UNDERWAY! 2025 Wall Calendar / W.W. II SPECIAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE - CLICK HERE |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For RATING SHIRTS - Click on your Rating Abbreviation below: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Click on your Rating abbreviation above: |
U.S.S. PIPER
(SS-409)Click to view crew list
USS PIPER (SS-409) - a Balao class submarine
In Commission 1944 to 1967SS-409 Deployments - Major Events
Add a SS-409 Shellback Initiation | Add a SS-409 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MAR | 1944 | - | Keel Date: 15 MAR 1944 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Kittery ME | ||
JUN | 1944 | - | Launch Date: 26 JUN 1944 | ||
AUG | 1944 | - | Commissioned: 23 AUG 1944 | ||
JAN | 1961 | - | JUN | 1961 | Caribbean |
OCT | 1962 | - | NOV | 1962 | Cuban Missle Blockade |
JUN | 1967 | - | Decommissioned: 16 JUN 1967 |
SS-409 General Specifications
Class: Balao class submarine
Complement: 10 Officers and 70 Enlisted
Displacement: 1526 tons
Length: 311 feet 8 inches
Beam: 27 feet 3 inches
Draft: 16 feet 10 in
Range: 11 000 Nautical Miles
Final Disposition: Sold for scrap June 1971
USS PIPER (SS-409)
Piper (SS-409), ex-Awa, was laid down 15
March 1944 by the U.S. Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H.; launched 26 June 1944;
sponsored by Mrs. Charles W. Wilkins, wife of Captain Wilkins; commissioned 23
August 1944, Commander B.F. McMahon in command.
Although built late in World War II,
Piper completed three successful war patrols before the cessation of
hostilities, operating as a life guard for plane strikes and as an advance picket
for fast carrier tasks forces.
Piper began her war career on 25 January
1945, when she slipped out of Pearl Harbor as the leader of a five ship
wolfpack. The mission was an anti-picket boat sweep in preparation for carrier
strikes on Honshu. After a short stop at Saipan, the pack arrived in the
assigned area south of Iwo Jima 10 February. Three sweeps from 10 to 13
February revealed no picket boats. Piper spent the period from 15 February to
24 March off the south and southeast coasts of Honshu serving alternately on
independent patrol and lifeguard duty for the then intensive B-29 and carrier
strikes against Japan. On the night of 25 February, Piper found her first
target. In a night surface attack, she sank an unidentified 2, 000 ton vessel.
The last four days before departure were spent guarding the approaches to Bungo
Suido against a possible Japanese sortie on the badly damaged carrier Franklin.
Piper arrived at Midway 30 March 1945 for
refit and training, and departed 26 April for her second war patrol in another
wolf pack. The ships arrived in the patrol area, the Sea of Okhotsk, 3 May
1945, and from the 14th to the 25th made concentrated surfacesweeps of the
area. The remainder of the period was spent on independent war patrol, rotating
stations. On 27 May the Piper got her first chance on this patrol when she
sighted two small merchantmen with two escorts in Boussole Channel. Working her
way through a heavy fog, she launched a surface torpedo attack, sinking one
4,000 ton merchantman. The escorts dropped a few depth charges, but none were
close to the mark.
The Piper departed the area 4 June 1945,
arriving at Pearl Harbor on the 13th. On 19 July 1945 she departed on her third
war patrol, stopping enroute at Guam for advanced training from 1 to 4 August.
On the 11th, Piper accounted for two five ton fishing vessels in Koshiki
Kaikyo, and on the 13th she entered the Sea of Japan. There she rescued six
prisoners of war, and Japan capitulated the next day.
On 3 September she headed for Pearl Harbor
and onward routing to the United States. Piper arrived 15 October 1945 at the
U.S. Naval Submarine Base, New London, Conn. During the next five years, Piper
remained in the New London area with the exception of cruises to Nassau, New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and overhauls in Portsmouth and Philadelphia.
On 2 May 1950 Piper got under way for a
tour of duty with the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Upon her return to
the States she made a six weeks cruise to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for special
exercises.
In June 1951 Piper went to the Charleston
Naval Shipyard for conversion which gave her the streamlined new look and
Snorkel gear. For the next few years the submarine operated out of New London
along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean.
In July 1955 Piper got under way for her
second tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. January of 1956
found her operating in the Caribbean again. From March to September she
underwent an extensive overhaul in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
On 1 July 1957, Rear Admiral C. W.
Wilkins, Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet selected Piper as his
Flagship. His wife had christened Piper at her launching in 1944. In September
Piper sailed for ail eight week NATO exercise in the North Atlantic. In 1958,
after completing almost a full year as Flagship of the Submarine Force,
Atlantic Fleet, Piper was relieved by Seawolf (SSN-575).
On 6 November 1959 Piper departed New
London for a three month deployment with the 6th Fleet. Throughout 1960 she
remained in the New London area. On 20 February 1961 the submarine got under
way for exercises in the Caribbean. On this cruise she became the first snorkel
submarine to make her 10,000th dive.
In the fall of 1962 Piper was deployed in
the Caribbean area during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Piper commenced another
Mediterranean deployment 8 October 1963. She transited the Suez Canal to
Karachi, Pakistan to participate with the Navies of the CENTO nations in
exercise Midlink VI and returned to the Mediterranean early in December for
operations with the 6th Fleet before returning to New London 1 February 1964.
During 1964, in conjunction with Atlantic
Fleet exercises, Piper visited Portsmouth, England and Rotterdam, Netherlands.
After an overhaul in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard during the first six months
of 1965, Piper sailed for the first of two Caribbean deployments 15 October,
returning from the second 10 April 1966. For the remainder of that year she
operated out of Submarine School, New London.
On 22 March 1967, Piper's main storage
battery had deteriorated to the extent that the ship was restricted to surface
operations. At this time Piper had made 13,724 dives, a record for commissioned
submarines. On 10 May Piper entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for
deactivation. On 15 June Piper was reclassified to AGSS-409 and the next day
she was placed out of commission, special, and replaced Cero as the Detroit,
Mich., Naval Reserve Training submarine.
Piper received four battle stars for service in World War II
[Note: The above USS PIPER (SS-409) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS PIPER (SS-409), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]