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USS Richard B. Russell (SSN 687)

USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL, the Navy's first ship to bear the name, was the last of the STURGEON - class attack submarines built. Deactivated while still in commission on July 1, 1993, the RICHARD B. RUSSELL was both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on June 24, 1994. Subsequently laid up in Bremerton, Wash., the submarine entered the Navy’s Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., in 2001 and finished it on January 3, 2003.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Name:

Richard B. Russell was born 2 November 1897 in Winder, Ga. He graduated from Gordon Institute in Barnesville, Ga., in 1915 and received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Georgia in 1918. He served in the enlisted ranks of the United States Naval Reserve Forces in 1918 and, in 1919, set up law practice in Winder. Prior to entering the United States Senate in 1933, Russell served as county attorney for Georgia’s Barrow County, as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, its Speaker, and finally, he was Governor of Georgia from 1931 to 1933.

Richard B. Russell served in the United States Senate from 1933 to his heath in 1971. He received an LL.D. from Mercer University in 1957. During the 91st Congress, he was president pro tempore of the Senate, a member and former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, a member of the Space and Aeronautics Sciences Committee and of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. He was also a member of the commission which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While still in office, Senator Russell died 21 January 1971 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

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USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL History:

USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL was the thirty-seventh and final STURGEON-class nuclear-powered attack submarine built for the United States Navy. She was named for Richard Brevard Russell Jr. of Georgia, a former governor of Georgia, long-serving United States senator, and influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The contract for the submarine was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company on July 25, 1969, during a period in which the United States Navy continued to build a large nuclear-powered attack-submarine force for Cold War anti-submarine warfare, intelligence collection, ocean surveillance, and forward operations. Her keel was laid at Newport News, Virginia, on October 19, 1971, and was authenticated by Ina Russell Stacy, Senator Russell's sister and official hostess. The submarine was launched on January 12, 1974, sponsored by Leila Elizabeth "Betty" Talmadge, wife of Senator Herman E. Talmadge of Georgia.

After fitting out, pier-side testing, reactor-plant work, dock trials, and sea trials, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL entered the final stages of preparation for active service. USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL was commissioned on August 16, 1975, at Norfolk, Virginia. Commander John C. Brons became her first commanding officer. From commissioning through 1982, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL was based at Groton, Connecticut, and served with the Atlantic Fleet submarine force. Her first years followed the normal pattern of a newly commissioned nuclear attack submarine: shakedown work, crew qualification, engineering and tactical certification, inspections, upkeep periods, local operations, and then forward deployments. She routinely deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic during this Groton period. These areas were central to Cold War submarine operations. The Mediterranean was a major Sixth Fleet theater, close to southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Soviet naval activity in the region. The North Atlantic, including the approaches to the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap and the Norwegian Sea, was vital to NATO anti-submarine warfare planning and to the protection of sea lines between North America and Europe.

During this early Atlantic Fleet phase, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL became associated with one of the most recognizable physical modifications fitted to any STURGEON-class boat. In August 1977, she received a prominent housing attached to the hull just aft of the sail. This installation, widely remembered as the "RUSSELL bustle", was connected with a tethered antenna buoy and gave the submarine a distinctive profile. The feature became part of the boat's identity and helped give USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL her informal nickname, "Dickey B".

In 1978, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL completed a three-month North Atlantic deployment. This deployment is associated with a Navy Unit Commendation and a Navy Expeditionary Medal. In 1980, she completed a five-month Mediterranean deployment. This was a period of increased American naval attention to the Mediterranean, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean following the Iranian Revolution, the Tehran hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and wider instability around the Middle East.

In 1981, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL completed another North Atlantic deployment. Public summaries associate this operation with a Meritorious Unit Commendation and a Navy Expeditionary Medal. In 1982, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL left the Atlantic side of the submarine force. She transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, for an extended overhaul. This move marked the major turning point in her career. During her time at Mare Island, the decision was made to convert the submarine for special-projects work. After overhaul, testing, sea trials, and extensive ocean-engineering modifications, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL began operating as a unit of Submarine Development Group 1.

As a Submarine Development Group 1 boat, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL served in a more specialized capacity than during her Groton years. Public material connects her with submarine rescue testing, ocean-engineering work, development activity, and sensitive undersea missions. Her special-projects role was important enough to be repeatedly recognized, but the operational substance of many missions was not released. Public summaries credit the submarine with a Presidential Unit Citation, multiple Navy Unit Commendations, a Meritorious Unit Commendation, seven Battle Efficiency "E" awards, and other departmental and service awards.

Through the mid-1980s and into the early 1990s, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL remained closely associated with Mare Island and Pacific-based special-projects work. Public photographs and crew-history material place her in and around Mare Island and also preserve references to operations connected with the Golden Gate area, Hawaii, a 1989 deployment, and deployments in 1990. The final phase of USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL's active life unfolded during the end of the Cold War and the first years of the post-Cold War drawdown. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the United States Navy began reducing force structure, retiring older nuclear submarines, reassessing missions, and shifting resources toward newer platforms. USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL remained associated with special-projects work to the end of her operational career, but the larger naval environment had changed. A crew-history photograph caption identifies her as returning to Mare Island from her last deployment around June 10, 1993.

USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL was deactivated while still in commission on July 2, 1993, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Rear Admiral Arlington F. Campbell, a former commanding officer of the submarine, spoke at the inactivation ceremony. His remarks placed the event within the wider context of the Cold War's end, Navy budget pressures, force reductions, and the retirement of capable ships whose missions and costs had to be reassessed in a changed strategic environment. The ceremony also reflected the special character of the submarine's later career: many of her achievements could be acknowledged only in general terms, because the details of her special-projects work were not public.

After inactivation, USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL remained on the Navy rolls for nearly another year while the administrative and material steps toward disposal continued. She was formally decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on June 24, 1994. After decommissioning, she was stored at Bremerton, Washington. Her retirement closed the active career of the final STURGEON-class submarine to be built, though other boats of STURGEON ancestry, including heavily modified special-mission submarines, remained relevant to the broader history of the class.

USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL remained in storage until October 1, 2001, when she entered the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. That program removed nuclear fuel and reactor compartments under controlled procedures and dismantled the remaining structure of retired nuclear-powered ships and submarines. Her recycling was completed on January 3, 2003.

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USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL Patch Gallery:

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USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL Image Gallery:

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