect and engage underwater targets at extended ranges.

From 1970 through 1973, USS PLUNGER continued Pacific Fleet service, including western Pacific and Vietnam-era deployments. She remained in the Pacific operating cycle, alternating between western Pacific deployments, special or classified operations, local operations, and major maintenance. Her work took place during the final and most complex years of the Vietnam War. United States naval operations in the western Pacific included carrier air operations, surface combatant deployments, logistics support, mine warfare, surveillance, and submarine operations. Nuclear attack submarines such as USS PLUNGER usually remained far less visible than carriers and surface ships, but they formed part of the wider Seventh Fleet and Pacific Fleet posture.

In the early 1970s, USS PLUNGER underwent a fuel overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. That overhaul removed her from normal operations and prepared her for further service. On November 30, 1973, while the submarine was underway off San Francisco during routine post-overhaul sea trials, Commander Alvin L. Wilderman, her commanding officer, was washed overboard from the bridge in heavy seas outside the Golden Gate. Contemporary accounts describe the submarine as operating in rough conditions with large seas and strong winds. Other bridge personnel were able to remain aboard, but Wilderman was lost despite search efforts, and his body was not recovered. The event was one of the most serious publicly documented personal losses in USS PLUNGER's career and occurred at a point when the boat was returning from major shipyard work to operational service. Wilderman was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, and Wilderman Hall at Mare Island Naval Shipyard was later named in his memory.

After the 1973 sea-trials casualty and post-overhaul return to service, USS PLUNGER resumed the Pacific operating pattern. Public summaries state that after those trials she returned to western Pacific service and remained in that broader deployment cycle through the remainder of the 1970s. After the end of direct United States combat involvement in Vietnam, the Navy continued to maintain a substantial presence in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. The Soviet Pacific Fleet continued to expand, United States access to bases such as Subic Bay and Guam remained important, and the Navy used attack submarines for surveillance, training, weapons work, and operational deployments across the region. USS PLUNGER, already experienced in special operations and western Pacific service, remained part of that environment.

From 1980 to 1982, USS PLUNGER underwent a major refit at Bremerton, Washington. During this period, she received several modernizations, including installation of the BQQ-5 sonar system. The BQQ-5 modernization was significant because it gave older nuclear attack submarines improved sonar capability and allowed them to remain useful in a force increasingly dominated by newer STURGEON- and LOS ANGELES-class boats. For a PERMIT-class submarine that had entered service in 1962, the upgrade represented an important attempt to extend combat relevance into the 1980s. The refit took place during a period of renewed Cold War naval emphasis, when the United States Navy was expanding forward operations and placing heavy stress on antisubmarine warfare against a capable Soviet submarine force.

USS PLUNGER returned to San Diego after sea trials in 1983. San Diego remained a major submarine support and operating base, and USS PLUNGER resumed service from the southern California operating areas. She deployed to the western Pacific from January to June 1984. During that deployment, she participated in two long operations. The cruise placed USS PLUNGER back in the western Pacific during a period of heightened Cold War naval activity, when United States submarines continued to operate from Japanese, Philippine, Guam, and other Pacific support points.

In early 1985, USS PLUNGER was involved in a collision with a freighter off southern California while coming to periscope depth. The collision damaged portions of her bow and sonar dome and required an unscheduled drydock period in the spring of 1985.

In 1986, USS PLUNGER received the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award. Later summaries note that this made her the first warship to have received both the Sterrett Award and the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy, the latter associated with her 1969 performance under Commander Nils R. Thunman. Awards of this kind reflected broad performance, readiness, inspection results, operational execution, and improvement rather than a single event. In the same year, USS PLUNGER made another western Pacific deployment. During the 1986 WestPac she made port calls at Yokosuka and Subic Bay and visited Hong Kong as a liberty port. She participated in naval exercises with ships from the United States, Japan, and other nations and conducted a ten-week special operation for which she received a Meritorious Unit Commendation.

After returning from the 1986 deployment, USS PLUNGER conducted normal operations in the southern California operating area for several months. Later summaries describe her late-career inspection and readiness record as strong, noting recognition for performance across major inspections and award of the Battle Efficiency "E" for overall combat readiness. They also state that, despite her age, she maintained a demanding operational schedule, spending a large portion of her time at sea and meeting scheduled underway commitments.

USS PLUNGER made her final western Pacific deployment in 1988. During that deployment she visited Japan and the Philippines, as well as Guam and Chinhae, South Korea, and also made port calls in Okinawa and Hong Kong. She conducted another two-month special operation and received a Navy Unit Commendation for that work. The deployment was her last major WestPac and placed her again across the main Cold War Pacific support network.

After the 1988 WestPac, USS PLUNGER returned to San Diego and conducted another period of routine operations. In December 1988, she departed for her final special operation. This operation kept the crew at sea over Christmas, New Year's Day, and into January 1989. The operation concluded with USS PLUNGER completing her final Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination, after which she stopped at Pearl Harbor for rest and recreation before returning to her home port. The Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination was a major inspection of reactor-plant operation, procedures, training, and nuclear safety; completing it at the end of her final operational assignment marked the close of the submarine's active at-sea work.

USS PLUNGER was deactivated in commission on February 10, 1989, while under the command of Commander William R. Large III. Deactivation in commission marked the point at which she ceased normal operational service but remained formally in commission while equipment, records, reactor-plant systems, and administrative matters were processed for retirement. USS PLUNGER was formally decommissioned on January 3, 1990, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on February 2, 1990. At the time of her decommissioning, later summaries described her as one of the most highly decorated submarines in the Pacific Fleet and as one of the most decorated warships in San Diego. Across her career she had received four Navy Unit Commendations, multiple Meritorious Unit Commendations, Battle Efficiency awards, the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy, and the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award.

After decommissioning, ex-PLUNGER remained in inactive status before entering the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, on January 5, 1995. Recycling was completed on March 8, 1996.

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