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USS Parche (SSN 683)

The keel of the USS PARCHE was laid in December 1970 at Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries, Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. PARCHE was commissioned in August of 1974 and served as a unit of Atlantic Submarine Force until 1976 before transferring to SUBPAC. Once arriving at her new homeport at Mare Island, California, PARCHE received ocean engineering modifications. From 1987 to 1991, PARCHE began the extended overhaul at Mare Island Shipyard. The boat was refueled and modified for research and development, adding a one hundred foot extension to her hull, and began a new mission as part of Submarine Development Squadron 5. PARCHE resumed Pacific Fleet operations in 1992 and was transferred to her new homeport at Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Washington in November 1994. She continued to operate out of Bangor, Wash., until decommissioned on October 20, 2004. Between 1976 and 2004, PARCHE conducted numerous classified operations that earned her a total of nine Presidential Unit Citations, ten Navy Unit Commendations, 13 Navy Expeditionary Medals and numerous Battle "E"s. These awards made her the most-decorated ship in US Navy history.

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Crew List:

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

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USS PARCHE History:

USS PARCHE was the second United States Navy ship to bear the name Parche, following USS PARCHE (SS 384), a World War II fleet submarine whose Pacific service made the name well known in the submarine force. The second USS PARCHE was a long-hull STURGEON-class nuclear-powered attack submarine ordered during the Cold War, when the United States Navy was building submarines for anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, independent submerged operations, fleet support, under-ice and deep-ocean work, and missions whose details were often not publicly described. Her construction contract was awarded to the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi, on June 25, 1968. Her keel was laid down on December 10, 1970. She was launched on January 13, 1973, sponsored by Natalie Beshany, wife of Vice Admiral Philip A. Beshany. USS PARCHE was commissioned on August 17, 1974, with Commander Richard N. Charles in command. Her motto was "Par Excellence", a phrase that later became closely associated with her exceptional record of classified service and unit awards.

After commissioning, USS PARCHE proceeded into the Atlantic Fleet operating cycle. She went to Charleston, South Carolina, completed sea and sound trials, and participated in an Atlantic Readiness Exercise. She also completed a Mediterranean deployment with North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercises operating from La Maddalena, Sardinia. These early events placed the new submarine in the normal Cold War operating environment of Atlantic Fleet nuclear attack submarines: sea trials, acoustic and operational evaluation, readiness exercises, forward deployment, and alliance training.

From August 1974 until 1976, USS PARCHE served as a unit of the Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force. The period took place during intense undersea competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Arctic approaches, nuclear-powered attack submarines were used for anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, and intelligence-related work. In October 1976, USS PARCHE transferred from the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific Fleet. At the same time, Commander Jack Maurer relieved as commanding officer, took the submarine to Mare Island, California, and brought her into Submarine Development Group One. At Mare Island, USS PARCHE began her first ocean-engineering conversion. This was a decisive turning point in her career. She moved away from ordinary fleet attack-submarine employment and toward a specialized role connected with ocean engineering, research and development, underwater intelligence collection, and underwater salvage.

After the first ocean-engineering modifications, USS PARCHE deployed on a shakedown training cruise in August and September 1978. This was not a new-construction shakedown, but a post-conversion proving period intended to test the submarine and crew after modification. In the late 1970s, the United States Navy was placing increasing emphasis on forward submarine operations, Soviet naval intelligence, undersea sensors, seabed-related tasks, and the covert use of nuclear-powered submarines in technically difficult environments. USS PARCHE's later career grew from this specialized world, but most individual missions from this period remain classified or publicly undescribed.

From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, USS PARCHE conducted classified operations in the Pacific Fleet. Official and semi-official public summaries confirm that she conducted many classified missions and received extraordinary recognition for them, but they do not provide full mission dates, routes, operating areas, targets, or port calls. Non-official published accounts have associated USS PARCHE with undersea intelligence operations, including work similar to cable-tapping, seabed recovery, and retrieval of sensitive objects from the ocean floor.

A major new phase began in 1987, when USS PARCHE entered an extended refueling overhaul and conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The work lasted until 1991. During this period, she was refueled and extensively modified for research and development work. The most visible change was the insertion of a 100-foot hull extension forward of the control room and sail. This lengthened her far beyond the standard STURGEON-class configuration and gave her a unique external profile. Public technical summaries describe the modified submarine as slightly more than 401 feet long, with submerged displacement later described at about 7,800 tons. The extension provided space for a larger crew and specialized mission equipment. The modified USS PARCHE was configured for research and development and used primarily for intelligence gathering and underwater salvage. The 1987-1991 overhaul therefore transformed USS PARCHE from a modified STURGEON-class attack submarine into an even more specialized national-level undersea platform.

The 1987-1991 overhaul also coincided with the end of the Cold War. When USS PARCHE entered the yard, the Soviet Union still structured American naval planning, Soviet submarines and naval communications remained central intelligence concerns, and the Pacific Fleet maintained a high level of readiness against Soviet Pacific forces. By the time she returned to operations, the Soviet Union was nearing dissolution, and the United States Navy was beginning to adapt to a different strategic world. The Navy still needed submarines for intelligence collection, surveillance, undersea recovery, special technical work, and regional crisis response, but those missions were no longer framed solely by global bipolar confrontation. USS PARCHE's new configuration made her particularly relevant in this transition because her mission set went beyond ordinary open-ocean anti-submarine warfare.

Upon completion of her modifications in 1991, USS PARCHE began a new mission as part of Submarine Development Squadron Five. She resumed Pacific Fleet operations in 1992. Public summaries described her role in broad terms such as research and development, while other Navy and defense summaries identify her mission area as intelligence gathering and underwater salvage. During this post-overhaul period, she operated as one of the most specialized submarines in the fleet. Her work was sufficiently sensitive that many deployment details remained unavailable in public form even after the end of the Cold War.

In the early 1990s, USS PARCHE continued classified Pacific Fleet operations from Mare Island. Later deactivation and museum material credit her with an unusually high number of major unit awards. This recognition indicates repeated mission success. Public accounts connected with her later deactivation state that USS PARCHE made 19 deployments over 30 years, some of them lengthy. One publicly quoted crew recollection describes a mission in the 1992-1995 period lasting five straight months without a port call and without surfacing. That recollection is useful as an indication of the duration and isolation of some missions.

In November 1994, USS PARCHE transferred to a new home port at Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Washington, later part of Naval Base Kitsap. This move followed the base-closure process that affected Mare Island and other older naval infrastructure. Bangor placed USS PARCHE in the Pacific Northwest near Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and other undersea-warfare support facilities. She continued to operate from Bangor for the remainder of her active career. The move also placed her within a regional Navy infrastructure that supported ballistic missile submarines, attack submarines, special undersea work, and shipyard maintenance.

During the mid- and late 1990s, USS PARCHE continued to conduct classified operations. Public non-official accounts have speculated about particular missions in relation to post-Cold-War missile tests, foreign seabed objects, or undersea collection requirements, but the official public record does not confirm those specific mission details. What can be stated is that USS PARCHE remained operational from Bangor, continued to receive unusually high recognition, and served during a period that included the aftermath of the Cold War, regional crises, the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995-1996, and new intelligence and surveillance requirements outside the older Soviet-focused framework. The fact that many of her awards and missions remain classified is itself central to understanding her career.

USS PARCHE's late service extended into the period after September 11, 2001. Public Navy deactivation material describes her service across both the Cold War and the Global War on Terrorism and credits her crews with completing some of the submarine force's most demanding operations. USS PARCHE earned her ninth Presidential Unit Citation for a 2002 deployment associated with the Mediterranean, but the mission itself remained classified. The Mediterranean in 2002 was part of a broader operating environment shaped by the opening phase of the Global War on Terrorism, continuing instability in the Middle East, and intelligence requirements connected with regional and global counterterrorism operations.

By 2004, USS PARCHE was the last active submarine of the STURGEON-class. Her final operational period ended shortly before her public decommissioning ceremony. At the ceremony, her outgoing commanding officer, Captain Charles Richard, stated that the ship had maintained material readiness up to her last day underway a few weeks earlier. On October 19, 2004, USS PARCHE's decommissioning and change-of-command ceremony was held at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington. Commander Bill Guerrero relieved Captain Charles Richard during the ceremony, which marked the end of the submarine's active career and the beginning of the final administrative steps toward disposal. Formal decommissioning and removal from the Naval Vessel Register followed on July 18, 2005.

USS PARCHE's final recognition record was exceptional. Public Navy and museum summaries credit her with nine Presidential Unit Citations, ten Navy Unit Commendations, thirteen Navy Expeditionary Medals, and numerous Battle Efficiency and command-excellence awards. These figures made her widely described as the most decorated ship in United States Navy history. The exact mission narratives behind many of those decorations remain classified. Her sail was preserved after decommissioning and moved to the Bremerton waterfront near the Puget Sound Navy Museum. It was displayed with markings representing her major awards and command-excellence distinctions, making the preserved sail one of the few visible public reminders of a submarine whose operational history remains largely classified.

After formal decommissioning and striking, ex-USS PARCHE entered the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Recycling was completed on November 30, 2006. Her specialized research-and-development and undersea-intelligence role was succeeded by USS JIMMY CARTER (SSN 23), a SEAWOLF-class submarine whose construction was lengthened and modified for special mission areas. In that sense, USS PARCHE did not end the mission category in which she had served; she passed it to a newer and purpose-modified platform.

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USS PARCHE Patch Gallery:

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USS PARCHE Image Gallery:

before the conversion

after the conversion

The photo below was taken by me and shows the preserved sail of PARCHE located at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash. The photo was taken on May 12, 2012. The sail displays all decorations and awards the PARCHE has earned in her career.

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