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USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN 601)

USS ROBERT E. LEE was the fourth GEORGE WASHINGTON - class nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarine and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name. The ROBERT E. LEE was built using components initially assembled for a SKIPJACK - class nuclear attack submarine. In the early 1980s, the ROBERT E. LEE was redesignated as SSN 601 and her missile launch capability was disabled to comply with the SALT I treaty. The ROBERT E. LEE mainly conducted training exercises in her new role before she was decommissioned on December 1, 1983. The submarine spent the following years berthed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard awaiting her turn in the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. Recycling of the ROBERT E. LEE was finished on September 30, 1991.

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Crew List:

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

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Accidents aboard USS ROBERT E. LEE:

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About the Submarine's Name:

Robert Edward Lee, born at Stratford, Va., on 19 January 1807, entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1825; graduated second in his class; and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Engineer Corps on 1 July 1829. Advanced to the rank of captain by 1838, he served as chief engineer under General Wool and General Scott during the Mexican War. According to General Scott the fall of Veracruz was due in part to Lee's "skill, valor, and undaunted energy." By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of colonel.

After serving as Superintendent of West Point from 1852 to 1855, Lee was assigned to duty in Texas. He refused to aid the rebellion and returned to Virginia. After Fort Sumter was fired upon, Lee was offered command of the Federal Army. He declined, and following Virginia's secession on 19 April 1861, resigned his commission the following day, to accept command of Virginia forces.

After organizing and equipping the troops of his State, he served as adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Succeeding to command of the Army of Northern Virginia when General Joseph E. Johnston was seriously wounded, Lee, with inferior forces, forced MeClellan to retreat from the outskirts of Richmond, then marched north to push Union forces toward the Potomac. General Lee's advance ended in the Battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862. He repulsed northern thrusts at Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862 and at Chancellorsville 2 to 4 May 1863, then marched north again until forced to turn back after the battle of Gettysburg.

In March 1864, General Grant, appointed to the supreme command of the Federal Armies, engaged Lee several times in an advance from the Rappahannock to Petersburg. On 2 April 1865, Lee abandoned his lines around Richmond in hope of uniting with Johnston in North Carolina but Grant pursued the retreating Southern Army and forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Court House on 9 April.

Noble in peace as in war, Lee devoted his remaining years to rebuilding Washington College (now Washington and Lee) at Lexington, Va., where he died on 12 October 1870.

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History of USS ROBERT E. LEE:

ROBERT E. LEE was laid down 25 August 1958 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; launched 18 December 1959; sponsored by Mrs. Hanson E. Ely II; and commissioned 16 September 1960, Comdr. Reuben F. Woodal (Blue Crew) and Comdr. Joseph Williams, Jr. (Gold Crew) in command.

The third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine to join the fleet, and the first nuclear-powered ship built in the South, ROBERT E. LEE operated in and out of Newport News until 2 December 1960, when she got underway for the Narragansett Bay Operating Area for torpedo firing tests. Following the successful firing of five torpedoes on 6 December ROBERT E. LEE sailed for Cane Kennedy, arriving on the 12th. The submarine then loaded Polaris test missiles and 10 days later conducted her first missile launch. The Polaris ran "hot and true."

In January 1961, she conducted additional simulated missile launches and on the 15th departed for the Bermuda Operating Area. There, joined by TORSK (SS 423) on the 25th, she engaged in antisubmarine training. Returning to Norfolk on 30 January, ROBERT E. LEE entered the Newport News drydock on 3 February for a month of yardwork. She departed Newport News on 17 March, loaded torpedoes at Yorktown on the 25th, and got underway for Cape Kennedy, arriving 9 April.

The nuclear-powered submarine conducted "special operations" out of Cape Kennedy during May and June, and in late June sailed for Holy Loch, Scotland, where she joined Submarine Squadron 14 on 10 July. She conducted practice torpedo firing during the first week of August and departed Holy Loch 9 August on her first deterrent patrol.

During the next 2 years ROBERT E. LEE completed nine more deterrent patrols. On 10 September 1963, the submarine entered the floating drydock LOS ALAMOS (AFDB 7) and on 4 October resumed her normal patrol schedule. Continuing to operate out of Holy Loch into 1964, the ballistic missile submarine got underway on 27 November for her 16th patrol which terminated on 28 January 1965 at Mare Island, Calif.

On 22 February, ROBERT E. LEE entered the Mare Island Division of the San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard for her first overhaul. Major items of work included refueling the reactor, reengineering of many ship systems to provide greater safety and reliability, modernization of the navigation system, and modification to the weapons system to give the submarine the capability of launching the improved MK 3 Polaris missile.

Emerging from overhaul after nearly a year and a half of work, ROBERT E. LEE got underway for sea trials on 12 July 1966. Sound trials and weapons system accuracy trials were conducted during the latter half of July, and on 5 August she entered San Diego harbor for a 5-day visit. Underway for the east coast on 10 August, ROBERT E. LEE transited the Panama Canal 20 August and arrived at Charleston, S.C., on 4 September.

During the remainder of September and the first week of October, the fleet ballistic submarine conducted shakedown operations off Cape Kennedy, Fla. On 10 October, with the Under Secretary of the Navy on board as an observer, ROBERT E. LEE successfully fired a nontactical Polaris A-3 missile. She returned to Charleston to commence a predeployment upkeep period at the Cooper River Site. On 4 December, she sailed from Charleston on her 17th deterrent patrol, which terminated at Holy Loch on 30 January 1967.

By 4 October, ROBERT E. LEE had completed three more patrols. Then drydocked in LOS ALAMOS for minor repairs and hull surveillance, she resumed her patrol schedule on 1 November; completed her 21st patrol before entering drydock on 22 November for 2 weeks of repairs. She departed Holy Loch on 26 December for another patrol.

ROBERT E. LEE remained attached to Submarine Squadron 14 throughout 1969 and 70. Continuing to operate out of Holy Loch, she completed her 33d deterrent patrol by 1 January 1971.

ROBERT E. LEE was drydocked for her second overhaul 27 January 1971 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She did not leave the drydock until 11 December and, afterward remained berthed at Puget Sound for the remainder of 1971. For the first seven months of 1972, ROBERT E. LEE was engaged in post-overhaul trials and exercises on the west coast. In mid-August she transited the Panama Canal and arrived in Charleston, S.C., 14 September. She continued normal operations, this time on the east coast, throughout 1972 and for the first seven months of 1973. Transiting the Panama Canal early in August, she arrived in San Diego on the 17th and then moved on to Pearl Harbor, arriving 5 September. After a month in Hawaii, she sailed for Apra, Guam, and continued operations in that area into 1974.

Operationally, 1974 was marked by the continuation of deterrent patrols in the western and central Pacific, with ROBERT E. LEE cycling between patrols at sea and refits alongside PROTEUS (AS 19) at Polaris Point. The bipolar strategic environment was defined by the recently signed SALT I agreements, which capped numbers of submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and made each operational SSBN a counted asset in the strategic balance.

Within that framework, Guam-based boats like ROBERT E. LEE provided assured second-strike capability against targets in the Soviet Far East and the Asian mainland, even as the Vietnam War drew to a close and US conventional forces were being reduced in the region. The classified nature of deterrent patrols means that open sources do not provide detailed day-by-day track data or lists of liberty ports, but the pattern is clear: ROBERT E. LEE spent much of 1974 alternating between extended submerged patrols in Pacific patrol areas and relatively short refit and upkeep periods in Apra Harbor, with Blue and Gold crews rotating to keep the ship on station for as much of the year as possible.

A particularly well-documented event came late in 1974. On 15 October 1974, ROBERT E. LEE conducted a series of Polaris A3 Fleet Operational Test (FOT) launches from the US Navy's Western Test Range. Missile trajectory data show five Polaris A3 launches that day from a launch platform identified as SSBN 601 - offshore from southern California - with apogees around 1,000 km. These were not deterrent-patrol shots but carefully monitored test firings designed to validate missile reliability, crew proficiency and system accuracy under operational conditions. The test series demonstrated that, even as newer missile systems were entering service, the Polaris A3 weapon on board ROBERT E. LEE remained a credible strategic system.

Through 1975 and 1976, ROBERT E. LEE continued this pattern of Guam-based Polaris A3 deterrent patrols. Publicly available sources do not list specific patrol numbers or start and end dates for each individual patrol, but they do make clear that she remained based at Apra Harbor and was part of the continuous sequence of Pacific Polaris patrols conducted by SUBRON 15. Between Christmas 1964 - when DANIEL BOONE (SSBN 629) sailed on the first Pacific Polaris patrol – and the early 1980s, Guam-based SSBNs completed hundreds of such patrols. ROBERT E. LEE was one of the principal contributors in the later years of that series. Her presence at Apra formed part of the broader US response to evolving Soviet naval deployments in the Pacific and to the growth of Chinese nuclear capabilities, ensuring that a survivable US ballistic missile force could strike targets in Asia from relatively short-transit patrol areas.

In 1977, the submarine left this forward-deployed pattern for a third and final major overhaul. By that time, the Navy had decided which boats would receive the newer Poseidon C3 or Trident C4 missile systems and which would remain Polaris platforms until retirement. ROBERT E. LEE, by then approaching two decades of service, fell into the latter category. She entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California in 1977 for a third refueling overhaul. Association and shipyard-related records indicate that this overhaul focused on refueling the S5W reactor core and updating selected equipment, but - crucially - she was not converted to the Poseidon system, retaining the Polaris A3 configuration she had received during her earlier mid-1960s modernization.

The Mare Island yard period in 1977-1978 effectively reset ROBERT E. LEE's engineering plant and combat systems for what would become the final phase of her career. Crew accounts and later summaries describe Blue and Gold crews reporting to the boat in the yard, participating in post-overhaul testing, and preparing for renewed strategic operations. After dock work and pier-side testing, the submarine proceeded to sea for trials. On 20 November 1978, she carried out a Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO) launch of a Polaris A3 from the Eastern Test Range off Florida. This DASO firing - again documented by missile-tracking records - confirmed the performance of the refueled engineering plant, the fire control system and the missile launch equipment after the Mare Island work.

Following the successful DASO, ROBERT E. LEE transitioned back to operational status and returned to the Pacific. Crew reminiscences from sailors who reported aboard in August 1977 describe completing sea trials and missile load, then transiting the Panama Canal and calling at San Diego and Bremerton before continuing to Pearl Harbor. From Hawaii, she proceeded back to Guam, resuming deterrent patrols from Apra Harbor. These accounts also indicate that, in the late 1970s, the boat completed at least two Polaris A3 deterrent patrols out of Guam after the Mare Island overhaul, with crew members qualifying in key watchstations such as Engineering Watch Supervisor during these patrols.

During 1979 and 1980, ROBERT E. LEE thus remained part of the shrinking Polaris force even as the Navy prepared to introduce the new OHIO-class Trident submarines and to phase out Polaris entirely. Strategically, these years were marked by the transition from the SALT I framework to the unratified but de facto observed SALT II limits, and by increased Soviet SSBN and surface combatant activity in the Pacific. Within that context, Guam-based Polaris patrols still contributed to deterrence, but planning was already underway to replace them with longer-ranged Trident submarines operating from US west-coast bases such as Bangor, Washington.

By 1981, ROBERT E. LEE was both a veteran and a transitional platform. Sources on Apra Harbor note that with her withdrawal in 1981, Apra's role as a forward SSBN base came to an end, marking the close of the Guam Polaris era. A detailed history of SUBRON 15 further clarifies the sequence: from December 1964 until October 1981, 23 different SSBNs completed 398 Polaris deterrent patrols in the Pacific, and the final patrol in that series was carried out by ROBERT E. LEE. She returned to Pearl Harbor from that last Polaris deterrent patrol in October 1981.

Multiple independent technical and historical sources on the Polaris program identify that patrol as the US Navy's final Polaris A3 deterrent patrol. They agree that by about 1 October 1981, ROBERT E. LEE had completed her 55th deterrent patrol and, with it, the last operational patrol by a Polaris-armed US SSBN. In other words, the submarine that had joined the Polaris force near its beginning closed out the program two decades later. Soon afterward, her Polaris missiles were offloaded and her role changed in line with arms-control obligations and force modernization plans.

In March 1982, reflecting these changes, ROBERT E. LEE was formally redesignated SSN 601. Her ballistic-missile launch capability was disabled, and she became, in classification terms, a nuclear-powered attack submarine rather than a fleet ballistic missile submarine. This step aligned with the SALT I framework, which limited numbers of SLBM launchers and modern ballistic missile submarines: by eliminating her operational missile tubes, the Navy could retire a Polaris counting rule asset while still deriving training value from the hull.

After conversion, ROBERT E. LEE operated on the US west coast as SSN 601 with a single, consolidated crew rather than alternating Blue and Gold crews. Her primary mission shifted from covert strategic deterrent patrols to local and regional training operations - antisubmarine warfare exercises, services as a target and opponent for surface and air ASW units, and training for submarine crews in navigation, engineering and tactical procedures. Open sources describe this period in general terms only, noting that the boat "mainly conducted training exercises" in her new role.

In February 1983, ROBERT E. LEE entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard once more, this time for deactivation rather than another overhaul. There, her reactor was defueled and preparations were made for her removal from service under what would become the Navy's Ship-Submarine Recycling Program. She was formally decommissioned on 1 December 1983 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 April 1986. Her hulk remained berthed at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard while the recycling queue worked through other nuclear-powered ships and submarines. On 30 September 1991, the recycling of ROBERT E. LEE was recorded as complete, making her one of the earlier submarines to be fully processed under the nuclear ship and submarine recycling program.

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