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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Awarded: | 10 March 1951 |
| Laid down: | 1 July 1954 |
| Launched: | 2 July 1957 |
| Commissioned: | 7 March 1958 |
| Fate: | Stricken, to be disposed of as a target or by test |
| Stricken: | 16 January 1984 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1740 tons light, 2768 tons full |
| Length: | 83.2 meters (273 feet), later extended to 317 feet 7 inches |
| Beam: | 27 feet 2 inches |
| Draft: | 19 feet |
| Speed: | 14 knots |
| Complement: | 87 officers and men |
| Armament: | eight torpedo tubes, one Regulus launcher |
The first of the Navy's guided missile submarines to carry the Regulus II sea-to surface missiles, Grayback conducted tests and shakedown along the West Coast. While operating out of Port Hueneme, California, in September 1958 she carried out the first successful launching of a Regulus II missile from a submarine, which pointed the way to a revolutionary advance in the power of navies to attack land bases. Departing San Diego, California, on 30 October, Grayback arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 November for a month of exercises and maneuvers before returning to Mare Island for her "10,000 mile checkup."
On 9 February 1959, Grayback departed Mare Island to make Pearl Harbor her permanent home base, reaching Hawaii 7 March via Port Hueneme, California, Long Beach, California, and Mazatlan, Mexico. After a series of exercises there, she cruised to Dutch Harbor, Unmak Island, Sequam Island, and Kodiak, Alaska, for further missile exercises from 3 July to 31 July. This was followed by the first of her nine deterrent missile strike missions, from 21 September to 12 November. Grayback's first patrol terminated at Yokosuka, Japan, as did two others. She returned to Pearl Harbor 8 December.
On 22 February 1960, Grayback modified her missile launching system and simplified her complex electrical circuits. After this, she again took up deterrent missile strike missions. Over the next 2½ years she completed seven missions for a total of nearly 18 months at sea, much of this time submerged. In addition to Yokosuka, both Adak, Alaska, and Pearl Harbor also served as termination points for these patrols. On her nine patrols she spent more than 20 months at sea and logged well over 130,000 miles on deterrent missile strike missions.
As more and more Polaris missile submarines became operational, they assumed the deterrent functions previously assigned to Grayback and her sister ships. The Regulus missile program ended in 1964 and Grayback was withdrawn from active service. She decommissioned at Mare Island, California, on 25 May 1964.
A second conversion began at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in November 1967. The conversion was originally estimated at US$15.2 million but grew to over US$30 million. She was re-classified from a guided missile submarine to a amphibious transport submarine with hull classification symbol LPSS on 30 August 1968. (The Naval Vessel Registry entry for Grayback shows that at one point she was classified as a "plain" transport submarine, an APSS. Crew memoirs indicated that they were never aware of it. Presumably, while this classification was "official," it may have lasted only days.) The conversion heightened her sail by ten feet, added two auxiliary tanks to the forward end of the engine room (increasing the length of the boat by 12 feet), and, most significantly, converted the missile chambers to carry 67 embarked troops and SEAL swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs), including a decompression chamber in the starboard hanger.
The Grayback was decommissioned for the second time on 15 January 1984 at Subic Bay Naval Station in the Republic of the Philippines. After decommissioning, Grayback was sunk as a target on 13 April 1986 in the South China Sea.
See USS Grayback for other ships of the same name.
References
This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.