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USS Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN 685)

The first ship in the Navy to bear the name, the USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was a nuclear-powered attack submarine specially designed to be as quiet as possible. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on July 11, 1990, the GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB spent the following years berthed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., until she entered the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program there. Recycling was completed on December 1, 1997.

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Crew List:

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

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Accidents aboard USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB:

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USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB History:

USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB began as an experiment in propulsion as much as a front-line attack submarine, and her entire career unfolded under the shadow of that experimental role. On December 16, 1968, the Navy awarded the construction contract to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Groton, Connecticut, as part of Ship Characteristics Board project SCB 302.68, which sought to evaluate turbo-electric drive in a full-size nuclear attack submarine. The boat was named for congressman Glenard Paul Lipscomb of California, a long-time supporter of naval programs and nuclear propulsion. The keel of USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was laid on June 5, 1971, at the Electric Boat yard. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who had worked closely with Lipscomb in Congress, attended the keel-laying ceremony, underlining the political visibility of the project at the height of the Cold War.

From the outset, the design departed from the standard STURGEON-class pattern. GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB used a single S5W reactor feeding steam turbines that in turn drove large electrical generators and a direct-current main motor, eliminating the usual reduction gears. To house the turbo-electric machinery and associated systems, the hull had to be lengthened to about 365 feet and her displacement increased to roughly 6,400 tons submerged, making her significantly larger than contemporary attack submarines.

The intention was to achieve very quiet operation and instant reversing ability by simply changing the polarity of the main motor. In practice, the enlarged, complex plant reduced maximum submerged speed compared to other attack submarines of her generation, and the direct-current motor proved troublesome and maintenance-intensive. Nonetheless, apart from the machinery spaces, the internal layout and combat systems broadly followed the STURGEON pattern, with four 21-inch torpedo tubes and the ability to employ Mk 48 torpedoes and, later in her career, encapsulated missile weapons in line with her peers.

GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was launched at Groton on August 4, 1973, sponsored by the widow of the ship's namesake. After outfitting and initial pier-side tests, she commissioned on December 21, 1974, as a unique, one-boat class. She joined the Atlantic Fleet and was administratively associated with the experimental submarine organization that would soon become Submarine Development Squadron Twelve, based at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut. That command's mission was to test new equipment and tactics, and GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB, with her unusual propulsion plant, fit naturally into that environment.

The mid-1970s were largely devoted to working up the new submarine. Following post-commissioning shakedown and acoustic trials, she operated mainly in the western Atlantic from New London, refining operating procedures for the turbo-electric drive and integrating her crew with Atlantic Fleet exercises. In this period, the boat's engineering department and shipyard specialists wrestled with the practical consequences of the design: the large electric machinery complicated maintenance, and the drive system suffered from reliability issues that required significant pier-side troubleshooting and dockyard work. Contemporary technical accounts note that the system did not deliver the hoped-for combination of speed and reliability, even though it remained tactically usable.

By the autumn of 1976, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was considered ready for extended deployment. In the fall of that year, she deployed to the North Atlantic, operating in the traditional Cold War patrol areas where NATO navies monitored Soviet Northern Fleet activity and practiced antisubmarine warfare in the harsh North Atlantic environment. Sources describe this first major deployment as involving fleet exercises and patrols rather than specifying individual ports, but they agree that it marked her transition from experimental shipyard focus to full participation in operational tasking.

Immediately after the North Atlantic deployment, in the winter and spring of 1977, the submarine deployed to the Mediterranean Sea with the United States Sixth Fleet. In the Mediterranean, against the backdrop of continuing East-West tension and the naval dimension of the Cold War, she integrated into multinational exercises with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces and participated in presence and surveillance missions typical for attack submarines of the era. For her performance in this sequence of North Atlantic and Mediterranean operations, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB received a Meritorious Unit Commendation, recognizing the crew's collective achievement in demanding operational and technical circumstances.

In the winter and spring of 1978, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB again deployed to the North Atlantic. Contemporary summaries emphasize continued work under the auspices of Submarine Development Squadron Twelve, combining routine Cold War patrol tasks with further evaluation of the turbo-electric plant's behavior in extended operations far from support facilities. The boat earned another Meritorious Unit Commendation associated with this deployment, reflecting both operational output and the extra burden imposed by a novel propulsion system that demanded more engineering attention than conventional geared plants.

The pattern continued into 1979. During the winter and spring of that year, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB returned to the Mediterranean for another deployment. Operating with the Sixth Fleet during a period that saw ongoing friction with the Soviet Union, especially over naval activity in the broader European theater, the submarine contributed to fleet exercises and undersea surveillance while the Navy refined tactics for using a quiet but slower and less reliable turbo-electric boat within a predominantly geared-drive force. Sources indicate that by the end of this run of late-1970s deployments the submarine had accumulated multiple Meritorious Unit Commendations.

Throughout these years, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB served within Submarine Development Squadron Twelve, which was based at New London and tasked with evaluating new systems and concepts for the Atlantic submarine force. Historical accounts of the squadron and related commemorative material record that, under commanders such as Commander Robert B. Wilkinson and later Commander Thomas Robertson, the boat received the squadron's Battle Efficiency "E" and Engineering Excellence "E" awards for fiscal years 1977 through 1980. These awards highlight a paradox of her career: operationally and tactically, the crew performed at a high level, even though the underlying propulsion technology was judged unsatisfactory for future classes.

As the 1980s opened, the submarine remained an active unit on the Atlantic Fleet roster, but her experimental plant increasingly shaped how she was used. Technical histories and class-wide assessments of STURGEON-type submarines note that boats of this generation, including GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB, were progressively upgraded with improved sonar suites such as the AN/BQQ-5 and more modern combat control systems like the Mk 117, enhancing their ability to exploit quieter operations and long-range weapons. For GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB, these combat-system improvements were overlaid on a propulsion plant whose reliability problems were becoming more evident as the fleet gained experience with LOS ANGELES-class boats, which offered higher speed and more conventional machinery.

During the mid-1980s, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB continued to alternate between operational patrols, fleet exercises, and periods in port or in shipyards addressing the recurring technical issues of her turbo-electric drive. While specific port visits during Atlantic or Mediterranean deployments are not detailed in publicly accessible official summaries, photographic and archival material confirms repeated returns to New London after multi-month deployments, with harbor tugs assisting her into port and highlighting the distinctive contours of her enlarged machinery section and sonar dome. These images underline her status as both a working attack submarine and a visible engineering experiment moored alongside more conventional STURGEON- and LOS ANGELES-class units.

A major incident in the public record occurred in 1987. While maneuvering in the Cooper River at Naval Weapons Station Charleston, South Carolina, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was involved in a collision with a tugboat. The contact caused minor damage to the submarine's towed-array housing and propeller, requiring roughly an extra week in dry dock for repairs, but there were no injuries aboard the submarine. The tug, by contrast, sank as a result of the collision.

By the late 1980s, the broader strategic and technical situation had shifted. The turbo-electric experiment of GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB, along with other special propulsion trials on boats such as USS NARWHAL (SSN 671) and USS JACK (SSN 605), had yielded valuable data, but the Navy decided against adopting this particular direct-current turbo-electric arrangement for the LOS ANGELES-class or other follow-on attack submarines.

At the same time, the Cold War was entering its final phase, and the fleet faced pressures to rationalize and standardize its nuclear-powered submarine inventory. Compared with more modern LOS ANGELES-class units, GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was slower, more expensive to maintain, and dependent on unique propulsion components. Sources agree that GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB was removed from front-line operational status in early 1990 while still homeported at New London. On July 11, 1990, she was formally decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register, concluding an active service life of a little over fifteen years, unusually short for a nuclear-powered attack submarine.

Following decommissioning, the boat was transferred to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington. There, she entered the Navy's Ship-Submarine Recycling Program, the centralized process for dismantling nuclear-powered vessels in accordance with nuclear and environmental regulations. The recycling process for GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB followed the standard pattern for retired nuclear submarines: removal of nuclear fuel and associated reactor components, segmentation of the hull, and separation of radioactive materials from recyclable steel and other metals. Work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard progressed through the mid-1990s, and official summaries record that recycling was completed on December 1, 1997. At that point, the physical remains of the experimental submarine were fully processed, with the reactor compartment prepared for long-term storage as low-level radioactive waste and the remaining structure reduced to scrap.

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