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USS Ohio (SSGN 726)

USS OHIO is the first TRIDENT - class nuclear powered submarine and the fourth United States vessel to bear the name of the 17^th state of the union. USS OHIO has already completed more than 50 patrols. On December 9, 2001, she successfully launched four Trident I C4 missiles.

On November 15, 2003, conversion started to modify the USS OHIO to carry 154 conventional cruise missiles instead of 24 Trident missiles. Conversion was finished in late 2005, and the OHIO was redesignated SSGN 726. As an SSGN, the OHIO is now also able to support operations of up to 66 Special Forces Personnel for up to 90 days. OHIO rejoined the fleet on January 9, 2006.

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Crew List:

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

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USS OHIO History:

USS OHIO was ordered on July 1, 1974, from General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division at Groton, Connecticut, as the lead boat of a new generation of fleet ballistic missile submarines intended to replace the "41 for Freedom" Polaris and Poseidon boats and carry the Trident missile system as the sea-based leg of the United States strategic nuclear triad.

Her keel was laid at Electric Boat on April 10, 1976, and a pre-commissioning unit was established in February 1978 under future Blue Crew commanding officer Captain Alton K. Thompson to oversee construction, trials and crew training. OHIO was launched at Groton on April 7, 1979, sponsored by Annie Glenn, wife of senator and former astronaut John Glenn, symbolising the political importance attached to the Trident program at the end of the Cold War's first phase. After fitting-out and initial sea trials in the Atlantic during 1981, OHIO was delivered to the Navy on October 28, 1981, and commissioned on November 11, 1981, at Groton. Vice President George H. W. Bush served as principal speaker at the commissioning ceremony, reflecting the submarine's status as a national strategic asset. Captain Thompson took command of the Blue Crew and Captain Arlington F. Campbell the Gold Crew, establishing the dual-crew system that would allow high operational availability. Following post-shakedown work, OHIO prepared to shift to her operational homeport on the U.S. west coast to integrate with Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific and the ballistic-missile submarine force based in Washington state.

By late summer 1982, OHIO had completed initial work-ups and missile handling trials and moved from the east coast to Bangor, Washington, via the Panama Canal and the Atlantic and Pacific missile test ranges. Public Trident chronologies compiled from Navy sources record her arrival at Bangor on August 25, 1982, and the completion of pre-deployment preparations at the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific at nearby Bremerton on September 6, 1982. On October 1, 1982, OHIO began the first operational Trident strategic deterrent patrol undertaken by a U.S. submarine, sailing from Bangor into the Pacific under the command of one of her two crews. She returned to Bangor on December 10, 1982, marking the successful completion of that initial patrol and demonstrating that the new generation of Trident-armed submarines could sustain continuous deterrent coverage at sea.

During the mid-1980s, OHIO settled into the regular rhythm of Blue/Gold crew turnover and extended patrols that defined U.S. ballistic-missile submarine operations in the late Cold War. This period included a number of missile test events designed to verify the reliability of the Trident I (C4) system under operational conditions. On June 3, 1984, OHIO conducted a Follow-on Operational Test in which she launched four Trident I (C4) missiles from the Eastern Test Range, demonstrating the accuracy and reliability of the system under fleet conditions.

Missile-test chronologies and Trident program histories further record that OHIO took part in additional follow-on and commander-in-chief (CINC) evaluation tests through the 1980s, including events in 1986 associated with the 50th patrol of the Trident I missile system. On November 22, 1986, according to Navy strategic missile timelines, her Gold Crew completed what was recorded as the Trident I system's 50th patrol, a milestone in the maturation of the Pacific Trident force as U.S.-Soviet arms-control negotiations were moving from the INF talks toward the START framework.

Public open sources provide few detailed port-by-port accounts of OHIO's ballistic-missile patrols in the late 1980s and early 1990s, reflecting the secrecy surrounding SSBN operations. Available Navy and defense analyses describe her, together with sister ships from Bangor, as conducting a continuous sequence of deterrent patrols during and immediately after the final decade of the Cold War, with crews alternating to maintain a high percentage of time at sea. In this period she remained armed with Trident I (C4) missiles, as later OHIO-class boats based at Kings Bay took on the newer Trident II (D5) missile.

After roughly a decade of continuous service, OHIO entered a major overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton in 1993. Navy documentation describes this as an "extended refit period" associated with a refueling and modernization package that was typical for the class after about 14 years of operation. From June 1993 to June 1994, OHIO remained at Puget Sound for this mid-life engineering and systems overhaul. When the work was completed, she returned to Bangor and, on January 25, 1995, resumed strategic deterrent patrols as part of Submarine Squadron 17, Submarine Group 9, within the Pacific Submarine Force, now operating in a post-Cold-War context where strategic arms reductions and regional contingencies both shaped deployment patterns.

Missile testing continued to punctuate this second phase of her SSBN career. On May 16, 1996, OHIO launched four Trident I (C4) missiles in a follow-on CINC evaluation test, again demonstrating the reliability of the aging but still central C4 system as the Navy was in the process of shifting newer boats to the D5 missile.

In 1998, strategic-forces assessments noted that the lead ship of the Trident class had by then completed her 50th strategic deterrent patrol. A widely circulated photograph from Bangor dated March 12, 1998, shows OHIO returning from sea with members of her crew spelling the word "FIFTY" on the missile deck to mark the patrol milestone, underlining the scale of her contribution to continuous deterrent presence since 1982.

In the early 2000s, OHIO continued to operate as a Trident I (C4) platform from Bangor while the U.S. Navy considered how to adapt its strategic force structure to changing post-Cold-War requirements. Missile chronologies list a further follow-on CINC evaluation test on December 9, 2001, in which OHIO launched multiple C4 missiles, one of the last such tests before the C4 system was retired from strategic alert. In the same general timeframe, her Blue Crew galley received the Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Award and the Marine Corps Major General W. P. T. Hill Award as the Pacific Fleet's top afloat food-service operation for 2001, recognition of routine but important aspects of life on long SSBN patrols.

Originally, OHIO was slated for retirement in 2002 as part of the drawdown of C4-armed SSBNs. Instead, the Navy decided to convert four early OHIO-class boats into guided-missile submarines (SSGNs) capable of carrying large numbers of Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and supporting special operations forces, thereby reusing existing hulls to meet emerging conventional-strike requirements.

OHIO left operational SSBN service in late 2002 and, in November 2002, entered dry dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for what was planned as a 36-month refueling and SSGN conversion overhaul. The conversion involved refueling her S8G reactor, reconfiguring 22 of her former missile tubes to hold canisters of Tomahawk cruise missiles, and modifying two tubes to support special operations forces and swimmer delivery systems, while retaining her four torpedo tubes. Conversion work formally began around November 15, 2003, and continued through late 2005. On January 9, 2006, Electric Boat announced that the conversion was complete, and OHIO's hull classification was changed from SSBN 726 to SSGN 726.

She rejoined the fleet at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on February 7, 2006, now as a nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine, with the ability to carry up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles and embark as many as 66 special operations personnel for extended periods. Following post-conversion testing and training, OHIO began a new pattern of operations built around forward deployments to the western Pacific. On January 21, 2007, her Gold Crew departed Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor, for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to conduct a historic forward-deployed crew swap with the Blue Crew, the first such exchange conducted away from homeport in roughly two decades.

A year after rejoining the fleet, Navy background notes record that OHIO proceeded to Guam to begin the first forward deployment of an SSGN, establishing a model in which the submarine operated for extended periods from an overseas hub while crews alternated in theater.

OHIO left Bangor for her first operational mission as an SSGN on October 15, 2007. During this initial deployment, she operated in the western Pacific, with Guam as a hub, conducting missions that have not been publicly detailed but are generally understood to have involved conventional strike readiness and special operations support in a region where U.S. attention was increasingly focused on North Korea's missile program and the emerging capabilities of China's navy. A contemporaneous article from Honolulu in October 2007 described her port visit to Pearl Harbor partway through this deployment, highlighting the extensive modifications visible on deck and noting that she would continue westward thereafter.

In February 2008, OHIO made what U.S. Navy public affairs described as her first foreign port visit in her new configuration when she arrived in Busan, South Korea. A report dated February 27, 2008, noted that she had left Bangor in the fall of 2007 for a year-long tour of the western Pacific and that her stop in Busan formed part of that deployment, during which she remained available for conventional strike missions while supporting regional engagement with allies. After completing additional operations from Guam, she called at Pearl Harbor on December 8, 2008, near the end of what Navy news releases described as a roughly 15-month deployment before returning to Bangor, completing her maiden SSGN deployment cycle.

The SSGN force drew particular attention in mid-2010, when OHIO took part in a highly visible demonstration of U.S. conventional maritime power in the Indo-Pacific. On June 28, 2010, three OHIO-class submarines - USS OHIO, USS MICHIGAN (SSGN 727) and USS FLORIDA (SSGN 728) - surfaced more or less simultaneously at different ports around the region: OHIO in the Philippines, MICHIGAN in South Korea, and FLORIDA at the British Indian Ocean Territory base associated with Diego Garcia. Contemporary reporting and later analyses interpreted the coordinated surfacing as a response to Chinese missile testing in the East China Sea and a signal of U.S. resolve and conventional strike capacity during a period of heightened regional tension.

Beyond highly publicised events, OHIO continued to conduct deployments and crew-swap cycles through the 2010s, making periodic calls at Guam and other regional ports. Imagery from April 11, 2013, shows her arriving at Apra Harbor, Guam, to conduct an exchange of command between the Gold and Blue crews, illustrating the mature pattern of using Guam as a forward location for turnover and maintenance while the submarine remained deployed in the Seventh Fleet area of responsibility. During this period, OHIO also became associated with milestones in the integration of women into the U.S. submarine force. In November 2011, while assigned to OHIO's Gold Crew, Lieutenant Britta Christianson qualified in submarine warfare, becoming the first U.S. female officer - and the first woman overall - to earn "dolphins" on a U.S. Navy submarine. In August 2016, Culinary Specialist Chief Dominique Saavedra completed her enlisted submarine qualification aboard OHIO. She later served on USS MICHIGAN, which was specially modified to provide separate accommodations for enlisted women, but her qualification on OHIO marked a key step in opening the SSGNs and, more broadly, the submarine force to mixed-gender crews.

OHIO's routine port visits continued to reflect her forward presence in northeast Asia. On July 13, 2016, she visited Busan once more in a highly visible call documented by Navy imagery showing the submarine alongside in the South Korean port. Throughout these years, she also accumulated a series of unit awards. Navy and naval-submarine-community summaries note that OHIO has earned the Battle Efficiency ("Battle E") award several times, including recognition for both crews in earlier years and a documented award for outstanding food service in 2001. In February 2022, COMSUBPAC publicly announced the winners of the 2021 Battle E competition, listing OHIO among the submarines honoured, indicating that even late in her service life she remained among the best-performing units in Submarine Squadron 19.

Strategic-planning documents released in December 2020 indicated that the Navy initially expected to retire OHIO and enter her into the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program by around 2026 as part of a broader plan to decommission 48 ships between 2022 and 2026, including two OHIO-class guided-missile submarines. However, subsequent reporting suggests that the Navy has reconsidered aspects of this plan in light of schedule pressure on the COLUMBIA-class ballistic-missile program and the perceived value of retaining SSGN-type strike capacity. Later analyses note that internal Navy deliberations have discussed extending some OHIO-class service lives as a hedge against industrial delays.

In parallel with these strategic decisions, OHIO entered another major maintenance period at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility. According to NAVSEA public affairs, she began a three-year Major Maintenance Period (MMP) availability that involved more than half a million resource days of work, addressing mechanical issues, replacing the propeller shaft, and refurbishing main ballast tanks, elements of the superstructure and torpedo-handling systems, as well as updating combat and communications equipment to keep the aging platform effective. The availability concluded with Naval Sea Systems Command certification for unrestricted operations, and OHIO formally completed the MMP on February 24, 2025, returning to the fleet in time to support renewed Indo-Pacific deployments.

Shortly after leaving Puget Sound, OHIO again shifted focus to forward operations from Guam. On April 23, 2025, she arrived at Naval Base Guam and moored at Apra Harbor while operating under Commander, Submarine Group Seven and the U.S. Seventh Fleet, an event documented by DVIDS imagery and noted in naval-submarine-community reporting. Public statements framed her presence as part of efforts to increase long-range strike options across the Pacific at a time of intensified U.S.-China competition, highlighting the ship's capacity to deliver large salvos of Tomahawk cruise missiles and to support special operations forces in the region. On June 23, 2025, she was again photographed transiting Apra Harbor, indicating ongoing operations and at least one additional in-theater underway period after her initial arrival that April. From Guam, OHIO continued west to Australia. On July 27, 2025, she arrived in Brisbane, Australia, for a scheduled port visit, mooring alongside the forward-deployed submarine tender USS FRANK CABLE (AS 40).

Official releases from U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Seventh Fleet and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command noted that this was the first visit by an OHIO-class submarine to Brisbane and described the port call as part of routine operations in support of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, taking place against the backdrop of the AUKUS security partnership and long-standing U.S.-Australian naval cooperation. Australian and U.S. media coverage linked OHIO's appearance to her participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, a large bilateral exercise that underlined the importance of undersea forces in combined operations, and described the visit as an opportunity to showcase the SSGN's Tomahawk payload and special-operations support facilities to Australian officials and media.

Although initial plans called for her retirement by 2026, subsequent Navy analyses and the investment represented by her recent overhaul suggest that her exact decommissioning date remains subject to broader fleet-structure decisions, and as of the latest available information she continues in active service as the oldest submarine in the U.S. Navy.

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USS OHIO Patch Gallery:

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USS OHIO Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Ian Johnson and shows OHIO at Fremantle, Australia, on January 1, 2010.

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