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USS Norfolk (SSN 714)

USS NORFOLK was the 27^th submarine in the LOS ANGELES class and the 9^th ship in that class built by Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. USS NORFOLK held a decommissioning ceremony at Norfolk, Va., on December 11, 2014, before she departed for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, where she arrived in early January 2015 to commence a year-long inactivation process. On April 19, 2016, the NORFOLK left the shipyard under tow for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., where she will be scrapped.

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Crew List:

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

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Accidents aboard USS NORFOLK:

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USS NORFOLK History:

USS NORFOLK was ordered on February 20, 1976, as an early unit of the LOS ANGELES-class attack submarines and laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, on August 1, 1979. She was launched on October 31, 1981, with Mrs. Caspar Weinberger as sponsor, reflecting the political priority the United States attached in the late Cold War to expanding its nuclear attack submarine force. Following fitting out and trials, she was commissioned on May 21, 1983, becoming the third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of Norfolk, Virginia, and adopting the motto VI PER CONCORDIAM - "strength through unity".

After commissioning, USS NORFOLK joined the Atlantic Fleet, based at Naval Station Norfolk, and entered the usual post-delivery period of shakedown, crew training and systems testing in the western Atlantic, preparing for the open-ocean anti-submarine warfare and intelligence roles that remained central to U.S. strategy against the Soviet Navy in the early 1980s.

By late 1984, the submarine had completed her first major overseas employment. Open sources record that USS NORFOLK returned from her maiden deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in November 1984, operating with Sixth Fleet forces during a period marked by recurring crises in the Levant and lingering tension with Syria and Libya. Detailed day-by-day movements for this first deployment are not publicly documented, but the pattern followed other Atlantic Fleet attack submarines of the time: patrols in the eastern Mediterranean and central basin, exercises with U.S. and NATO surface forces, and occasional liberty visits to allied ports, all under the broader framework of containment of Soviet naval power and monitoring of regional conflicts. Through the mid-1980s, with her second commanding officer, Commander Alfred Ponessa, USS NORFOLK became heavily involved in trials of the new Mk 48 Mod 5 Advanced Capability (ADCAP) heavyweight torpedo and in advanced acoustic experiments. These trials, conducted at instrumented ranges and in open-ocean conditions, were part of a wider modernization of U.S. submarine weapons and sensors as the Soviet Union introduced quieter submarines of its own.

Late in 1986, NORFOLK worked with other Atlantic Fleet submarines at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas. A deployment history of USS MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL (SSN 708) records joint operations and a tactical readiness examination with USS NORFOLK at AUTEC at the end of October 1986, evidence of NORFOLK's role as an operational test and training platform for the growing 688-class force.

The technical work of the mid-1980s culminated on July 23, 1988, when USS NORFOLK fired the first live ADCAP torpedo used in fleet service, sinking the decommissioned destroyer USS JONAS INGRAM (DD 938) as a target. This live-fire event, carried out under carefully controlled conditions, marked the transition of the ADCAP weapon from test program to an operational capability and underscored NORFOLK's role at the intersection of frontline operations and weapons development as the Cold War entered its final phase.

At the same time, according to later summaries of her service, the submarine undertook at least one active deployment "during one of the final spurts of activity from the declining Soviet navy", which would have involved shadowing Soviet units in the North Atlantic or Mediterranean and contributing to the U.S. effort to maintain detailed acoustic and tactical knowledge of Soviet submarines until the end of the superpower confrontation.

On January 17, 1989, while the Cold War still framed everyday operations, USS NORFOLK was involved in a well-documented peacetime accident. As she and the combat stores ship USS SAN DIEGO (AFS 6) headed out to sea via the Thimble Shoal channel off Cape Charles Light, Virginia, NORFOLK attempted to overtake the supply ship in restricted waters. Set toward a channel buoy by current and then overcorrecting, the submarine delivered a glancing blow to SAN DIEGO's port side with her own starboard bow. There were no injuries, but both ships sustained damage that required drydocking. NORFOLK made a surfaced transit to Kings Bay, Georgia, for inspection and repairs, and the submarine's commanding officer was relieved shortly after the incident, reflecting the navy's emphasis on navigation discipline and risk management in congested approaches to major bases.

In the early 1990s, the end of the Cold War coincided for USS NORFOLK with her first major mid-life overhaul. Open sources, drawing on official material, record that the submarine spent an extended period between 1991 and 1993 in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine, undergoing a substantial modernization. This refit updated combat systems and machinery for the post-Cold-War era and ensured the boat would remain deployable well into the 2000s. Shortly after returning to full operational status, NORFOLK resumed Atlantic and Mediterranean deployments during a period when U.S. submarines shifted focus from tracking Soviet fleets to supporting regional contingencies. A later decommissioning narrative notes that across her career the boat provided tasking "through the Cold War, Gulf War, Kosovo Conflict, Global War on Terror and many other conflicts and periods of tension", indicating that in the early 1990s she contributed to the broad undersea component of U.S. operations connected with the Gulf War and its aftermath, even though specific patrol dates and operating areas are not publicly catalogued.

One of the few precisely recorded peacetime events of this mid-1990s interval came on April 20, 1994, when the submarine tender USS FRANK CABLE (AS 40) anchored off Annapolis, Maryland, for a five-day visit to support U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen tours to USS NORFOLK. This illustrates how Atlantic Fleet attack submarines periodically supported officer training and public outreach alongside their primarily classified patrol work. During the later 1990s, USS NORFOLK made repeated Mediterranean deployments as allied attention shifted to instability in the Balkans. The Kosovo air campaign in 1999 brought submarines directly into NATO's war over Yugoslavia: the regulations and histories for the Kosovo Campaign Medal note that USS NORFOLK was one of a small group of U.S. Navy ships granted the medal as an exception to the usual 30-day presence rule, confirming that she deployed to the theater in support of Operation Allied Force and associated operations in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas in the spring of 1999. The submarine's tasks in that context would have included intelligence collection, surveillance of Yugoslav naval and merchant traffic, and readiness to conduct strike or special operations support if ordered, mirroring the roles of other Los Angeles-class units in that campaign.

At the turn of the millennium USS NORFOLK took part in carrier strike group operations that reflected the continuing U.S. commitment to enforcing no-fly zones and sanctions in the Middle East. During the deployment of the carrier USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) from November 28, 2000 to May 23, 2001, records of the battle group list USS NORFOLK among its submarines, alongside another LOS ANGELES-class boat. The carrier group operated first in the Mediterranean, then in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch and related maritime security missions, with port visits including Souda Bay in Crete, Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, Manama in Bahrain, Marmaris in Turkey and Rhodes in Greece. NORFOLK's presence in such a group underlines the integration of attack submarines into joint operations centered on large deck carriers, providing covert surveillance, strike-launch capability and protection against hostile submarines. Through the early 2000s, she continued to deploy to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic and Middle Eastern waters, but by the start of the decade her nuclear fuel and systems were approaching the point where a full engineering refueling overhaul was required.

That overhaul came as an extended period at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Open sources state that USS NORFOLK spent about twenty-two months in an Engineering Refueling Overhaul (ERO) there, returning to her homeport on August 25, 2004. The refueling of her reactor and the modernization of combat systems, sensors and habitability extended the submarine's service life by roughly another decade. A separate history of the salvage ship USS GRASP (ARS 51) notes that on August 24, 2004, GRASP met NORFOLK at sea to assist with an anchor-handling problem as the submarine approached the end of her transit home, an illustration of the prosaic technical issues that can accompany a return from major yard work. Once back in Norfolk, the submarine resumed local operations, including sea trials and refresher training in late 2004 and early 2005 to confirm the performance of her refueled plant and upgraded systems.

In November 2005, USS NORFOLK deployed again, this time as part of the NASSAU (LHA 4) Expeditionary Strike Group (Expeditionary Strike Group Eight), a formation built around the amphibious assault ship USS NASSAU. A deployment history of NASSAU shows that the group left Norfolk on November 7, 2005, and called at Rota, Spain, on November 21 at the start of a six-month cruise in support of the Global War on Terrorism, with operations spanning the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf and the U.S. Sixth Fleet area in the Mediterranean. Early in 2006, imagery from Souda Bay and Manama confirms that NORFOLK operated in the Arabian Gulf and nearby waters, including a port visit to Manama, Bahrain, in January 2006, before the group transited the Suez Canal westbound on April 7, 2006, en route back to the Mediterranean and then home to Norfolk in early May. In this deployment, USS NORFOLK's role was to add a covert undersea element to an amphibious-centered force tasked with maritime security operations and theater security cooperation with regional navies in the context of the Iraq War and broader counter-terrorism operations.

Following a period of post-deployment maintenance and training in 2006-2007, during which USS NORFOLK "sailed alongside" NASSAU and her group, the submarine undertook another independent deployment at the end of 2007. On December 28, 2007, she departed Naval Station Norfolk's Pier 3 for a regularly scheduled six-month deployment to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, this time not formally attached to a carrier or expeditionary strike group. During this cruise, NORFOLK again supported maritime security and theater engagement missions in the Mediterranean and Middle East. A Navy NewsStand release describes her as serving as a U.S. "ambassador" during port visits to Rota in Spain, Bahrain, Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, Aqaba in Jordan, Souda Bay in Crete and Augusta Bay in Sicily, reflecting a route that took her from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean, onward through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and northern Arabian Sea, and then back via the same axis. Sources also note that in May 2008, while in the Gulf region, USS NORFOLK took part in the multinational exercise "Operation Arabian Shark", a maritime security and infrastructure-protection drill in the central and southern Persian Gulf that brought together U.S. and regional navies as part of ongoing post-9/11 cooperative security efforts. The deployment concluded when NORFOLK returned to Norfolk on June 28, 2008, completing roughly half a year away and reinforcing the pattern of the boat's post-refueling focus on the Middle East and associated exercises.

In the period after her 2008 deployment, USS NORFOLK remained active in local operations and international training. Photography from 2009 shows the submarine regularly underway from Norfolk, and that year she hosted civilian visitors such as the country music duo the Carter Twins during a brief pause in their concert tour, a reminder of the public-relations and recruiting dimension of fleet activities in homeport.

On March 5, 2010, she left Norfolk again for another six-month deployment, as documented by official U.S. Navy imagery showing the boat being guided away from the pier at Naval Station Norfolk. According to a Navy NewsStand report, USS NORFOLK operated during this 2010 cruise in both the U.S. European Command and U.S. Central Command areas of responsibility, conducting missions in the Mediterranean and adjacent waters and then in the broader Middle Eastern theater before returning to Norfolk on September 6, 2010 - two days later than scheduled because of Hurricane Earl's passage along the U.S. East Coast. The deployment contributed to ongoing maritime security operations associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and with counter-terrorism efforts in the wider region. For her overall performance and improvement in battle efficiency during calendar year 2010, USS NORFOLK was selected as the Atlantic Fleet recipient of the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy, an award recognizing the ship or aviation squadron that has most increased its battle efficiency in a single year.

After a year anchored mostly in maintenance, training and shorter Atlantic and Caribbean exercises in 2011, USS NORFOLK prepared for what would be one of her last major overseas deployments. On May 1, 2012, she left Norfolk for a scheduled six-month deployment to the Middle East, again reflecting U.S. focus on the Fifth Fleet region and on cooperation with partners in the eastern Mediterranean. During this cruise, the submarine operated in both the European and Central Command areas and logged more than 30,000 nautical miles. Official Navy photographs and captions make clear that she conducted port visits to Haifa in Israel, Limassol in Cyprus, Bahrain and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, combining liberty with logistics and engagement activities with regional navies. On October 4, 2012, USS NORFOLK transited the Suez Canal westbound, re-entering the Mediterranean on her way home after the conclusion of operations in the Red Sea and northern Indian Ocean. She finally returned to Naval Station Norfolk on November 3, 2012, where family members and friends greeted the crew at a homecoming ceremony that marked the end of another long deployment to an area still shaped by the aftermath of the Iraq War, ongoing operations in Afghanistan, and wider regional instability.

The last phase of USS NORFOLK's career unfolded between 2013 and 2014. Through 2013, she remained active in Atlantic training and maintenance, while preparations began for a final deployment before decommissioning. In early 2014, she again deployed eastward. A U.S. Navy social-media account and later historical summaries note that the submarine's last overseas tour took her once more to the European and Central Command theaters, including at least one logistics and liberty call at Rota, Spain, as she supported ongoing NATO and coalition missions in the Mediterranean and the Middle East during a period that still saw maritime security operations, counter-piracy activities, and support to operations ashore. USS NORFOLK returned to Naval Station Norfolk from this final deployment on August 26, 2014, closing out more than three decades of active service and fifteen overseas deployments that had spanned the late Cold War, Gulf War, Balkan conflicts, and post-9/11 campaigns.

On December 11, 2014, the LOS ANGELES-class attack submarine USS NORFOLK was formally decommissioned during a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk. A Navy news release records that she was the Navy's 133rd nuclear-powered submarine and the 24th of the LOS ANGELES-class, and that she would remain in Norfolk briefly before being towed to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, to begin the reactor defueling and recycling process.

At the decommissioning ceremony, officials emphasized that during thirty-one years of service the submarine had completed fifteen deployments to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command areas, and had earned six Battle Efficiency awards, two Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophies, four Meritorious Unit Commendations, a Navy Unit Commendation and two Armed Forces Service Medals.

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USS NORFOLK Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the NORFOLK passing the Chesapeak Bay Bridge-Tunnel on a windy morning on her way to Naval Base Norfolk, Va. The last photo shows the submarine berthed at the Naval Base a few hours later. All photos were taken on October 29, 2010.

The photos below were taken by John Rebus (Michael) and show the decommissioned NORFOLK at Naval Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on June 2, 2016. The submarine recently completed a year-long inactivation process at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. From there, she was towed by the USNS APACHE (T-ATF 172) via the Panama Canal to Point Loma, arriving there on May 18, 2016. From Point Loma, the NORFOLK will be towed to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., for scrapping.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the NORFOLK laid up at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on October 13, 2017.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the NORFOLK laid up at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on August 4, 2023.

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