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USS Haddock (SSN 621)

USS HADDOCK was the final PERMIT - class nuclear-powered attack submarine and the second ship in the Navy named after the small edible Atlantic fish, related to the cod. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on April 7, 1993, the HADDOCK later entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash. Recycling was completed on October 1, 2001.

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Crew List:

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

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Accidents aboard USS HADDOCK:

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USS HADDOCK History:

USS HADDOCK was a PERMIT-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and the final submarine to be commissioned in the design line that had begun as the THRESHER-class and was later known by the name of PERMIT-class. The contract for USS HADDOCK was awarded on August 24, 1960, to Ingalls Shipbuilding at Pascagoula, Mississippi. Her keel was laid there on April 24, 1961. At the time, she belonged to the submarine design family originally associated with USS THRESHER (SSN 593), a group intended to combine nuclear propulsion, a more advanced hull form, improved sonar, better submerged performance, and extensive quieting compared with earlier American nuclear attack submarines. The loss of USS THRESHER on April 10, 1963, changed the construction and acceptance environment for submarines still building or fitting out. USS HADDOCK's long interval between keel laying and commissioning reflected the additional scrutiny, design review, and safety culture of the period, including the Navy's intensified emphasis on seawater-system integrity, quality assurance, emergency survivability, and the Submarine Safety program.

While still under construction at Ingalls Shipbuilding, USS HADDOCK was damaged by a fire on June 13, 1964. No radioactive material had yet been installed aboard the submarine. The incident became one of the few publicly recorded accidents from her construction period, but it did not change the later sequence of launch, trials, and commissioning. USS HADDOCK was launched at Pascagoula on May 21, 1966. She was sponsored by Mrs. Thomas G. Morris, wife of Representative Thomas G. Morris of New Mexico. After launch, she continued fitting out and testing on the Gulf Coast before joining the active nuclear submarine force.

USS HADDOCK was commissioned on December 22, 1967, with Commander Stanley J. Anderson in command. After commissioning, USS HADDOCK conducted sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico. Between January 1968 and February 1968, she transited the Panama Canal and proceeded to the Pacific. In the spring of 1968, she arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, and was dry-docked there. Later in 1968, she was assigned to Submarine Squadron Three, the Pacific attack-submarine squadron with which much of her career would be associated. In 1969, she arrived at her first operational home port, San Diego, California. Her arrival placed her in the Pacific submarine force during a period of heavy Cold War and Vietnam War activity. United States submarines based on the West Coast and in Hawaii supported Seventh Fleet operations, anti-submarine warfare training, intelligence and surveillance work, and exercises across the Pacific, while the Soviet Pacific Fleet was expanding and the Vietnam War still required a large American naval presence in and around Southeast Asia.

Commander Paul B. Grozen relieved Commander Anderson on January 23, 1970. By then, USS HADDOCK had entered the operational pattern that would characterize much of her career: training from San Diego or Hawaiian waters, periodic western Pacific deployments, and major maintenance periods when required by the demands of nuclear submarine service. After an early western Pacific deployment, her home port was changed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in time for her first overhaul. Pearl Harbor placed her closer to the western Pacific, Guam, Japan, the Philippines, and the operating areas used by Pacific Fleet submarines during the later Vietnam War period. Her first overhaul was completed in 1972.

After the 1972 overhaul, USS HADDOCK returned to the operational cycle. She was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation for significant achievements during her next deployment. In 1973, while homeported in Hawaii, USS HADDOCK underwent a resupply and refit. This work took place as the United States was ending its direct combat role in Vietnam after the Paris Peace Accords but maintaining a major naval posture in the western Pacific.

Commander Keith P. Garland relieved Commander Grozen on April 13, 1974. Under Commander Garland, USS HADDOCK continued Pacific Fleet service from Pearl Harbor. On December 6, 1975, while operating off Hawaii on a test run, USS HADDOCK developed a leak and flooding during a deep dive. The Navy confirmed the incident but stated that the submarine was not unsafe. Public reporting also recorded that some enlisted crew members had earlier protested sending the submarine to sea, alleging cracks in main cooling piping, leaks, steering problems, and other deficiencies; the Navy stated that under strict submarine safety procedures, problems were corrected before the ship went to sea. The event is one of the few publicly described engineering and safety incidents in USS HADDOCK's career.

Commander Daniel K. Bacon relieved Commander Garland on September 24, 1976. In 1977, USS HADDOCK began a 19-month overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. After completion of that overhaul, she returned to San Diego and rejoined Submarine Squadron Three. This shifted her normal operating base back to southern California, where the Navy maintained major submarine support, training, weapons, aviation, and test-range infrastructure. From San Diego, USS HADDOCK could conduct local operations, prepare for western Pacific deployments, and use West Coast naval shipyards for scheduled maintenance.

Commander Gerald Davis relieved Commander Bacon on June 30, 1980. In early 1981, USS HADDOCK participated in Ready Ex 81. This came during a period of renewed Cold War naval emphasis after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 and during the early phase of the Reagan-era maritime buildup. For a nuclear-powered attack submarine such as USS HADDOCK, exercises of this kind tested readiness for anti-submarine warfare, surveillance, and fleet-support missions in a period when Soviet submarines remained the principal undersea planning concern.

USS HADDOCK continued western Pacific operations in the early 1980s. She completed her seventh deployment to the western Pacific on December 23, 1983. The late 1983 return closed another major operating cycle shortly before a command change and a major overhaul.

Commander Michael L. McHugh relieved Commander Davis on January 17, 1984. In October 1984, USS HADDOCK entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard for her third overhaul. This overhaul came as older PERMIT-class boats were being maintained and modernized to remain useful alongside newer STURGEON-class and LOS ANGELES-class submarines. The work kept USS HADDOCK out of the active deployment cycle until early 1987. She returned to San Diego and Submarine Squadron Three in February 1987. Commander Albert Z. Schwartz relieved Commander McHugh on August 5, 1987. After post-overhaul operations, testing, and a return to regular training, USS HADDOCK earned the Battle Efficiency "E" for fiscal year 1988, indicating overall excellence in readiness and performance within her command environment.

From November 1989 to May 1990, USS HADDOCK deployed to the western Pacific for the tenth time. This deployment occurred as the Cold War order was breaking down. The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 while USS HADDOCK was deployed, and by the time she returned in May 1990, the strategic environment that had shaped her entire career was changing rapidly. The Soviet Navy still existed and remained operationally important, but the political structure around the Cold War was weakening. USS HADDOCK's own deployment remained part of the established Pacific submarine pattern: a San Diego-based nuclear attack submarine moving into western Pacific waters for Seventh Fleet-related operations, training, and forward presence.

Commander Steven G. Erick relieved Commander Schwartz on July 27, 1990. His assumption of command came shortly before Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, beginning the crisis that led to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. USS HADDOCK's documented service remained centered on Pacific submarine operations. She deployed to the western Pacific for the eleventh time from July 1991 to October 1991. That deployment occurred after the combat phase of the Gulf War and during the final months of the Soviet Union, which dissolved in December 1991. USS HADDOCK was therefore still conducting forward Pacific submarine operations during the last year of the Cold War and the opening phase of the post-Cold War transition.

The final years of USS HADDOCK's active service were shaped by the Navy's post-Cold War drawdown. USS HADDOCK remained in commission into 1993. She was decommissioned on April 7, 1993, and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the same date. At decommissioning she had served more than twenty-five years from her commissioning on December 22, 1967. After decommissioning, ex-USS HADDOCK was laid up at Bremerton, Washington, awaiting final disposal. She entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on October 1, 2000. Recycling was completed on October 1, 2001.

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