Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Grayling (SSN 646)

Named after the fresh water game fish closely related to the trout, the USS GRAYLING was the fourth STURGEON - class attack submarine and the fifth ship in the Navy to bear the name.

Last homeported in Charleston, SC, the GRAYLING was both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on July 18, 1997. She entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., and on March 31, 1998, recycling was finished.

back to top

to end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS GRAYLING. 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 GRAYLING memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

to end of the page

USS GRAYLING History:

USS GRAYLING was the fifth United States Navy ship to bear the name GRAYLING and the fourth STURGEON-class nuclear-powered attack submarine. The contract for USS GRAYLING was awarded on September 5, 1962, to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine. Her keel was laid there on May 12, 1964. She belonged to the early group of STURGEON-class submarines, a class developed from the THRESHER/PERMIT design line and shaped by the Navy's post-THRESHER (SSN 593) emphasis on submarine safety, quality assurance, seawater-system integrity, and survivability. Like her sisters, USS GRAYLING was intended for the Cold War attack-submarine mission: locating, tracking, and, if required, attacking enemy submarines and surface ships; supporting fleet exercises; conducting surveillance and intelligence-related work; operating under ice when required; and performing missions whose detailed routes and objectives were often not released publicly.

USS GRAYLING was launched at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on June 22, 1967. In the typical Portsmouth launching style, she went down the ways bow first into the water at Kittery. The submarine continued fitting out and testing for more than two years after launch. During sea trials in 1969, one recorded trial-period incident occurred during an anchor test: the anchor could not be retrieved in the normal manner, and a tug with divers had to assist by attaching a cable so the anchor could be lifted onto the tug for return to Portsmouth. The anchor chain was manually detached and secured topside aboard USS GRAYLING for the transit back to the shipyard.

USS GRAYLING was commissioned on October 11, 1969, with Commander Charles Raoul Baron in command. Commander Baron's first command period, from October 11, 1969, to October 5, 1971, covered the transition from commissioning and initial trials to active Atlantic Fleet service. The United States was still heavily engaged in the Vietnam War, while the Soviet Navy was expanding its global reach and placing increasing emphasis on nuclear-powered submarines and ballistic-missile submarines. USS GRAYLING entered service as part of the Atlantic attack-submarine force, a force whose operations were rarely described in detail but whose general mission was clear: to monitor Soviet naval activity, train with American and allied forces, and refine the tactics and technology of nuclear undersea warfare. By 1969, GRAYLING had completed the Portsmouth construction-and-trials process and moved into the operating rhythm of the Atlantic submarine force.

On October 5, 1971, Commander Laverne Stanard Severance Jr. relieved Commander Baron. His command period extended through November 25, 1974. These years coincided with a transitional period in American naval operations: the Vietnam War was winding down, the United States remained deeply engaged in NATO maritime planning, and the Atlantic Fleet continued to train for the undersea contest with the Soviet Northern Fleet.

Commander Kenneth Eugene Cox relieved Commander Severance on November 25, 1974. His command period lasted until February 3, 1978. USS GRAYLING's service during the mid-1970s took place in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and during a period of sustained American and Soviet naval attention to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, and Arctic approaches. Public sources associate USS GRAYLING with Mediterranean operations during this broad era and place her within the Atlantic Fleet's normal STURGEON-class pattern: exercises with fleet units, anti-submarine warfare training, maintenance at East Coast facilities, and operational periods.

On February 3, 1978, Commander Thomas Richard Eckert relieved Commander Cox. He remained in command until August 17, 1981. This was a period when the United States Navy was entering the late-Cold-War buildup. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, the Iranian Revolution, and the growing Soviet submarine threat made attack submarines increasingly important in American naval planning. USS GRAYLING continued service from the Atlantic side of the submarine force, with Charleston later recorded as her last home port. During this period the STURGEON-class boats were being modernized and kept heavily employed despite the arrival of newer LOS ANGELES-class submarines.

Commander Albert Henry Konetzni Jr. relieved Commander Eckert on August 17, 1981. He commanded USS GRAYLING until May 27, 1984. His tour overlapped with a period of renewed emphasis on Arctic and northern operations. The Arctic Ocean and northern approaches were of direct Cold War significance because Soviet ballistic-missile and attack submarines operated from bases on the Kola Peninsula and because the under-ice environment offered both concealment and navigational difficulty. Public Arctic Submarine Laboratory records later identify USS GRAYLING as one of the STURGEON-class boats involved in Arctic operations, but the specifically named 1984 Arctic operation falls under the next commanding officer.

Commander William Ashley Evans IV relieved Commander Konetzni on May 27, 1984. The Arctic Submarine Laboratory chronology records that in 1984 USS GRAYLING, under Commander Evans, conducted operations in the Arctic. Arctic operations of this kind tested navigation, sonar performance, communications, ice-avoidance and surfacing procedures, and submarine endurance in conditions directly relevant to late-Cold-War undersea warfare.

Commander Evans remained in command until April 5, 1987. His command period therefore covered both the verified 1984 Arctic work and a later period of Atlantic Fleet readiness and training. The mid-1980s were marked by high U.S.-Soviet maritime competition. American attack submarines monitored Soviet submarines, supported carrier and surface forces, participated in NATO exercises, and maintained proficiency in Arctic, North Atlantic, and Mediterranean environments.

On April 5, 1987, Commander William Louis Stocho relieved Commander Evans. USS GRAYLING had just entered a major maintenance and modernization phase at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. This overhaul at Mare Island took place from March 30, 1987, to January 9, 1990. This long yard period removed the submarine from the regular deployment cycle during the final years of the Cold War and was part of the Navy's effort to keep older STURGEON-class boats operationally useful as newer submarines entered the fleet.

USS GRAYLING returned from the Mare Island overhaul at the beginning of 1990, just as the strategic environment that had shaped her service was rapidly changing. The Berlin Wall had fallen in November 1989, Eastern Europe was moving away from Soviet control, and the Cold War framework in which American attack submarines had operated since the 1950s was beginning to dissolve. Commander Robert Patrick Dunn relieved Commander Stocho on March 11, 1990. Under Commander Dunn, USS GRAYLING reentered active service in an Atlantic Fleet submarine force that was beginning to shift from traditional Cold War confrontation toward a more mixed set of post-Cold-War missions, while still maintaining surveillance, readiness, and under-ice capability.

Under Commander Dunn, USS GRAYLING entered one of the best-documented public phases of her later service: Arctic operations in 1992. Publicly available Arctic and postal-commemorative material identifies USS GRAYLING with Arctic and North Pole operations in April 1992. This activity occurred only months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Operationally, it continued the long-standing submarine practice of testing the under-ice environment. Strategically, it came at a moment when the Navy was reassessing under-ice operations, collecting environmental data, and defining submarine roles beyond the traditional Soviet-submarine tracking framework.

Commander Richard Earl relieved Commander Dunn on November 16, 1992. Only a few months later, USS GRAYLING was involved in the most widely reported incident of her career. On March 20, 1993, she collided with a Russian nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine in the Barents Sea north of the Murmansk and Kola Peninsula area. Contemporary reports did not consistently identify the Russian submarine; later public accounts identify it as K-407 NOVOMOSKOVSK, a DELTA IV, or DELFIN-class, ballistic-missile submarine. The incident occurred in a region where American and Soviet, and later American and Russian, submarines had long tracked one another because of the strategic importance of the Russian Northern Fleet bases.

Both submarines remained afloat and returned under their own power. Contemporary reporting stated that there were no injuries and no damage to nuclear propulsion plants or weapons systems, and that damage to the vessels was slight. Later descriptions state that USS GRAYLING contacted the Russian submarine's starboard bow or upper structure area, while the Russian submarine suffered visible but limited damage and later returned to service after repair. The incident came at a politically sensitive time, shortly before a planned meeting between President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and it drew attention because it was the second U.S.-Russian submarine collision in northern waters in about a year, after the earlier USS BATON ROUGE (SSN 689) incident. The collision demonstrated that, although the Cold War had formally ended, close submarine surveillance near Russian strategic submarine operating areas continued and still carried operational risk.

USS GRAYLING was repaired and remained in service after the 1993 collision. A public Defense Department photograph taken on July 25, 1993, shows USS GRAYLING moored at Port Canaveral, Florida, only a few months after the accident. This is an important point because later informal claims sometimes overstated the effect of the collision. The public record confirms that the boat continued operating and remained in commission for several more years.

Commander Samuel Clyde "Skip" Miller III relieved Commander Earl on March 20, 1995, becoming USS GRAYLING's final commanding officer. During the final years of the boat's service, the United States Navy was reducing the number of older nuclear attack submarines. The STURGEON-class boats, which had formed a major part of the Cold War attack-submarine force, were being retired as the Navy consolidated around newer LOS ANGELES-class and later submarines. USS GRAYLING nevertheless remained active enough to participate in one more well-documented NATO exercise.

In June 1996, USS GRAYLING took part in Exercise TAPON 96, an allied naval exercise held in the Alboran Sea, the Gulf of Cadiz, and the eastern Atlantic. The exercise emphasized maritime choke-point control, combined operations, and anti-submarine warfare procedures in waters of direct NATO importance near the western Mediterranean approaches. Other identified participating units included the U.S. Navy destroyer USS CONOLLY (DD 979), the Spanish aircraft carrier SPS PRINCIPE DE ASTURIAS (R 11), the Spanish frigates SPS BALEARES (F 71), SPS SANTA MARIA (F 81), and SPS NUMANCIA (F 83), the Spanish submarine SPS DELFIN (S 61), and the Greek destroyer HS FORMION (D 220). USS GRAYLING's participation in TAPON 96 showed that she was still operationally useful after the 1993 collision and that older STURGEON-class submarines could still support NATO exercises in complex littoral and choke-point environments.

After TAPON 96 and final operations, USS GRAYLING moved into the deactivation and disposal phase. She was deactivated on March 1, 1997. On March 8, 1997, she was placed in commission, in reserve, as she entered the Navy's Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. She was formally decommissioned on July 18, 1997, and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the same date. Her dismantling through the Navy's nuclear-powered ship and submarine recycling process at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, was completed on March 31, 1998.

After disposal, parts of USS GRAYLING's material legacy were preserved ashore. Her sail became a memorial on the grounds of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine, the yard where she had been built, launched, and commissioned. Her anchor and chain were placed on display as a memorial at American Legion Post 106 in downtown Grayling, Michigan. These memorials linked the nuclear-powered submarine not only to her shipyard and service history but also to the town that shared her name.

back to top

to end of the page

USS GRAYLING Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Submarines list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.