USS Salmon (SSR-573)
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2008-05-09T06:40:03Z
Brad101
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otherships; cleanup; {{sections}}
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{| {{ship table header 02}}
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:SSR-573 Salmon.gif|300px|USS Salmon (SSR-573)]]
|-
! style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| Career
! style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| [[Image:US Naval Jack.svg|50px|USN Jack]]
|-
| Awarded:
| [[27 February]] [[1952]]
|-
| Laid down:
| [[10 March]] [[1954]]
|-
| Launched:
| [[25 February]] [[1956]]
|-
| Commissioned:
| [[25 August]] [[1956]]
|-
| Decommissioned:
| [[1 October]] [[1977]]
|-
| Stricken:
| [[1 October]] [[1977]]
|-
| Fate:
| Sunk for a bottom target, <br/>[[5 June]] [[1993]]
|-
!colspan="2" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| General characteristics
|-
| Displacement:
| 2,530 tons full, <br/>2,030 tons light
|-
| Length:
| 106.6 m (350 ft) overall, <br/>106.6 m (350 ft) waterline
|-
| Beam:
| 9.1 m (30 ft) extreme, <br/>7.6 m (25 ft) waterline
|-
| Draft:
| 5.4 m (18 ft)
|-
| Speed: <br/> surfaced: <br/> submerged:
| <br/> 20.5 knots (38 km/h), <br/>15 knots (28 km/h)
|-
| Complement:
| 12 officers, 73 men
|-
| Armament:
| six {{convert|21|in|mm|0|sing=on}} torpedo tubes
|}
{{otherships|USS Salmon}}
'''USS ''Salmon'' (SSR/SS/AGSS-573)''', a [[Sailfish class submarine|''Sailfish''-class]] [[submarine]], was the third ship of the [[United States Navy]] to be named for the [[salmon]], a soft-finned, gamy fish which inhabits the coasts of America and Europe in northern latitudes and ascends rivers for the purpose of spawning.
''Salmon'' was laid down on [[10 March]] [[1954]] by the [[Portsmouth Naval Shipyard]] of [[Kittery, Maine]]. She was [[ship naming and launching|launched]] on [[25 February]] [[1956]] sponsored by Mrs. Albert M. Bontier, widow of the late Commander A. M. Bontier who was lost when submarine [[USS Sea Wolf (SS-197)|''Sea Wolf'']] (SS-197) was sunk during a war patrol in the [[Oceania|South Pacific]] early in October 1944, and [[ship commissioning|commissioned]] on [[26 August]] [[1956]] with Lieutenant Commander Robert R. Hale in command.
''Salmon'', the second of a class of two [[radar picket|radar-picket]] submarines and the largest and most powerful conventional-powered submarines in the [[United States Navy]], conducted her shakedown cruise between [[19 February]] and [[10 May]] [[1957]], ranging from [[Newport, Rhode Island]], to [[Guantánamo Bay, Cuba|Guantanamo Bay]], [[Cuba]]. She departed Portsmouth for the West Coast in late May, transited the [[Panama Canal]] on [[3 July]]; visited [[Callao]], [[Peru]]; and proceeded to [[San Diego, California]], arriving on [[25 July]].
''Salmon'' conducted local operations in southern [[California]] waters, as a unit of Submarine Division 33 (SubDiv 33), until she began her first western Pacific deployment on [[23 September]]. She sailed via [[Pearl Harbor]] and [[Midway Island]] to join [[U.S. 7th Fleet|Seventh Fleet]] off southern [[Japan]] on [[19 October]]. For the remainder of the year she participated in fleet training exercises and special operations, with port calls at [[U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka|Yokosuka]], [[Japan]]; [[Hong Kong]]; [[Manila]] and [[U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay|Subic Bay]], [[Philippines]]; and [[Kaohsiung]], [[Taiwan]]. ''Salmon'' departed Yokosuka on [[31 March]] [[1958]] and returned to [[San Diego, California]], on [[19 April]].
Resuming local operations, ''Salmon'' remained in the San Diego area for the rest of the year. From [[6 January]] [[1959]] until [[30 May]], she underwent overhaul and limited conversion at [[Mare Island Naval Shipyard]]. Giving up a large [[radome]] from her superstructure, she gained instrumented missile-guidance capability and improved, longer range sonar. ''Salmon'' then prepared for her second WestPac deployment.
''Salmon'' departed [[San Diego, California]], on [[17 July]] and sailed to [[Pearl Harbor]] where her crew received missile guidance training, then proceeded to [[Japan]] and joined Seventh Fleet on [[21 August]]. She operated with the fleet in Allied training exercises, provided services for other Seventh Fleet surface and subsurface units for training purposes, and made visits to various ports, before returning to San Diego on [[14 February]] [[1960]].
Through 1960 and 1961, ''Salmon'' operated from [[San Diego, California]], with occasional visits to [[San Francisco, California]], [[Astoria, Oregon]], [[Tacoma, Washington]], [[Port Angeles, Washington]], and [[Esquimault, British Columbia]]. On [[1 March]] [[1961]], she was reclassified an attack submarine and given [[hull classification symbol]] '''SS-573''', and, on [[1 November]], she was reassigned to SubDiv 52.
On [[1 June]] [[1962]], ''Salmon'' departed San Diego for her third WestPac deployment. She visited [[Papeete]], [[Tahiti]], from [[13 June]] to [[16 June]], then proceeded to Yokosuka for duty with Seventh Fleet. She subsequently operated with [[antisubmarine warfare]] (ASW) hunter-killer groups in fleet exercises and often engaged in free-play battle problems with individual surface units. During this deployment, she visited [[Hakodate, Hokkaido|Hakodate]] and [[U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo|Sasebo]], Japan; [[Naha, Okinawa|Naha]], [[Okinawa]] and [[Hong Kong]]. ''Salmon'' returned to [[San Diego, California]], on [[20 December]] and became [[flagship]] of Submarine Flotilla 1; and, in addition to that distinction, was awarded the [[Golden E|Golden "E"]] for excellence in battle efficiency for the past five consecutive years, which rated her as the leading submarine of her division. ''Salmon'' was the first submarine to earn a Golden "E" and was to better that record by winning hashmarks signifying retention of that status during 1963 and 1964. On [[3 June]] of the latter year, she put into the [[San Francisco Naval Shipyard]] to undergo [[FRAM II]] conversion. Departing the yard on [[19 April]] [[1965]], as a modernized "[[GUPPY III]]", she moved to the [[Puget Sound]], [[Washington]], area for evaluation and sound tests. She then returned to San Diego, to resume local operations, on [[4 May]].
''Salmon'' commenced her fourth WestPac deployment on [[23 August]]. She joined Submarine Flotilla (SubFlot) 7 of the Seventh Fleet on [[14 September]] and conducted operations in Japanese and southwest Pacific waters until returning to San Diego on [[20 April]] [[1966]]. <i>Salmon</i>'s fifth deployment to the western Pacific was from [[20 March]] to [[4 October]] [[1967]]. During this tour, she provided services to Seventh Fleet units operating off [[Vietnam]] in support of operations to counter communist aggression in southeast Asia. In September, she rendezvoused with ballistic missile submarines [[USS Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631)|''Ulysses S. Grant'']] (SSBN-631) and [[USS Kamehameha (SSBN-642)|''Kamehameha'']] (SSBN-642) somewhere in the Pacific to act as a simulated target sub for training in antisubmarine tactics.
Through the spring of 1968, ''Salmon'' underwent overhaul at [[San Francisco, California]], in preparation for support of the [[Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle]] (DSRV) program, to evaluate submarine rescue and salvage equipment at extreme depths. On [[1 June]], she was redesignated an auxiliary research submarine and given [[hull classification symbol]] '''AGSS-573''' for her role as mother sub and underway submerged launching and recovery platform for the experimental mini-subs. However, delays in the program resulted in her return to San Diego for local operations, following preliminary trials at Puget Sound. She subsequently sailed on [[25 October]] for her sixth WestPac deployment.
In November, ''Salmon'' visited [[U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka|Yokosuka]] and [[Hong Kong]]. From [[4 December]] to [[19 December]], she conducted special operations off the coast of [[Vietnam]], and, from [[26 December]] [[1968]] to [[10 January]] [[1969]], she participated in [[SEATO]] exercises out of [[Sangley Point Naval Base|Sangley Point]] in the [[Philippines]]. She then returned to Yokosuka and then proceeded to [[U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo|Sasebo]] for special operations before returning to the [[United States]] on [[5 April]].
''Salmon'' arrived at [[San Diego, California]], on [[25 April]] and conducted local operations for the remainder of the year. She resumed her former [[hull classification symbol]] as '''SS-573''' on [[30 June]]. On [[3 January]] [[1970]], she departed San Diego for her seventh WestPac tour. In February, she conducted type training in the [[Philippines]] with submarine [[USS Harder (SS-568)|''Harder'']] (SS-568) and her sister sub, [[USS Sailfish (SS-572)|''Sailfish'']] (SS-572). From there, she visited [[Buckner Bay]], [[Okinawa]]; [[Bangkok]], [[Thailand]]; Sasebo, Yokosuka, and [[Kobe, Hyogo|Kobe]], [[Japan]]; and [[Hong Kong]]. She returned to San Diego on [[27 June]] and resumed local operations. She remained so employed for the rest of 1970 and throughout 1971.
''Salmon'' departed San Diego on [[17 February]] [[1972]] on her eighth deployment to the western Pacific. In April, she rescued survivors from the Japanese coastal freighter ''Koei Maru Number 2'' which sank about {{convert|30|nmi|km|0}} south of the entrance to [[Tokyo Bay]]. In July, she joined units of the [[Royal Australian Navy]] and [[Royal Australian Air Force]] in an [[antisubmarine warfare]] exercise. ''Salmon'' departed [[Pago Pago]] on [[13 August]] and re-entered San Diego on [[26 August]].
She remained on the west coast for the remainder of 1972 and for the first five and one-half months of 1973. On [[16 June]], she headed west for what was to have been her ninth deployment to the Far East. Upon her arrival in [[Pearl Harbor]], the deployment was canceled due to damage to her number three and number four main engines. On [[10 August]], she sailed back to San Diego to prepare for overhaul. ''Salmon'' entered [[Mare Island Naval Shipyard]] on [[17 November]] and commenced overhaul nine days later.
<!--Three years of history go here.-->
''Salmon'' was decommissioned and stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on [[1 October]] [[1977]]. In 1992 ''Salmon'' was converted to a shallow water [[sonar]] target and sunk near [[Hudson Canyon]], south of [[Long Island]], as a bottom target on [[5 June]] [[1993]].
== References ==
*{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s3/salmon-iii.htm}}
== External links ==
*[http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/SS573.htm nvr.navy.mil: USS ''Salmon'']
*[http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08573.htm navsource.org: USS ''Salmon'']
*[http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/submar/ssr573.txt hazegray.org: USS ''Salmon'']
{{Sailfish class submarine}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon}}
[[Category:Sailfish class submarines|Salmon 573]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the New York coast]]