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USS Guitarro (SSN 665)

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One of the STURGEON - class attack submarines, the USS GUITARRO was the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on May 29, 1992, the USS GUITARRO subsequently entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Wash. Recycling of the submarine was finished on October 18, 1994.

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Crew List:

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

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Accidents aboard USS GUITARRO:

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USS GUITARRO History:

USS GUITARRO was the second United States Navy ship to carry the name GUITARRO, following the World War II submarine USS GUITARRO (SS 363). Her construction contract was awarded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, on December 18, 1964. Her keel was laid on December 9, 1965. USS GUITARRO was launched on July 27, 1968, sponsored by Mrs. John McNay Taylor, wife of Vice Admiral John McNay Taylor.

Before she entered commissioned service, GUITARRO became the subject of one of the best-known shipyard accidents in modern American submarine history. By early 1969, she was still fitting out at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Commander William G. Lange, later her first commanding officer, had already warned shipyard managers about the need for centralized construction control and clear responsibility for the safety of the submarine while work was still in progress. That concern became important on May 15, 1969, when GUITARRO was moored in the Napa River at Mare Island. Her reactor had not yet been installed, and no nuclear fuel was aboard. During the afternoon, one civilian construction group began calibrating aft ballast tanks, which required adding water aft. Shortly afterward, a separate non-nuclear construction group began adding water forward to correct what was reported as a bow-up condition. The two groups worked without effective coordination, and the combined effect of their actions gradually placed the submarine in an unsafe trim condition.

Between about 16:30 and 20:00, warnings were given that GUITARRO was riding dangerously low forward and that wakes from traffic in the Napa River were washing close to, or into, the area of the sonar-dome access. The forward work was not stopped. At about 19:45, the non-nuclear group stopped adding water and took a meal break. At about 19:50, the nuclear group completed its aft calibration work and began removing water from the aft tanks. This made the bow-down condition worse. Around 20:30, personnel noticed that GUITARRO had taken a sudden down angle and that forward openings were being submerged. Water entered through open hatches and access points. Attempts to close watertight closures were complicated by cables and lines passing through some of them. By about 20:55, USS GUITARRO had sunk at the pier, with only her sail remaining above water.

The accident did not involve an operating reactor or nuclear fuel, but it caused major material damage and delayed completion of the submarine. It also became a case study in shipyard management, because the central problem was not one single technical failure but the lack of effective coordination and centralized control during construction. GUITARRO was refloated on May 18, 1969. On May 19, 1969, she was moved back toward dry dock at Mare Island with the assistance of shipyard and Navy tugs and yard craft. She entered Dry Dock No. 3, where damaged equipment was removed and cleaning, inspection, and restoration began. On May 20, 1969, work was already under way in her engineering spaces as flushing and recovery continued. Damage estimates have been given in a range from about $15.2 million to about $21.85 million, and the accident delayed her planned commissioning by about 32 months. Photographs from late December 1969 show repair progress inside and outside the submarine, including the crew's galley, crew's mess, sail, and after hull.

After repair and completion work, USS GUITARRO departed Mare Island on August 7, 1972, for builder's trials. She was finally commissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on September 9, 1972, with Commander William Gordon Lange in command. Former members of the earlier USS GUITARRO attended the ceremony, linking the new nuclear-powered submarine to the World War II boat that had carried the name before her. USS GUITARRO was assigned to Submarine Squadron Five and Submarine Division 52. Although she was to be homeported at San Diego, California, her first destination after leaving the shipyard was Bangor, Washington. She departed Mare Island on September 21, 1972, and from September 21, 1972, to October 14, 1972, she conducted Weapons System Accuracy Tests and acoustic trials at the Carr Inlet Acoustic Range. These early trials verified the performance of her weapons-control, navigation, and acoustic systems before she entered routine fleet operations. USS GUITARRO reached San Diego on October 17, 1972. For the rest of the year, she conducted intensive training and weekly local operations. On December 6, 1972, she hosted a dependents cruise for family members and guests.

In 1973, USS GUITARRO continued the transition from newly commissioned submarine to operational Pacific Fleet unit. She proceeded to Hawaii for a Chief of Naval Operations operation and for training at Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor and the Hawaiian operating areas were important to Pacific Fleet submarine training because they provided deep-water access, instrumented ranges, and a position between the eastern Pacific and Western Pacific deployment routes. In September 1973, USS GUITARRO headed toward the Western Pacific. The broader setting was the late Vietnam War and immediate post-Vietnam period, when Pacific Fleet attack submarines continued to support Seventh Fleet readiness, Western Pacific presence, and monitoring of Soviet naval activity from Pacific bases.

On October 12, 1974, Commander Alvin H. Pauole relieved Commander Lange as commanding officer. During the mid-1970s, USS GUITARRO was stationed at Point Loma in San Diego and operated as a Pacific Fleet attack submarine. Sources associate her with Western Pacific activity in the July to September 1974.

During the mid-to-late 1970s, USS GUITARRO became especially important as a platform for combat-system and weapons development. She played a major role in developing tactics for prototype systems entering the Pacific submarine force, particularly the Submarine Towed Array Sensor System and its BQR-20 series digital sonar displays. Towed arrays gave submarines a much longer passive listening capability and improved their ability to detect and track contacts at range. USS GUITARRO also received an early digital submarine combat system built around the AN/BQQ-5 sonar and Mark 117 fire-control system. This placed her at the center of the transition from older analog-era submarine fire-control and sonar integration toward the digital systems that would shape later Cold War undersea operations.

USS GUITARRO's weapons-development role also connected her to the emergence of submarine-launched Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles. Harpoon gave submarines an over-the-horizon anti-ship capability, while Tomahawk eventually gave them long-range cruise-missile capability for anti-ship and land-attack missions. This was part of a broader Navy shift during the late 1970s and early 1980s, as nuclear attack submarines became not only hunters of enemy submarines but also platforms for sea-control, strike, and theater-level missions.

On May 6, 1978, Commander Scott A. Van Hoften relieved Commander Pauole as commanding officer. During Commander Van Hoften's period in command, USS GUITARRO's role as a weapons-test and combat-system development platform became even more visible. Award records later credited USS GUITARRO with Meritorious Unit Commendation periods beginning in May 1978 and extending through later award periods into the early 1980s. The same records identify Battle Efficiency recognition for the competitive years from October 1, 1980, to September 30, 1981, and from October 1, 1982, to September 30, 1983. The dates align with the period in which USS GUITARRO was involved in Tomahawk, Harpoon, digital combat-system, and Pacific Fleet readiness work.

On February 14, 1979, USS GUITARRO launched a Tomahawk missile off the California coast. This successful test was part of a planned series of submarine launches and flight tests conducted between February and June 1979. The tests demonstrated over-the-horizon capability against a target ship at sea and placed USS GUITARRO directly in the development of a weapon that would become one of the most important naval strike systems of the late Cold War and post-Cold War Navy. Sources also record a Western Pacific deployment from March to June 1979.

In 1980 and 1981, USS GUITARRO continued operating from San Diego and remained involved in weapons and combat-system work. A later display commemorated a June 1981 Tomahawk "war shot", indicating another important firing associated with the Tomahawk program. On July 18, 1981, USS GUITARRO held a change of command ceremony at Ballast Point, San Diego, where Commander Burton M. Saft relieved Commander Van Hoften.

In early 1982, USS GUITARRO continued Tomahawk-related work with the destroyer USS MERRILL (DD 976). USS MERRILL's ship history material records type training on January 12 and January 13, 1982, followed by continued Tomahawk project work with USS GUITARRO from January 24, 1982, to February 3, 1982. This pairing was important because Tomahawk was being developed for both surface ships and submarines, and cooperation between a destroyer test platform and a submarine test platform helped refine the broader Navy system. These events occurred during the Reagan administration's early naval buildup and the expansion of maritime strategy, when long-range cruise missiles were becoming increasingly significant to Navy planning.

On July 18, 1982, USS GUITARRO fired a UGM-109 Tomahawk that struck and sank the decommissioned destroyer USS AGERHOLM (DD 826) off Point Mugu, California. USS AGERHOLM was serving as a target ship. This event was a major milestone in the development and demonstration of submarine-launched Tomahawk capability, because it showed the missile's ability to strike a surface target at sea from a submarine launch platform.

From January to July 1983, USS GUITARRO conducted a Western Pacific and Indian Ocean deployment. During this deployment, she was reported departing Cockatoo Sound in Western Australia after a seven-day port visit at HMAS Stirling around mid-1983. That port call placed her at one of Australia's most important naval support facilities on the Indian Ocean side of the continent. The wider context was the heightened Cold War maritime environment of the early 1980s. The Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Western Pacific were important because of Soviet naval activity, the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the strategic importance of sea lines connecting the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf regions.

On May 17, 1984, USS GUITARRO suffered a fire while operating about 65 nautical miles northwest of San Diego, near San Clemente Island. The fire was reported in the battery well and was attributed to high heat from an electrical discharge inside one of the battery cells. A sailor making inspection rounds discovered steam, heat, and a glow coming from the battery well and opened the hatch. The crew brought the fire under control while the submarine headed back toward port, and the fire was finally extinguished in port.

On June 4, 1984, USS GUITARRO returned to Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul. Photographs from that day show Commander Saft with the ship's sponsor, Mrs. McNay Taylor, and Captain E. J. Scheyder, Commander of Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Other photographs from the same occasion show readiness awards displayed on the sail as the boat returned to the shipyard. This was a significant moment in her career because Mare Island was both her construction yard and the site of the 1969 accident. The return placed her back in the yard where she had been built, sunk, salvaged, repaired, and commissioned. By October 1985, USS GUITARRO was still at Mare Island undergoing overhaul, with YFN 1200 alongside her berth.

On May 30, 1986, Commander Mark R. Kevan relieved Commander Saft as commanding officer. In July 1986, USS GUITARRO suffered a minor mishap involving a shipboard valve while at sea in the Pacific. Navy reporting stated that no serious equipment or safety problems occurred.

From May to November 1987, USS GUITARRO conducted another Western Pacific deployment. Official award records credit USS GUITARRO with a Navy Unit Commendation for the period from July 1, 1987, to December 1, 1987, overlapping this Western Pacific operational period. The deployment occurred during the final years of the Cold War, when the Pacific Fleet continued to operate against the background of Soviet Pacific Fleet activity and regional tensions in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean.

In 1989, Commander John F. Teply became commanding officer of USS GUITARRO. From August 1989 to February 1990, USS GUITARRO conducted another Western Pacific deployment. This deployment occurred during a period of rapid international change. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, the Soviet Union was entering its final crisis, and United States naval planning was beginning to shift even as submarines continued many established Cold War operating patterns.

On September 17, 1990, USS GUITARRO participated in Exercise FallEx 90. The exercise belonged to the Pacific Fleet's late-Cold War readiness cycle, in which surface ships, tenders, submarines, and supporting forces trained for coordinated operations as the strategic environment was changing. On October 4, 1990, USS GUITARRO hosted a notable high-level visit at Naval Air Station North Island. General Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Mikhail Moiseyev, First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Union, toured Navy and Marine Corps facilities in San Diego as part of reciprocal U.S.-Soviet military visits. Contemporary reporting described the trip as the first time the highest-ranking military officers of the United States and Soviet Union made a cooperative visit to San Diego military bases. The visitors toured USS CHANCELLORSVILLE (CG 62) and USS GUITARRO before proceeding to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Photographs from the USS GUITARRO visit show General Powell signing the guest book in the wardroom, with General Moiseyev present and Commander Teply nearby. The visit was described at the time as the first tour of a United States nuclear submarine by high-ranking Soviet officials. The visitors toured forward areas of USS GUITARRO but not the engineering spaces.

On April 8, 1991, Commander Robert S. Brown relieved Commander Teply as commanding officer. Commander Brown later stated that he completed a major deployment before USS GUITARRO entered her deactivation availability and decommissioning sequence. USS GUITARRO began inactivation on September 13, 1991. On September 17, 1991, she departed San Diego for the final time, reportedly with crew members and dependents embarked, bound for Mare Island Naval Shipyard. USS GUITARRO was inactivated at Mare Island from October 1, 1991, to July 20, 1992. The inactivation period overlapped the administrative sequence by which she was removed from service, prepared for decommissioning, and placed into the nuclear-powered submarine disposal stream.

USS GUITARRO was formally decommissioned and simultaneously stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on May 29, 1992. The decommissioning ceremony took place at Mare Island Naval Shipyard while she was in Dry Dock No. 2. Rear Admiral Mike T. Coyle, Commander Mare Island Naval Shipyard, addressed the crew and shipyard civilian employees. Commander Robert S. Brown, the commanding officer, and Lieutenant Commander Michael P. Hutter, the executive officer, were present. Photographs from the ceremony show the colors being lowered for the last time aboard USS GUITARRO and Commander Brown departing the ship after decommissioning. The formal end of her commissioned service came just short of twenty years after she entered the fleet.

Between August 17, 1992, and August 21, 1992, ex-USS GUITARRO and ex-USS LAPON (SSN 661) were towed from Mare Island to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington. They had been decommissioned and defueled at Mare Island and were being transferred for further disposal processing. Ex-USS GUITARRO was disposed of through the Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. In that program, defueled nuclear-powered submarines were dismantled under controlled procedures, reactor compartments were separated and sealed, and those compartments were ultimately transported to the Hanford Site in Washington for burial in designated disposal trenches. Recycling of ex-USS GUITARRO was completed on October 18, 1994.

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