Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Cavalla (SSN 684)

One of the STURGEON - class nuclear-powered attack submarines, the USS CAVALLA was the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on March 30, 1998, the CAVALLA was subsequently disposed of by submarine recycling at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wa. Recycling was finished in November 2000.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

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

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS CAVALLA History:

USS CAVALLA was the second United States Navy ship to bear the name Cavalla. The name had already been carried by USS CAVALLA (SS 244), the World War II submarine preserved at Seawolf Park in Galveston, Texas, and the nuclear-powered USS CAVALLA therefore entered service with a name already strongly associated with the submarine force. The second USS CAVALLA was a long-hull STURGEON-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, built for submerged endurance, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance-related missions, fleet support, mine warfare, special-mission support, and independent operations in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans. The contract for her construction was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation at Groton, Connecticut, on July 24, 1968. Her keel was laid down at Groton on June 4, 1970. She was launched on February 19, 1972, sponsored by Mrs. Melvin Price, wife of Representative Melvin Price of Illinois. USS CAVALLA was commissioned at Groton on February 9, 1973, with Commander Bruce DeMars in command. Her motto was "Any Mission, Any Time".

USS CAVALLA's early service began in the Atlantic Fleet, where a newly commissioned nuclear attack submarine passed through trials, crew training, inspections, ship-system correction, operational evaluation, and eventual assignment to the fleet deployment cycle. From January 1974 to March 1975, USS CAVALLA operated as part of Submarine Squadron Ten. This placed her in one of the principal Atlantic Fleet submarine organizations during a period when the Navy was continuing to refine nuclear attack-submarine tactics in the North Atlantic and related operating areas. In March 1975, she shifted to Submarine Development Squadron Twelve at Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut, and remained with that development command until 1978. That assignment was important for the character of her early service. Submarine Development Squadron Twelve's role was to develop tactics and promulgate tactical doctrine for submarine warfare, so USS CAVALLA's Groton period should be understood not merely as routine submarine duty, but as work connected with tactical development, training, evaluation, and experimentation.

In October 1978, USS CAVALLA arrived in the Pacific Submarine Force. This transfer changed the center of her service life from the Atlantic and Groton-based tactical-development environment to the Pacific Fleet. In November 1978, she entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, for a refit. That yard period lasted until March 1980. The refit occurred at a time when the strategic importance of the Pacific and Indian Oceans was increasing. The Iranian Revolution, the growing prominence of Diego Garcia as an American support point in the Indian Ocean, and continuing Soviet naval activity in the Pacific and Indian Ocean all made Pacific Fleet submarine operations central to American naval planning. When USS CAVALLA left Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in March 1980, she moved to her new home port at Naval Submarine Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and was assigned to Submarine Squadron One. From that point forward, Pearl Harbor formed the center of her active operational life.

From Pearl Harbor, USS CAVALLA's operations eventually covered the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. Her first clearly documented Western Pacific deployment in this period took place from January to June 1981 under Commander Fredric W. Rohm. During that deployment, she visited HMAS Stirling at Rockingham, Western Australia, from April 15 to April 22, 1981, for rest and recreation. That port visit placed USS CAVALLA within the broader American-Australian naval relationship in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific region. HMAS Stirling, on Garden Island near Perth, was one of the most important allied naval facilities available to American submarines operating between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The deployment took place in the early Reagan-era Cold War, when the United States Navy was increasing emphasis on forward presence, undersea warfare, allied access, and Pacific and Indian Ocean operations.

In the early 1980s, USS CAVALLA also became associated with one of the most important developments in submarine special-mission capability: the Dry Deck Shelter. A Dry Deck Shelter was a removable pressure-resistant module mounted on a submarine's deck to allow swimmers or special-operations personnel to exit and re-enter the submarine while it remained submerged. The system also supported the use of swimmer delivery vehicles and related special-warfare equipment. USS CAVALLA was fitted to support Dry Deck Shelter work and, in 1983, became the first submarine to successfully perform operational Dry Deck Shelter operations. This was a major technical and tactical milestone. It expanded the ability of nuclear attack submarines to support Naval Special Warfare while preserving the submarine’s submerged mobility and concealment. The capability would later be fitted to other submarines, including selected STURGEON-class, LOS ANGELES-class, SEAWOLF-class, VIRGINIA-class, and OHIO-class special-mission platforms, but USS CAVALLA's 1983 success marked an early operational proof of the concept.

During her 1985-1986 Western Pacific deployment, USS CAVALLA supported important Dry Deck Shelter operations connected with Seal team certification. Public summaries associate this deployment with a Meritorious Unit Commendation and with several traditional naval certificates and passages, including crossing the equator, transiting the Panama Canal, crossing the International Date Line, and operating in the Caribbean.

For the remainder of the 1980s, USS CAVALLA continued to serve from Pearl Harbor. During these years, the United States Navy continued to operate against a strong Soviet Pacific Fleet, maintain access to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, train with allied navies, and develop undersea tactics for both open-ocean and littoral environments. In 1992, USS CAVALLA appears clearly in Pacific Fleet command-history material. From May 11 to May 20, 1992, she participated in Pacsubaswex 92-3, also identified as Tacdevex 11-92, with USS HONOLULU (SSN 718), USS NEW YORK CITY (SSN 696), and USS OMAHA (SSN 692). The exercise was focused on anti-submarine tactics and took place in the post-Cold-War transition period. Although the Soviet Union had dissolved in December 1991, the United States submarine force still needed to maintain anti-submarine proficiency against potential adversaries and to preserve tactical skill in complex undersea environments. On May 28, 1992, USS CAVALLA is also listed in connection with SLMMEX. SLMM was the submarine-launched mobile mine, and exercises connected with that capability belonged to the broader mine-warfare mission assigned to nuclear attack submarines.

The most scientifically visible event in USS CAVALLA's later career came in 1995, when she conducted Scicex-95, the first of the annual dedicated Arctic science missions agreed to under the Science Ice Exercise program. The Scicex program had grown from earlier Navy-academic cooperation that showed nuclear submarines could collect valuable Arctic Ocean data while operating under the ice. USS CAVALLA departed Pearl Harbor in March 1995 for the Arctic mission. On March 26, 1995, she commenced operations in the Chukchi Sea after transiting the Bering Strait area. The mission was commanded by Commander Joe Leidig and included four civilian scientists: Chief Scientist Ted DeLaca from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bernard Coakley from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Dean Stockwell from the University of Texas, and Tim Boyd from Oregon State University. Arctic Submarine Laboratory participants included Jeff Gossett, Al Hayashida, and Dan Steele.

During the 43-day Arctic operating period, USS CAVALLA conducted reconnaissance surveys over the Lomonosov Ridge and the combined Northwind Ridge, Chukchi Borderland, and Mendeleev Ridge complex to examine temperature and salinity variability in the halocline layer. Scicex-95 also carried out the first Arctic transect from the Beaufort Sea to a point north of the Barents Sea, creating a cross-section of physical and chemical water properties along the long axis of the Arctic Ocean. Data collected during the cruise included underway bathymetry and gravity profiles, conductivity, sound-speed and temperature measurements, upward-looking sidescan, and video of the ice canopy. The total survey track during the 43 days was about 20,000 kilometers. USS CAVALLA surfaced at five stations during the cruise, where personnel collected water samples down to 800 meters and deployed expendable equipment from temporary ice camps. At 43 submerged stations, personnel aboard the submarine collected through-hull water samples at depths of 59, 134, and 240 meters. Scicex-95 personnel also launched 121 expendable oceanographic probes while underway. USS CAVALLA departed the Bering Strait on May 8, 1995, after 43 days of Arctic operations. The mission represented an important post-Cold-War use of submarine under-ice capability: skills and equipment developed during decades of strategic and tactical Arctic submarine operations were used to gather unclassified scientific data about the Arctic Ocean.

The Navy later awarded USS CAVALLA a Meritorious Unit Commendation in recognition of her performance during Scicex-95. The mission also had broader scientific and political meaning. It demonstrated that a nuclear-powered attack submarine could conduct sustained Arctic research with civilian scientists aboard, collecting data that surface ships could not easily obtain under the ice. At the same time, it showed how the submarine force was adapting after the Cold War by using undersea mobility, under-ice navigation, and Arctic endurance for scientific as well as military purposes.

In 1996, USS CAVALLA participated in the first joint American-Japanese deep submergence rescue vehicle operation. Deep submergence rescue vehicle operations required compatibility among submarines, rescue systems, support ships, and multinational procedures. A joint American-Japanese deep submergence rescue vehicle operation reflected allied concern with submarine rescue readiness in the Pacific and the growing importance of interoperability after the Cold War.

USS CAVALLA's final deployment took place from July 1 to August 10, 1997. She was assigned to Task Force 74 for this final operational period. Task Force 74 was associated with submarine operations in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean region, and USS CAVALLA's last deployment therefore closed her active service in the same broad Pacific operating environment that had defined much of her career after 1980. A little over two weeks after her return to Pearl Harbor, the Navy placed the submarine on the inactive list on August 29, 1997. A public decommissioning ceremony connected with USS CAVALLA was held at Pearl Harbor on that date, with Admiral Bruce DeMars, her first commanding officer, speaking at the event. The administrative sequence, however, continued beyond the ceremony. USS CAVALLA remained listed until she was formally decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on March 30, 1998.

After decommissioning, ex-USS CAVALLA entered the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington. Recycling was completed in November 2000.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS CAVALLA Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Submarines list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.