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USS Trepang (SSN 674)

USS TREPANG was the 26^th STURGEON - class attack submarine and the second submarine in the Navy to bear the name. Placed in reserve on January 4, 1999, the TREPANG was both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on June 1, 1999, and subsequently entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program Recycling at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Wash. Recycling was finished on April 7, 2000.

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Crew List:

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

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USS TREPANG History:

USS TREPANG was the second United States Navy ship to bear the name Trepang, the naval name referring to a sea cucumber. She was a STURGEON-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, built for submerged endurance, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, fleet support, weapons and sonar development work, and independent operations in the Atlantic, Arctic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean operating environments. Her construction contract was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Groton, Connecticut, on July 15, 1966, during the period in which the United States Navy was expanding and refining its nuclear-powered attack submarine force for Cold War operations against an increasingly capable Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down at Groton on October 28, 1967. She was launched on September 27, 1969, sponsored by Mrs. Melvin R. Laird, wife of the Secretary of Defense, and she was commissioned on August 14, 1970, with Commander Dean R. Sackett in command.

After commissioning, USS TREPANG was assigned to Submarine Development Group Two and homeported at Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut. That assignment gave her early career a distinct technical-development character. In addition to the normal work of bringing a new nuclear attack submarine to full operational readiness, USS TREPANG spent much of her first year testing prototype sonar equipment and supporting improvements in sonar hardware, software, and submarine operating techniques.

During January 1971, USS TREPANG operated in the Narragansett Bay area, conducting submarine-versus-submarine exercises and preparing for Arctic operations. The first half of February 1971 was spent in upkeep at Naval Submarine Base New London, while the latter part of the month was devoted to final preparations for her first under-ice deployment. From February 22 to March 22, 1971, USS TREPANG operated beneath the Arctic ice. This voyage combined operational, tactical, and scientific purposes. The submarine gathered weapons-system data, demonstrated her ability to operate in the demanding Arctic environment, and carried ice scientist Walter Whittman, who conducted experiments concerning the movement, composition, and geological history of the Arctic ice cap. The Arctic was a strategically important Cold War operating area because under-ice navigation, communications, sonar performance, and weapons-system reliability were central to both submarine survivability and anti-submarine warfare. After completing the Arctic phase, USS TREPANG visited Faslane, Scotland, from March 25 to March 27, 1971, and returned to New London on April 6, 1971.

On April 22, 1971, USS TREPANG departed New London for Norfolk, Virginia. While she was at Norfolk, Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, Mrs. Laird, and guests came aboard for lunch, an event connected with the public and official attention given to the new submarine. On April 27, 1971, USS TREPANG proceeded to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. From May 2 to May 8, 1971, she conducted weapons-system acceptance and operational trials and also made a port visit at St. Croix. She arrived back at New London on May 14, 1971. After that, she entered a post-shakedown availability at Electric Boat in Groton. This yard period was intended to correct, adjust, and improve machinery components and ship systems after the early operating period. The post-shakedown availability was completed on July 16, 1971.

From July 19 to July 24, 1971, USS TREPANG took part in prospective commanding officer operations in local areas, training future submarine commanding officers in submarine-versus-submarine and submarine-versus-surface-ship tactics. She returned to New London on August 1, 1971, and spent the first part of August in type training. From August 23 to August 30, 1971, she conducted sonar tests in the Tongue of the Ocean near Nassau in the Bahamas, a deep-water acoustic test area frequently used for submarine and sonar work. From August 30 to September 2, 1971, USS TREPANG visited Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From October 18 to November 26, 1971, she conducted type training and sonar calibration in preparation for an extended deployment. In late November 1971, she departed New London for an extended North Atlantic deployment, demonstrating her ability to operate independently for long periods in the ocean areas that were central to Cold War anti-submarine operations.

USS TREPANG returned to New London on February 5, 1972. After that North Atlantic deployment, she entered the normal submarine cycle of post-deployment standdown, upkeep, training, and equipment grooming. On July 24, 1972, she departed for another extended North Atlantic deployment. This second extended deployment of the year continued until September 25, 1972, and she returned by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The remainder of 1972 was spent in operations between New London and Fort Lauderdale. These movements kept her within the western Atlantic and Caribbean training pattern while maintaining her readiness for Atlantic Fleet submarine requirements.

Early in 1973, USS TREPANG spent four weeks in dry dock at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine. After leaving that yard period, she conducted weapons tests off Florida and then completed a four-week upkeep period on April 22, 1973. She underwent a Nuclear Technical Proficiency Inspection and, on May 4, 1973, completed an Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination. These events reflected the strict certification and readiness requirements attached to nuclear-powered submarine operations. On June 8, 1973, USS TREPANG departed New London for a six-month deployment with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean was one of the central maritime theaters of the Cold War. United States naval forces there supported NATO's southern flank, monitored Soviet naval activity, maintained access to the eastern Mediterranean, and provided naval presence during regional crises. During this deployment, the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War created heightened tension across the eastern Mediterranean, and USS TREPANG conducted special operations during that period of increased Sixth Fleet activity. She returned to New London at the end of November 1973 and then entered post-deployment upkeep and standdown.

On February 15, 1974, USS TREPANG got underway for a special operation that continued until April 9, 1974. During that deployment, she spent three days at Holy Loch, Scotland, the American submarine support site on the Clyde that played a major role in United States submarine operations during the Cold War. After returning to New London, she resumed local operations and training along the East Coast. On October 1, 1974, her home port was changed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in connection with an overhaul period. The remainder of 1974 was spent in dry dock during an annual overhaul.

In March 1975, while still in overhaul, USS TREPANG was assigned to Submarine Squadron Ten. From April through August 1975, she continued overhaul work, training, and recertification. Late in October 1975, she conducted sea trials following the overhaul. On November 7, 1975, she returned to New London, again listed as her home port, and began intensive post-overhaul upkeep alongside a submarine tender. On December 1, 1975, USS TREPANG departed New London for post-overhaul weapons-system acceptance testing at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. She then conducted five days of acoustic trials off Frederiksted, St. Croix. She departed St. Croix on December 17, 1975, and returned to New London on December 22, 1975.

During the early months of 1976, USS TREPANG prepared for another overseas deployment. From June 1976 to November 1976, she deployed to the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet. After returning to New London in November 1976, USS TREPANG entered standdown, which continued into 1977.

In mid-January 1977, USS TREPANG participated in Caribex 77 in the Caribbean. During the spring of 1977, she conducted individual ship exercises and inspections, including a Nuclear Technical Proficiency Inspection, a Mark 48 torpedo proficiency inspection, and an Operational Readiness Inspection. In May and early June 1977, she underwent a refit that included drydocking. After that work, she conducted midshipman orientation cruises during the summer. In September 1977, she began pre-deployment workup and certification. From mid-October to mid-December 1977, USS TREPANG conducted a training mission in the Atlantic and then returned to New London for standdown.

After standdown ended in January 1978, USS TREPANG spent the remaining weeks of January, February, and March in attack-submarine training and NATO Exercise Safepass. In February 1978, she operated with USS DACE (SSN 607) in ASWEx 1-78. From February 28 to March 17, 1978, USS TREPANG and USS DACE participated together in NATO Operation Safepass 1-78. That exercise belonged to the wider NATO Atlantic anti-submarine-warfare environment, where allied navies trained for convoy protection, sea-lane defense, submarine detection, and operations in waters that would have been critical in any major NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict.

During the summer of 1978, USS TREPANG worked up for a scheduled Mediterranean deployment, but that deployment was cancelled so that she could participate in a special Chief of Naval Operations project. The remaining months of 1978 were spent evaluating project-associated equipment, alternating between periods at sea and in port for maintenance. On November 27, 1978, USS TREPANG departed Groton to conclude the year at sea while continuing that special project. A Sixth Fleet command-history entry for January 13, 1979 records USS TREPANG and USS BLUEFISH (SSN 675) as leaving Sixth Fleet operational control on that date. In the early 1980s, USS TREPANG continued the regular attack-submarine cycle of upkeep, training, deployed operations, inspections, and Atlantic Fleet tasking. In 1985, USS TREPANG again conducted Arctic operations. These operations formed part of the continuing United States Navy effort to maintain submarine capability in polar waters. Arctic submarine work required precise under-ice navigation, specialized sonar and acoustic understanding, careful surfacing procedures, and confidence in weapons and engineering systems under extreme conditions. The Arctic remained strategically important because it offered both a potential operating area for nuclear submarines and a demanding environment in which submarine forces had to understand ice cover, acoustic propagation, and navigation limitations.

Late in 1986, USS TREPANG appeared in Atlantic training activity. From November 26 to December 1, 1986, USS MEMPHIS (SSN 691) conducted underway training with USS TREPANG. In 1987, USS TREPANG completed a Mediterranean deployment with the Sixth Fleet. During that deployment, she participated in Sixth Fleet exercises and made port visits to Toulon Arsenal at Toulon, France, and La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy. La Maddalena was an important forward support location for American nuclear-powered submarines operating in the Mediterranean, allowing maintenance and crew support closer to Sixth Fleet operating areas than a return to the United States would have allowed.

In 1988, USS TREPANG visited Bermuda, received the Battle Efficiency "E", and visited Scotland following a North Atlantic deployment. After a change of command in November 1988, she carried out a two-month unsupported anti-submarine-warfare mission in the North Atlantic and later received a Meritorious Unit Commendation for that work. This period reflected the continuing Cold War importance of the North Atlantic, where American and NATO submarines monitored Soviet naval forces, trained for sea-control missions, and maintained undersea proficiency in the ocean approaches between North America and Europe. After post-operation testing, USS TREPANG entered her first regular refueling overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, in March 1989. That overhaul was a major technical and maintenance period in her service life, involving the nuclear propulsion plant and the broader renewal required to continue service beyond her first long operating period.

During the overhaul years, USS TREPANG maintained a host-city relationship with Dover, New Hampshire. In 1990 and 1991, that relationship was recognized through a New Hampshire Department of Education community and school partnership award, and in 1990 the submarine also received the Silver Anchor award. In September 1991, after post-overhaul sea trials, the refueling overhaul was completed. Following a change of command in October 1991, USS TREPANG shifted to Charleston, South Carolina. During the passage from Kittery to Charleston in late 1991, she transited while the severe weather system later known as the Perfect Storm was affecting the western Atlantic.

The end of the Cold War changed the wider strategic environment in which USS TREPANG served. Instead of preparing solely for a global naval conflict with the Soviet Union, American attack submarines increasingly supported a broader mix of tasks: regional crisis response, carrier and joint-force training, surveillance, intelligence-related missions, allied exercises, and continued anti-submarine-warfare proficiency. USS TREPANG remained part of that transition.

On April 24 and April 25, 1996, USS TREPANG participated in an undersea-warfare exercise with USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71). This placed her in a carrier battle group training context, where a nuclear attack submarine could serve as an undersea participant for anti-submarine training, screening exercises, and tactical proficiency. By this point, USS TREPANG was an older STURGEON-class boat, but she was still useful as an operational training platform in fleet exercises involving newer surface, air, and carrier forces. On June 22, 1998, USS HARTFORD (SSN 768) conducted pre-overseas-movement certification with USS TREPANG and USS TOLEDO (SSN 769), showing that USS TREPANG was still being used as an operational training participant shortly before the end of her commissioned service. On June 26, 1998, Commander Thomas E. McCaffrey assumed command of USS TREPANG at New London.

Late in 1998, USS TREPANG made her final major deployment, an around-the-world voyage of more than 23,000 miles. This cruise came at the end of her service life and brought her from the Atlantic operating world in which she had spent most of her career to the Pacific Northwest for decommissioning. By January 4, 1999, she had been placed in reserve. Her decommissioning ceremony was held at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, on June 1, 1999. On that same date, USS TREPANG was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Her commissioned career had lasted nearly twenty-nine years. The summary of her service credited her with seven northern Atlantic deployments, eight Mediterranean deployments, two western Atlantic deployments, and the final around-the-world cruise. It also recorded two Battle Efficiency "E" awards, two Navy Unit Commendations, and five Meritorious Unit Commendations.

After decommissioning, USS TREPANG entered the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. That process was completed on April 7, 2000.

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