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USS Halibut (SSN 587)

USS HALIBUT was the first submarine in the world designed and built from the keel up to launch guided missiles. Designated SSGN 587 and intended to carry the Regulus I missile, she was equipped with a retractable ramp used to launch the missiles and with a special shelter capable of storing up to four Regulus I or two Regulus II missiles. After suspension of the Regulus program, the HALIBUT was reclassified as SSN in 1965. Additionally, HALIBUT's guided missile installions were removed and the submarine continued to serve as a test platform for the remaining 11 years of her career. Decommissioned on June 30, 1976, the submarine spent the following years berthed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash. Stricken from the Navy list on April 30, 1986, the HALIBUT later entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. Recycing was completed on September 9, 1994.

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Crew List:

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

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USS HALIBUT History:

USS HALIBUT was laid down on April 11, 1957, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, as the second United States Navy submarine to bear the name Halibut. She was the first submarine in the world designed and built from the keel up to launch guided missiles, and she entered service during the brief transitional period between submarine-launched cruise missiles and the fully submerged ballistic-missile deterrent patrols that soon became central to the Navy's strategic submarine force. She was launched on January 9, 1959, sponsored by Mrs. Chet Holifield, wife of Congressman Chet Holifield of California, and commissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on January 4, 1960, with Lieutenant Commander Walter Dedrick in command.

HALIBUT was a unique submarine rather than a member of a large class. Her design reflected the Navy's effort to place the Regulus guided-missile system aboard a nuclear-powered platform with far greater endurance than earlier diesel-electric missile submarines. Earlier Regulus submarines had already demonstrated the concept of submarine-launched nuclear cruise missiles, but HALIBUT combined that mission with nuclear propulsion and a purpose-built missile hangar and launcher arrangement. Her large forward missile hangar and raised forward deck gave her a distinctive profile. She had originally been intended to operate with Regulus II missiles, but the Regulus II program was cancelled shortly before she entered service, and she therefore went to sea with Regulus I missiles. She also carried the Ships Inertial Navigation System, a significant feature for a submarine expected to operate independently at long range and launch guided weapons from remote patrol areas.

On March 11, 1960, HALIBUT departed Mare Island for her shakedown cruise. The cruise took her into the Pacific and then toward the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia. On March 25, 1960, while en route across the Pacific, she became the first nuclear-powered submarine to launch a guided missile successfully. This event marked an important technical step in the Navy's development of sea-based missile forces, even though the Regulus system still required the submarine to surface, prepare the missile on deck, launch it from the exposed launcher, and guide it after launch.

HALIBUT crossed the Equator on April 9, 1960, at the 166th meridian west while proceeding toward New Zealand and Australia. During the crossing, the crew observed the traditional Shellback ceremony and held a swim call. Her first New Zealand port call was at Devonport Dockyard in Auckland from April 19 to April 21, 1960. She then visited Wellington from April 24 to April 27, 1960. From New Zealand she continued to Australia and joined other Seventh Fleet units for port visits connected with the eighteenth anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. The commemoration recalled the May 1942 carrier battle that had become an important reference point in American-Australian naval relations. HALIBUT visited Sydney from May 1 to May 7, 1960. During the Sydney visit, the British submarine HMS ANCHORITE was berthed outboard of her, and an exercise Regulus I missile was visible on HALIBUT's launcher. After Sydney, HALIBUT continued to Melbourne for a visit of about one week. She returned to Mare Island Naval Shipyard on June 18, 1960, for post-shakedown availability and routine yard work.

After additional testing, repairs, and training, HALIBUT departed Mare Island on November 7, 1960, for Pearl Harbor and active service with the Pacific Fleet. Pearl Harbor became the base from which she carried out her Regulus deterrent work in the western Pacific. Her role belonged to a small but historically important force of Regulus submarines that maintained submarine-based nuclear deterrent patrols before Polaris ballistic-missile submarines fully replaced them. Regulus had clear operational limitations compared with Polaris: it was a cruise missile rather than a ballistic missile, the launching submarine had to surface or remain in a vulnerable launch condition, and the missile required guidance after launch. Nevertheless, in the years before Polaris became fully established, the Regulus submarines provided the Navy with its first regular submarine-based nuclear deterrent patrols.

HALIBUT's first Regulus deterrent patrol lasted from February 9 to April 10, 1961. During this deployment, she successfully launched her seventh consecutive Regulus I missile during a major Southeast Asia Treaty Organization weapons demonstration. The demonstration took place in the wider Cold War setting of American alliance-building in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, where the United States was seeking to show the reach and readiness of its sea-based forces. HALIBUT returned to Pearl Harbor at the end of the patrol and soon began preparations for the next deployment.

Her second Regulus deterrent patrol ran from May 1 to June 28, 1961. During the months that followed, she participated in guided-missile exercises and intensive training. Her third patrol lasted from December 20, 1961, to March 31, 1962. This patrol continued the pattern of western Pacific readiness operations that had become normal for the Regulus submarines. Her fourth patrol followed from July 9 to September 15, 1962. These deployments occurred during a period of high Cold War tension, including the Berlin crisis period and, later in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the survivability and responsiveness of nuclear delivery systems were central to American and Soviet military planning.

HALIBUT continued the same strategic mission in 1963. Her fifth Regulus deterrent patrol lasted from April 29 to July 6, 1963. Her sixth patrol followed from November 19, 1963, to January 20, 1964. During these patrols, she remained one of the small number of submarines sustaining the Pacific Regulus deterrent mission. By this stage, however, the Polaris system was rapidly making the Regulus submarines obsolete. Polaris ballistic-missile submarines could launch while submerged, had greater survivability, and did not require the complicated launch and guidance procedures of the Regulus cruise missile.

On May 4, 1964, HALIBUT departed Pearl Harbor for the final Regulus missile patrol made by a submarine in the Pacific. The patrol itself lasted from May 7 to July 14, 1964. With that deployment, the operational Regulus era in the Pacific effectively closed. Between February 1961 and July 1964, HALIBUT completed seven Regulus deterrent patrols. Across her career she also completed thirty-two Regulus missile test launches. After the final patrol, the strategic mission for which she had been built no longer existed. The Navy's emphasis had shifted decisively to Polaris-equipped ballistic-missile submarines, while HALIBUT's large former missile spaces and nuclear endurance made her suitable for conversion to other work.

From September through December 1964, HALIBUT joined eight other submarines in testing and evaluating the attack capabilities of the PERMIT-class nuclear attack submarine. This placed her in a more conventional submarine-development and fleet-exercise role after the end of her Regulus deterrent patrols. The evaluations took place as the Navy was refining the capabilities of newer nuclear attack submarines and integrating improved sonar, weapons, and tactics into Cold War undersea operations.

In February 1965, HALIBUT entered Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul and conversion. During this work, her Regulus missile capability was removed, and her internal spaces were rearranged for a new role. On August 1, 1965, during the conversion period, she was officially redesignated as a nuclear-powered attack submarine, SSN 587. The change marked a major turning point in her career. HALIBUT had been built as a guided-missile submarine, but the end of the Regulus program transformed her into a special-purpose nuclear submarine whose former missile spaces could be adapted for equipment and missions not normally associated with attack submarines. The overhaul was completed in August 1966.

After completion of the conversion, HALIBUT resumed Pacific operations. In September and October 1966, she made a West Coast movement that took her from Pearl Harbor to Keyport, Washington. She arrived at Keyport on September 20, departed on October 5, stopped for eight days at Mare Island, and returned to Pearl Harbor on October 21, 1966. Afterward she conducted antisubmarine warfare operations and local work in the Hawaiian area.

In 1967, Commander C. E. Moore relieved Commander H. S. Clay as commanding officer. HALIBUT continued operations from Pearl Harbor during a period when the Vietnam War dominated much of the visible activity of the Pacific Fleet, while the undersea competition with the Soviet Navy continued in less visible forms. At the same time, the Navy was expanding its interest in deep-ocean search, recovery, seabed operations, and specialized undersea technology. These areas became more important after a series of submarine losses and as the seabed itself became an increasingly significant Cold War operating environment.

In 1968, HALIBUT became associated with one of the most consequential undersea search operations of the Cold War. In March 1968, the Soviet GOLF II-class ballistic-missile submarine K-129 sank in the North Pacific northwest of Hawaii. After Soviet search efforts failed to locate the wreck, American acoustic data and intelligence assessments narrowed the search area. Later declassified accounts identify HALIBUT as the submarine that located and photographed the wreck in deep water during the summer of 1968. The operation is commonly associated with the name Operation Sand Dollar. HALIBUT's imagery and seabed survey work later supported Project Azorian, the effort to recover portions of K-129 using the specially built ship HUGHES GLOMAR EXPLORER. Some details of HALIBUT's work on K-129 remain limited in public sources, but her role in finding and photographing the wreck is a central part of the publicly known history of the operation.

On October 5, 1968, HALIBUT left Pearl Harbor for her new home port at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. There, she entered a second major overhaul and conversion, this time to support the Navy's deep-submergence research and development program. The work was more specialized than the earlier conversion from SSGN to SSN. It adapted the submarine for deep-ocean search, seabed operations, and diver-supported work. Public descriptions of the conversion identify features such as side thrusters, a sea lock in the former hangar section, anchoring equipment, fore and aft mushroom anchors, mixed-gas saturation-diving accommodations, side-looking sonar, photographic and video systems, computer and recording equipment, seabed skids often called "sneakers", a towed underwater search vehicle known as a "fish", and associated handling gear. The conversion also involved work connected with testing and evaluating the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle mother-submarine concept.

In November 1969, Commander J. E. McNish relieved Commander Moore as commanding officer. HALIBUT completed the Mare Island overhaul in August 1970. From that point through the final active phase of her career, she operated as a unit of Submarine Development Group One. The group's work involved deep-ocean submarine operations, development tasks, and missions outside the normal pattern of attack-submarine deployments. HALIBUT's unusual internal volume, nuclear endurance, diver-support arrangements, seabed-positioning equipment, and sensor systems made her one of the Navy's most specialized submarines.

In late 1970 and 1971, additional modification work, training, and operating experience prepared HALIBUT for missions involving saturation divers and seabed equipment. Public accounts place the first Operation Ivy Bells mission in October 1971, with HALIBUT entering the Sea of Okhotsk to locate and tap an undersea Soviet communications cable. The cable linked the Soviet Pacific Fleet's submarine base area at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula with fleet headquarters near Vladivostok. The Sea of Okhotsk was a politically sensitive and heavily watched area, and the operation took place during the broader Cold War competition over nuclear submarine forces, missile testing, strategic warning, and naval communications.

During Operation Ivy Bells, Navy divers working from HALIBUT located the cable in approximately 400 feet of water and installed a recording device that wrapped around the cable without cutting or piercing it. The device allowed communications to be recorded for later recovery and analysis. The operation was conducted within the wider intelligence community and remained highly classified for many years. It provided access to Soviet naval communications at a time when the United States was seeking detailed information on Soviet submarine operations, ballistic-missile development, command procedures, and Pacific Fleet activity. HALIBUT received a Navy Unit Commendation for the initial operation.

In 1972, HALIBUT conducted repeat operations connected with the Sea of Okhotsk cable-tapping mission and received a Presidential Unit Citation. These missions continued during a period of formal United States-Soviet detente, including strategic arms talks and summit diplomacy, but undersea intelligence operations remained active because both navies continued to rely heavily on submarines as instruments of nuclear deterrence, surveillance, and strategic competition. HALIBUT's role was to place, service, or support equipment on the seabed, using a combination of precise navigation, seabed-holding ability, diver operations, and specialized sensors.

In August 1973, Captain C. R. Larson relieved Commander McNish as commanding officer. HALIBUT continued to operate locally and on training deployments in the Pacific as a Submarine Development Group One unit. The public record for individual patrols during this period remains limited because the submarine's work was closely tied to classified special projects. What is clear is that she remained active in deep-ocean and special undersea operations rather than returning to ordinary attack-submarine patrol patterns. For continued Sea of Okhotsk operations, she received additional Navy Unit Commendations for 1974 and 1975.

On November 1, 1975, HALIBUT began a pre-inactivation availability at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. This availability prepared her for retirement from active service and brought her operational career to a close. On June 30, 1976, USS HALIBUT was decommissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, and transferred to the Reserve Fleet. At the time of decommissioning, her service record included sixteen and a half years in commission, 1,232 dives, seven Regulus deterrent patrols, thirty-two Regulus missile test launches, a major role in the transition from Regulus to Polaris, and years of specialized deep-ocean work. Her awards included two Presidential Unit Citations and three Navy Unit Commendations, along with other service awards.

After decommissioning, ex-HALIBUT remained in inactive status for nearly a decade. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986. The former submarine entered the Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, on July 12, 1993. Recycling was completed on September 9, 1994.

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