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U.S.S. VON STEUBEN
(SSBN-632)Click to view crew list
USS VON STEUBEN (SSBN-632) - a James Madison-class submarine
In Commission 1964 to 1994SSBN-632 Deployments - Major Events
Add a SSBN-632 Shellback Initiation | Add a SSBN-632 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SEP | 1962 | - | Keel Date: 4 SEP 1962 at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Newport News VA | ||
OCT | 1963 | - | Launch Date: 18 OCT 1963 | ||
SEP | 1964 | - | Commissioned: 30 SEP 1964 | ||
MAR | 1976 | - | APR | 1976 | Dry Dock |
MAY | 1980 | - | Shellback Initiation - 11 MAY 1980 - Atlantic Ocean | ||
FEB | 1994 | - | Decommissioned: 26 FEB 1994 |
SSBN-632 General Specifications
Class: James Madison-class submarine
Named for: Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794)
Complement: 120 Officers and Enlisted
Displacement: 6504 tons
Length: 425 feet
Beam: 33 feet
Flank Speed: Over 20 knots
Final Disposition: Scrapping via Ship and Submarine Recycling Program begun 1 October 2000 and completed 30 October 2001
USS VON STEUBEN (SSBN-632)
The second Von Steuben
(SSBN-632) was laid down on 4
September 1962 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; launched on 18 October 1963; sponsored by Mrs. Fred Korth; and
commissioned on 30 September 1964, Comdr. John P. Wise (blue crew) and Comdr. Jeffrey C. Metzel (gold crew) in command.
During the fall of 1964,
the fleet ballistic missile submarine completed two shakedown
cruises-one for each crew-and a period of
antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training
between the two. On 22 December, the submarine's
gold crew fired her first Polaris missile on the Atlantic missile range before
returning to Newport News for Christmas. She changed crews again at the beginning of the new year, 1965, and returned to
the missile range off Cape Canaveral
(then called Cape Kennedy) where the
blue crew fired its first missile. In
February, after completing all initial training operations, she returned to Newport News.
In March, Von Steuben headed
for her first duty assignment. The
submarine joined Submarine Squadron (SubRon) 18 at Charleston, S.C., her new
base of operations, and immediately began conducting classified deterrent patrols. Her primary mission was and is
to deter aggression by providing a highly-mobile launch platform for her nuclear warhead-bearing Polaris
missiles. Since her security and
mission would be impaired should any
potential enemy learn of her patrol routes and activities, that
information is highly classified and cannot
be recounted here. However, she has conducted more than 30 such patrols since her commissioning, at the rate of four or five per year.
At the end of her 11th
patrol early in 1968, Von Steuben
was reassigned to SubRon 16 and
operated out of Rota, Spain, until
the middle of 1969. During that assignment, she visited Groton, Conn., in the
summer of 1968 for repairs at the
Electric Boat Division of General
Dynamics Corp., after which she resumed deterrent patrols out of Rota. In November 1970, she visited Groton once again, this time near the end of a 16-month overhaul during which she was modified to
carry the newly developed Poseidon C-3
missile. She conducted
post-conversion shakedown during the early months of 1971 and fired her first and second Poseidon missiles
in February and March, respectively. She returned
to Charleston and resumed deterrent patrols in May 1971. Since that time, she continued to make patrols out of Charleston and, recently, also
from the submarine base at Holy Loch
in Scotland.
[Note: The above USS VON STEUBEN (SSBN-632) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS VON STEUBEN (SSBN-632), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]