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USS Lapon (SSN 661)

One of the STURGEON - class fast attack submarines, USS LAPON was the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on August 8, 1992, LAPON was later processed through the Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Her sail was preserved and eventually moved to Springfield, Missouri, where it became a memorial feature associated with American Legion Post 639. The sail was dedicated there on July 3, 2005.

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Crew List:

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

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USS LAPON History:

USS LAPON was the second United States Navy ship to carry the name LAPON. The contract for her construction was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, on October 24, 1963, during the period in which the Navy was enlarging its nuclear attack submarine force in response to the rapid growth and increasing reach of the Soviet submarine fleet. Her keel was laid on July 26, 1965. She was launched on December 16, 1966, sponsored by Mrs. Charles D. Griffin, wife of Admiral Charles D. Griffin. USS LAPON was commissioned on December 14, 1967, with Commander Chester M. Mack in command.

After commissioning on December 14, 1967, USS LAPON was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and homeported at Norfolk, Virginia. Her earliest months were spent bringing a newly commissioned nuclear attack submarine into full operational service. In early 1968, after training at New London, Connecticut, she underwent an Operational Readiness Review. This initial period included the normal work of crew qualification, engineering certification, weapons and sonar training, tactical development, and local operations in the western Atlantic. In the spring of 1968, USS LAPON conducted a special operation. She received a Meritorious Unit Commendation for that operation. In the late summer of 1968, she returned to Newport News Shipbuilding for post-shakedown availability, during which defects and adjustments identified during the early operating period were corrected and the submarine was prepared for sustained fleet service.

In 1969, USS LAPON moved from post-commissioning preparation into the operational role for which she had been built. Early that year, before a Mediterranean deployment cycle, she took part in a training event conducted before senior Navy leadership, including the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, and the Commander Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet. The exercise demonstrated the feasibility of one submarine covertly trailing another submarine for an extended period. This was an important Cold War problem. By the late 1960s, the Soviet Navy was placing increasing emphasis on nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines, and the ability of American attack submarines to locate, classify, follow, and if necessary target those submarines without revealing their own presence was a central part of United States undersea strategy.

Later in 1969, under Commander Chester M. Mack, USS LAPON carried out the operation that became the best-known event of her early career. She covertly trailed a Soviet YANKEE-class ballistic-missile submarine for 47 days and remained in contact for the length of that Soviet deterrent patrol, breaking contact only when the Soviet submarine returned toward home waters. For this operation, USS LAPON received the Presidential Unit Citation, and Commander Mack received the Distinguished Service Medal. The event became a frequently cited example of late-1960s United States submarine trailing capability.

After the 1969 operation, USS LAPON continued Atlantic Fleet service from Norfolk. In 1970, 1971, and 1972, she remained an active nuclear attack submarine in the Atlantic Fleet and continued the cycle of upkeep, local operations, inspections, tactical training, and deployment preparation typical of the force. By 1973, USS LAPON was again operating in the Mediterranean with the United States Sixth Fleet. Her deployment was under way when the Yom Kippur War began on October 6, 1973. The war, launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel, quickly increased the importance of the eastern Mediterranean, where United States and Soviet naval forces were present and where the possibility of escalation was closely watched. USS LAPON had been scheduled to make a short liberty run from La Maddalena, Sardinia, to Athens, Greece. The outbreak of the war changed that schedule. Instead of continuing with the planned liberty period, she was directed into the eastern Mediterranean to monitor Soviet submarine activity. She remained at sea for 44 days before returning to La Maddalena. During this period, USS LAPON trailed a notably high number of Soviet submarines, and she later received the Navy Unit Commendation.

After the 1973 Mediterranean deployment, USS LAPON continued service as part of the Atlantic nuclear attack submarine force. For 1974, 1975, and 1976, public information is fragmentary. These years fell in a period of continuing submarine competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, with emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, protection of sea lanes, monitoring of Soviet naval movements, and support of NATO planning. USS LAPON's activities during these years followed the normal rhythm of an Atlantic Fleet attack submarine, with maintenance, training, inspections, local operations, and periodic deployments.

For 1978 and 1979, USS LAPON remained active in the Atlantic Fleet. The record for 1979 includes recognition connected with operational and anti-submarine warfare performance in Submarine Squadron 6. This placed her within the Atlantic submarine force's continuing emphasis on anti-submarine warfare at the end of the 1970s, when NATO navies were focused on Soviet submarine activity from northern bases into the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic and on Soviet naval operations in the Mediterranean.

In the early 1980s, USS LAPON continued service from Norfolk. Her fifteenth commissioning anniversary fell on December 14, 1982. For 1982 and 1983, USS LAPON again appears in award and recognition material, including references to Meritorious Unit Commendation and Battle Efficiency-related honors.

A change of command was recorded on March 28, 1985, when Commander John J. Mackin assumed command. USS LAPON then began a major Indian Ocean deployment on May 15, 1985. This deployment carried her far from her Norfolk home port during a late-Cold War period in which the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the approaches to the Persian Gulf were important operating areas for the United States Navy. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, Soviet naval presence, regional instability, and the importance of maritime routes around the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean all contributed to the strategic relevance of the region.

USS LAPON departed on May 15, 1985, and crossed the equator on May 25, 1985. On May 28, 1985, she made a brief personnel-transfer stop at Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. She continued toward the Indian Ocean and made a brief stop at Mombasa, Kenya, on June 12, 1985. During the deployment, she underwent an Operational Reactor Safety Examination, part of the inspection system applied to nuclear-powered ships and submarines. On July 31, 1985, USS LAPON entered an upkeep period at Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory. That upkeep lasted until September 1, 1985. Diego Garcia was a key support location for United States operations in the Indian Ocean, allowing naval forces to sustain activity across the central Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and nearby regions without depending only on more distant bases.

After leaving Diego Garcia on September 1, 1985, USS LAPON continued operations in the Indian Ocean and northern Arabian Sea area. From September 19, 1985, to September 27, 1985, she participated in Aswex 85-8 with USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63). The exercise occurred during USS KITTY HAWK's Indian Ocean operating period and reflected the continuing Cold War focus on anti-submarine warfare in waters near important sea lanes and potential crisis regions.

USS LAPON later made another brief stop at Diego Garcia from October 23, 1985, to October 24, 1985. She then proceeded to Australia and visited Perth, Western Australia, from October 31, 1985, to November 7, 1985. During that visit, actor Jack Klugman visited USS LAPON on November 1, 1985. After leaving Perth, the submarine crossed the Pacific and visited Pago Pago, American Samoa, from November 19, 1985, to November 23, 1985. She then continued eastward, transited the Panama Canal on December 6, 1985, and returned to Norfolk on December 9, 1985.

In 1986, USS LAPON conducted a North Atlantic deployment from August 21, 1986, to October 14, 1986. The North Atlantic remained a central region for NATO submarine activity in the 1980s because Soviet submarines based on the Kola Peninsula and elsewhere could move through northern waters toward the Atlantic, while NATO submarines trained and operated to monitor, track, and counter those movements. Later that year, USS LAPON supported SEAL training operations in the Puerto Rico operating areas from December 5, 1986, to December 18, 1986.

USS LAPON began 1987 with a major Atlantic anti-submarine warfare exercise period. From January 13, 1987, to April 21, 1987, she participated in LantSubAswEx, an Atlantic submarine anti-submarine warfare exercise. Exercises of this kind were intended to improve detection, tracking, coordination, and tactical performance in submarine-on-submarine and fleet anti-submarine warfare scenarios. During this period, USS LAPON made a port visit to Den Helder, Netherlands, from March 19, 1987, to March 27, 1987. She then made a brief stop at Portsmouth, England, from March 28, 1987, to March 30, 1987. After that, she visited Holy Loch, Scotland, from April 2, 1987, to April 9, 1987. Holy Loch was an important American submarine support site during the Cold War, especially associated with ballistic-missile submarine support, but it was also a familiar support point for United States submarine activity in northern European waters.

After returning from the LantSubAswEx period, USS LAPON entered a Selected Restricted Availability from June 18, 1987, to August 18, 1987. She then participated in Fleetex from August 20, 1987, to August 26, 1987. From September 7, 1987, to November 4, 1987, USS LAPON underwent a steam-generator inspection. She then provided services in the Puerto Rico operating areas from November 7, 1987, to November 25, 1987.

In 1988, USS LAPON undertook one of the most distinctive deployments of her later career: an Arctic ice-exercise deployment. She departed on March 19, 1988, and the deployment lasted until June 14, 1988. It took her en route from New London to Holy Loch early in the deployment, and she stopped at Holy Loch from March 23, 1988, to March 28, 1988. She then proceeded into the Arctic operating environment. Arctic operations were important to the submarine force because they tested under-ice navigation, sonar performance, communications, surfacing procedures, crew endurance, and the ability of nuclear-powered submarines to operate in waters where ice cover imposed severe limits on surface access, emergency options, and acoustic conditions. USS LAPON's commanding officer during this Arctic deployment was Commander John J. Mackin.

USS LAPON's Arctic deployment included a port visit to Haakonsvern, Norway, near Bergen, from May 24, 1988, to May 29, 1988. That visit placed her at an important Norwegian naval support location in the NATO northern-flank region. She returned from the deployment on June 14, 1988. Later in 1988, USS LAPON conducted midshipman operations. A change of command was recorded on September 2, 1988.

On February 1, 1991, USS LAPON was photographed underway off the Virginia Capes, confirming active operations off the United States East Coast during the final phase of her commissioned service. By then, the Navy was entering a period of post-Cold War force reduction. Older nuclear submarines were being reviewed for retirement as strategic requirements, budgets, and maintenance priorities changed. USS LAPON's inactivation ceremony was held on August 17, 1991. On September 23, 1991, she was transferred from the Atlantic Fleet submarine force to the Pacific Fleet submarine force for deactivation processing. By December 31, 1991, she was associated with Commander Submarine Group Five and listed for deactivation at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

USS LAPON was formally decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on August 8, 1992. Inactivation and defueling work were associated with Mare Island Naval Shipyard, after which she was moved to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for the nuclear-powered ship and submarine disposal process. Between August 17, 1992, and August 21, 1992, ex-USS LAPON and ex-USS GUITARRO (SSN 665) were towed from Mare Island toward Puget Sound Naval Shipyard by USS CONSERVER (ARS 39).

LAPON was later processed through the Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Her sail was preserved and eventually moved to Springfield, Missouri, where it became a memorial feature associated with American Legion Post 639. The sail was dedicated there on July 3, 2005.

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