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USS Chicago (SSN 721)

Named after one of the largest cities in the United States, USS CHICAGO was one of the nuclear powered attack submarines in the LOS ANGELES-class. Last homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hi., the CHICAGO is presently at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., awaiting her turn in the Navy's submarine recycling program. A decommissioning ceremony for the submarine was held at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash., on July 21, 2024, before CHICAGO was officially decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on December 20, 2024.

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Crew List:

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

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USS CHICAGO History:

The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS CHICAGO was ordered on August 13, 1981, as part of the continuing expansion of the LOS ANGELES-class force during the final decade of the Cold War. The contract went to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, and the submarine's keel was laid there on January 5, 1983. She was launched on October 13, 1984, with Vicki Ann Paisley, wife of assistant secretary of the navy Melvyn R. Paisley, serving as sponsor, and formally commissioned on September 27, 1986, at Norfolk, Virginia, becoming the fourth U.S. Navy ship to carry the name of the city of Chicago.

Following commissioning, CHICAGO completed the usual post-shakedown workups and then shifted to the Pacific, joining the U.S. Pacific Fleet. By the late 1980s, she was operating as an attack submarine in the standard Cold War roles of anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, intelligence collection, and support to carrier battle group operations. On March 24, 1989, she departed her homeport to begin one of her early extended deployments, a sign that the new submarine had fully entered the operational rotation of the Pacific Fleet's fast-attack force.

The end of the decade saw growing tension in the Middle East, and CHICAGO's operations soon reflected that shift. In 1990, she was based in the San Diego area, where she underwent scheduled upkeep periods while preparing for overseas tasking.

As the coalition response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait developed, the submarine deployed westward. On November 13, 1990, she arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, for a five-day upkeep period, integrating with U.S. and Japanese support facilities at a time when large elements of the Pacific Fleet were flowing toward the Arabian Gulf. During Operation Desert Storm she transited toward the Middle East, entering the Red Sea on February 3, 1991, to support coalition naval operations. In that campaign, U.S. attack submarines like CHICAGO provided stealthy surveillance and strike options as the maritime component enforced sanctions, protected carrier task forces, and held Iraqi targets at risk with Tomahawk cruise missiles. After the cease-fire, the submarine headed south and east across the Indian Ocean, reaching HMAS Stirling at Garden Island, near Perth, on March 13, 1991, for a five-day port visit that offered the crew its first extended liberty after months of wartime operations. From Australia, she crossed the Pacific and on April 2, 1991, returned to her homeport at San Diego, tugs easing the submarine to the pier - a homecoming widely photographed as CHICAGO came back from Desert Storm.

In the immediate post-war period, CHICAGO underwent a Selected Restricted Availability in 1991, reflecting the Navy's practice of giving deployed submarines an intensive maintenance and modernization period after heavy operational use. After this work, she resumed Pacific Fleet operations. On April 18, 1992, CHICAGO again left San Diego, this time for a peacetime western Pacific deployment. By May 6, 1992, she was alongside in Brisbane, Australia, for a port visit that underlined the continuing importance of Australian bases to U.S. submarine operations in the region in the post-Desert Storm era. That cruise continued with further operations in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean before the submarine returned to the United States later in the year.

By early 1993, USS CHICAGO had already completed a demanding first few years in service. Coming off that tempo, the boat's 1993 activity shows a clear emphasis on maintenance, inspection, and restoring material condition. In the first part of the year, she remained tied closely to support infrastructure. The submarine tender USS McKEE (AS 41) conducted what was described as an emergent Planned Equipment Turnaround hookup with CHICAGO, an indication that some element of her reactor plant or major ship's systems required unscheduled but high-priority work alongside a tender rather than in a full shipyard period. Around the same time, official photography shows CHICAGO in a floating dry dock in 1993, with her hull exposed for inspection, preservation, and hull-mounted sensor work. That dry-docking gave maintainers access to the sonar dome, external piping, and the screw area, and it likely coincided with preservation of the antifouling coatings and inspection of hull penetrations and sea chests. For much of 1993, therefore, CHICAGO's story is one of repair availabilities, inspections, and short local operations to check systems, rather than long overseas deployments.

In 1994, CHICAGO remained based on the U.S. west coast and continued to build proficiency. While detailed day-by-day movements are not publicly documented, open sources agree that she spent this period in a cycle of local and regional operations interspersed with in-port time at her homeport and short visits to regional facilities. She conducted work-ups and advanced training in the eastern Pacific, including participation in multi-unit antisubmarine and anti-surface exercises built around carrier strike groups. Her performance during this period was formally recognized: CHICAGO received a Battle Efficiency Award ("Battle E"), reflecting top-tier scores in readiness evaluations, tactical employment, and engineering performance among her squadron peers. That award implies that throughout 1994, the crew was heavily engaged in inspections, tactical evaluations, and material readiness checks, and that the boat consistently met or exceeded Pacific Fleet standards in those areas.

By 1995, CHICAGO again moved into an operationally intensive posture with a deployment that took her west across the Pacific and into the Persian Gulf. Open sources that compile U.S. Navy deployment information agree that in 1995 she operated in the Gulf as part of a carrier battle group built around the conventional aircraft carrier USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62). At that time, the Gulf region was shaped by the enforcement of sanctions and no-fly zones against Iraq in the years after Operation Desert Storm. Submarines in such carrier groups typically provided undersea protection for the carrier and other high-value units, maintained covert surveillance of surface and subsurface traffic, and offered a Tomahawk land-attack capability if higher authorities chose to employ it.

The deployment's transit phase is one of the best-documented portions of CHICAGO's mid-1990s history. A command history from the frigate USS CURTS (FFG 38) shows that on August 29, 1995, the frigate was tasked to escort USS CHICAGO through the Strait of Malacca. That narrow, busy waterway between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra is one of the world's most significant maritime choke points, linking the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. The escort indicates that by late August, CHICAGO had already crossed the western Pacific and was entering the Indian Ocean en route to Fifth Fleet's area of responsibility. Within days, CURTS "inchopped" to U.S. Fifth Fleet, which operated in the Gulf region, and CHICAGO appears in the same context, tying her directly to the flow of U.S. naval forces into the Arabian Gulf and adjacent seas at that time.

During the Gulf phase of the deployment, CHICAGO operated under the umbrella of the USS INDEPENDENCE battle group. Although her detailed patrol tracks remain classified, the general pattern for U.S. submarines in that period included barrier patrols at the approaches to the Gulf, submerged presence in congested shipping areas, and close coordination with carrier air operations. The boat is recorded as having made a port visit to Bahrain during this deployment, a standard liberty and logistics stop for U.S. units in the region and a key hub for coalition naval forces presence around the Arabian Gulf. That visit gave the crew a brief respite from submerged operations while reinforcing the political visibility of U.S. undersea forces in the Gulf.

Early 1996 marks one of the most technically significant episodes of CHICAGO's career. In that year, she served as the sea-based platform for an experiment in controlling an RQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle from a submerged submarine. Over roughly ten months, engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Navy personnel installed a dedicated control system aboard CHICAGO, integrating communications, navigation, and imagery downlink into the submarine's combat systems. During the culminating at-sea demonstration, conducted off the California coast in the vicinity of San Clemente Island, operators on board CHICAGO took direct control of the Predator while the submarine was at periscope depth. The UAV climbed to around 6,000 meters and ranged out to roughly 100 nautical miles from the boat, streaming real-time video imagery back into the control consoles on board. In a scenario designed around support to special operations forces, CHICAGO used the drone to verify that a surface area was clear before surfacing and launching a special operations team, then continued to monitor the team's approach using infrared imagery from the UAV. This demonstration showed that a submerged attack submarine could extend its situational awareness far beyond the horizon, support special operations ashore, and control an airborne sensor platform without exposing itself for long periods on the surface. In the context of mid-1990s U.S. defense policy, which emphasized flexible power projection and special operations support, CHICAGO's role in this trial placed her at the leading edge of submarine-UAV integration.

Following the Predator work, CHICAGO continued operations from the west coast. In 1996 and into 1997, she took part in routine training and certification evolutions in the eastern Pacific, including antisubmarine exercises with other submarines and surface combatants. During these years, the structure of the Pacific submarine force was being reshuffled, with a greater emphasis on forward-based units able to reach the western Pacific more quickly.

That reshaping is reflected in CHICAGO's next major milestone: a change of homeport from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. Open sources that compile U.S. submarine dispositions record that in 1997 the boat shifted her base to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On June 16, 1997, when Submarine Squadron 3 was reactivated at Pearl Harbor, CHICAGO was among the seven submarines assigned to the newly reestablished squadron, alongside units such as USS LOUISVILLE (SSN 724), USS KEY WEST (SSN 722), and USS HONOLULU (SSN 718). The move shortened her transit times to the western Pacific, the Sea of Japan, and Southeast Asian waters, aligning her directly with the Indo-Pacific focus that characterized U.S. naval strategy in the late 1990s.

From roughly 1998 through 2000, detailed public reporting on CHICAGO's individual operations becomes sparse, which is common for fast attack submarines whose routine deployments and patrols are often not highlighted unless attached to named operations or public exercises. What is clear is that she remained a Pearl Harbor-based asset of the Pacific Fleet's submarine force, continuing the standard cycle of maintenance availabilities, local operations in Hawaiian waters, and periodic extended deployments into the western Pacific under the operational control of Seventh Fleet. Within that cycle, her missions would have included undersea surveillance, integration with carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups, and participation in multinational exercises with regional partners. The absence of widely publicized named operations in those years does not imply inactivity; rather, it reflects the generally discreet nature of submarine patrols in a relatively stable but strategically important period in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean.

By 2001 CHICAGO's operational center of gravity clearly lay in the broader Indo-Pacific. Visual records from that year show the submarine at periscope depth off the coast of Malaysia, indicating that she was operating in Southeast Asian waters, likely in connection with training and presence missions in and around the South China Sea and approaches to the Strait of Malacca. One widely circulated U.S. Navy photograph depicts CHICAGO's sail and periscope breaking the surface in relatively calm seas off Malaysia in 2001, with the boat described as being engaged in training maneuvers. On November 15, 2001, she participated in the large bilateral maritime exercise ANNUALEX 14G off Japan, working alongside Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force units in complex anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare scenarios that reinforced the U.S.-Japan security alliance in the western Pacific.

After the September 11 attacks, CHICAGO's deployments took place against the backdrop of the Global War on Terrorism. She made a six-month deployment to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations, returning to Pearl Harbor on May 6, 2003, after patrolling key sea lanes and providing undersea surveillance in the western Pacific and nearby regions.

In February 2005, the submarine was photographed at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington, a location associated with maintenance and modernization work, suggesting that she underwent further repair or upgrade activity before rejoining the operational fleet. On November 29, 2005, she departed Pearl Harbor for a western Pacific deployment, a departure marked by a widely published photograph of her crew saluting during morning colors before the submarine slipped her lines. That cruise supported broader U.S. efforts associated with the Global War on Terrorism, with the submarine conducting surveillance, presence, and readiness operations in the Indo-Pacific. In 2006, she took part in the Rim of the Pacific exercise RIMPAC 2006, concluding her participation on July 25, 2006, after several weeks of complex multinational training around Hawaii with surface combatants, submarines, and aircraft from across the Pacific.

Later that year, on November 9, 2006, CHICAGO was involved in a Joint Task Force Exercise, integrating with a carrier strike group and other forces in a large-scale pre-deployment workup that tested interoperability across air, surface, and subsurface units.

In 2007, CHICAGO operated extensively in the western Pacific. She made a series of port calls at Yokosuka, Japan, in June, underscoring the close logistic and operational ties between U.S. submarines and Japanese support infrastructure. Later that year, in September 2007, she took part in exercise MALABAR 2007 in the Bay of Bengal, an unusually large edition of the long-running India-U.S. bilateral exercise. In that iteration, the submarine trained alongside two U.S. aircraft carriers, ARLEIGH BURKE-class destroyers, and substantial forces from the Indian, Japanese, Australian, and Singaporean navies, reflecting a growing focus on multilateral maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.

Through 2008 and 2009, CHICAGO remained based at Pearl Harbor, with photographs showing her at the historic submarine piers in November 2008, January 2009, and June 2009. These images frame a period of local operations, training, and shorter deployments as the Navy balanced high operational tempo with the need to prepare the submarine for an upcoming major maintenance period.

On March 15, 2010, her then commanding officer, Commander Jeff Cima, was relieved of command following non-operational misconduct during a visit with Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps midshipmen at Cornell University on March 10, an event handled through an admiral's mast and recorded in open-source summaries. He was temporarily replaced by Captain James Horten while the submarine remained in the Pearl Harbor area. Around this time, CHICAGO entered an extended maintenance and modernization period at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, lasting roughly two years. By October 2011 that work - encompassing reactor refueling-free lifetime management, updates to combat systems, and general overhaul typical of mid-life LOS ANGELES-class work - was complete.

In keeping with a broader plan to increase forward presence, the submarine was reassigned to Guam. On April 19, 2012, she arrived at her new homeport at Apra Harbor, Guam, mooring at the submarine piers and joining Commander, Submarine Squadron 15 as one of three forward-deployed attack submarines, replacing USS HOUSTON (SSN 713), which had shifted to Pearl Harbor earlier that year.

Once on Guam, CHICAGO entered a cycle of high-tempo patrols into the Philippine Sea, South China Sea, and broader western Pacific, interspersed with shorter upkeep periods alongside the submarine tender USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39) and later with other tenders. A photograph from April 2012 shows her already moored in Apra Harbor alongside USS COLUMBUS (SSN 762) and near other submarines and EMORY S. LAND, illustrating the concentration of undersea forces and support ships that made Guam a key forward logistics hub.

On April 25, 2013, CHICAGO returned to Apra Harbor after a seven-week mission, her first underway period as part of Submarine Squadron 15. During this patrol she had operated across the 7th Fleet area, contributing to routine presence, intelligence and anti-submarine warfare tasks in a region increasingly shaped by Chinese naval expansion, North Korean missile developments and the U.S. "rebalance to Asia".

After a short period of maintenance and crew rest in Guam, CHICAGO went back to sea for a longer western Pacific deployment in mid-2013. The cruise combined independent submarine operations with bilateral training, and by late August the boat was on the Indian Ocean side of the region. On August 21, 2013, she arrived at HMAS Stirling, near Perth in Western Australia, for a port visit that also supported exercises with the Royal Australian Navy submarine force. The stop reflected the long-standing U.S.-Australian undersea partnership and provided an opportunity to refine tactics with Australian submariners while also giving the crew a period of liberty after weeks at sea. Sailors took part in community-relations work at Cohuna Koala Park, underscoring the diplomatic and outreach dimension that accompanied her operational tasks.

After leaving Western Australia, CHICAGO continued her deployment across the wider 7th Fleet operating areas, conducting submerged patrols, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare training, and surveillance tasks in support of regional stability and U.S. treaty commitments with allies such as Japan, South Korea and Australia. On September 20, 2013, she returned to Apra Harbor at the end of this 11-week deployment, mooring in Guam after nearly three months at sea. The return marked the completion of a substantial forward-deployed patrol cycle and highlighted the role of Guam-based submarines as a constantly present undersea element in the western Pacific.

Through the remainder of 2013 the submarine alternated shorter underways, local training in the Philippine Sea and Marianas operating areas, and upkeep alongside in Guam, maintaining readiness for further national tasking in an environment where tensions over the East and South China Seas continued to rise.

In 2014, CHICAGO again divided her time between operations at sea and maintenance alongside, but with a notable focus on the Philippines. On May 9, 2014, she arrived at Subic Bay in the Republic of the Philippines for a Fleet Maintenance Availability (FMAV). During this period, she was supported by the submarine tender USS EMORY S. LAND, which was moored at Alava Pier, providing repair facilities and logistics support while the attack submarine lay alongside. The visit came just after the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between Washington and Manila, at a time when the United States and the Philippines were re-emphasizing Subic Bay's value as a naval logistics and staging hub in the face of ongoing disputes in the South China Sea. Local press reports at the time described the port call as highlighting the strong historic, community and military connections between the two countries, and CHICAGO's presence was part of a broader pattern of U.S. Navy submarines and surface ships returning to the former U.S. naval base on a rotational basis.

Following her Subic Bay availability, CHICAGO put back to sea and returned to Guam later in 2014, resuming her cycle of patrols and exercises. Under the command team in place at the time, the boat's operational record steadily accumulated. A subsequent squadron account summarised that during this period under one commanding officer's three-year tenure, CHICAGO completed eight separate 7th Fleet operational periods, nine exercises, three theater anti-submarine warfare periods, five foreign port visits and ten additional foreign personnel port stops. While individual details of these 2014 operations are not fully public, they would have included extended submerged patrols in key transit chokepoints and open-ocean areas, intended to monitor regional naval activity, rehearse wartime tasks and provide flexible undersea presence at a time of increasing Chinese maritime assertiveness and continuing concern over North Korea.

By early 2015, CHICAGO had completed a continuous maintenance availability and the associated certifications needed for further extended deployments. A report that spring noted that the submarine had finished a maintenance and readiness period in Guam, undergone a pre-overseas movement certification, and already completed her first national-tasking mission of 2015.

Soon afterwards, she sailed west again. On March 22, 2015, CHICAGO arrived at Changi Naval Base in Singapore for a port visit as part of a western Pacific deployment. The visit provided rest for the crew and opportunities for engagement with the host country, while also underlining Singapore's role as a logistics node and security partner for U.S. forces operating in the South China Sea and Malacca Strait approaches.

Following her stay in Singapore, CHICAGO resumed operations at sea, continuing her deployment through mid-2015 in the 7th Fleet area. Her missions during this time, while not described in detail, were characterized in official statements as a "multitude of missions" designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the submarine force, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and strike roles. These tasks were carried out against a backdrop of China's land-reclamation and militarization of features in the Spratly Islands, as well as continuing North Korean missile tests, making U.S. undersea presence in the region strategically significant.

On August 3, 2015, CHICAGO again turned toward the Philippines, this time arriving in Subic Bay for a routine port call during a western Pacific deployment. The visit was widely reported by Philippine and international media as part of a renewed U.S. naval presence at the former American base, now a commercial and free-port zone but increasingly used for visiting warships. Indo-Pacific Command coverage of the port call emphasized that CHICAGO had been conducting sustained operations prior to arrival, and that the crew had recently completed their second mission of 2015 in support of national security. The Subic Bay stop offered liberty for the crew and a chance for sailors of Filipino origin to visit family nearby in Olongapo City, while also serving as a visible sign of deepening U.S.-Philippine security ties at a time when Manila was challenging Chinese claims at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

After leaving Subic Bay, CHICAGO returned to sea and later to Guam, where she resumed local operations and preparations for further tasking. On December 19, 2015, she featured in a more community-focused event at home when sailors and families from Submarine Squadron 15 gathered at Polaris Point on Naval Base Guam for the first-ever "Team 15 Day". Personnel and families from CHICAGO, USS TOPEKA (SSN 754), USS KEY WEST (SSN 722) and USS OKLAHOMA CITY (SSN 723) attended the squadron-hosted event, which was designed to introduce new arrivals to life on Guam, explain support services and strengthen ties within the submarine community. This gathering highlighted the social side of forward-deployment, where crews and families live in Guam while supporting a demanding tempo of operations at sea.

In early 2016, CHICAGO's activities reflected both her operational role and her integration into Guam's civilian community. On February 22, 2016, ten members of the Guam Chamber of Commerce Armed Forces Committee embarked aboard the submarine for a day at sea. Hosted by the commanding officer and the commodore of Submarine Squadron 15, the visitors observed the boat's operations, toured key spaces such as the control room and torpedo room, and experienced the transit back into Apra Harbor from the bridge. The embark was part of a deliberate effort to strengthen understanding between the forward-deployed submarine force and the local population of Guam, whose support underpins the base's role as a major hub for U.S. operations in the western Pacific.

Shortly afterward, CHICAGO shifted focus back to high-end warfare training. On March 7, 2016, she went to sea in support of the bilateral exercise Multi-Sail 2016, a U.S.-Japan training event centred on Guam and the surrounding waters. In early March, multiple U.S. and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships gathered at Apra Harbor before proceeding to sea for the exercise, which ran through mid-month. Participating U.S. surface units included the guided-missile cruiser USS CHANCELLORSVILLE (CG 62) and the destroyers USS BARRY (DDG 52), USS BENFOLD (DDG 65), USS CURTIS WILBUR (DDG 54), USS FITZGERALD (DDG 62) and USS McCAMPBELL (DDG 85). The undersea component comprised CHICAGO and the attack submarine USS NORTH CAROLINA (SSN 777). On the Japanese side, the destroyers JS Amagiri (DD 154), JS Harusame (DD 102), the destroyer-leader JS Kirishima (DDG 174) and the helicopter destroyer JS Kurama (DDH 144) took part. Throughout Multi-Sail 2016, CHICAGO operated near Guam both submerged and, at times, on the surface in formation with the participating surface combatants. Official imagery from March 10 and March 11, 2016, shows U.S. and Japanese ships viewed through her periscope and the submarine herself running on the surface in company with the task group.

The exercise focused on improving interoperability in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, gunnery, maneuvering and command-and-control procedures, reflecting the growing importance of close U.S.-Japan naval cooperation in the face of regional security challenges.

A further milestone followed in May. On May 12, 2016, CHICAGO held another change-of-command ceremony at Naval Base Guam, during which Commander Brian Turney relieved Commander Lance Thompson as commanding officer. The squadron commodore noted that under Thompson's nearly three-year command the submarine had completed eight 7th Fleet operational periods, nine exercises, three theater-level anti-submarine warfare events, five foreign port visits and ten foreign port stops, and had twice won the Submarine Squadron 15 Battle "E" efficiency award in 2013 and 2014. The change of command marked continuity rather than a break. CHICAGO remained forward-deployed in Guam, and the new commanding officer inherited a crew accustomed to frequent deployments and complex combined exercises.

During the latter part of 2016, CHICAGO once again shifted north toward Japan as part of the wider pattern of U.S.-Japan naval training and regional presence operations. Her Naval Vessel Historical Evaluation records that on November 11, 2016, she took part in a photo exercise in company with the aircraft carrier USS RONALD REAGAN, Carrier Strike Group 5 and accompanying Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships off the southwest coast of Japan, while operating in support of the bilateral exercise ANNUALEX 28G. The carrier strike group had commenced participation in ANNUALEX 28G and Keen Sword 17 on October 30, manoeuvring north of Okinawa through November 11. The concluding photo exercise on November 11, captured in official imagery of the carrier steaming in formation in the Philippine Sea, formed the visible culmination of the event and demonstrated the integrated presence of U.S. and Japanese surface and undersea forces in the waters around Japan.

On February 10, 2017, CHICAGO conducted a noteworthy logistics evolution at Polaris Point, Guam. During a three-hour operation, she transferred two retrievable exercise torpedoes (EXTORPs) to the submarine tender EMORY S. LAND while alongside, marking the first such ordnance transfer between a forward-deployed attack submarine and a tender in more than four years. The evolution highlighted the ability of Guam-based tenders and submarines to handle weapons support without requiring long transits back to Pearl Harbor or the continental United States.

Over the following years, CHICAGO continued to rotate through patrols and port visits across the 7th Fleet area. By 2018, she had shifted back to operating from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On August 31, 2018, a change-of-command ceremony for the submarine was held at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park in Pearl Harbor, with Commander Brian Turney relieving Commander Chance Litton as commanding officer under the oversight of Submarine Squadron 7.

On October 31, 2019, when USS OLYMPIA (SSN 717) was decommissioned, the traditional cribbage board associated with Rear Admiral Richard O'Kane was ceremonially passed from OLYMPIA's wardroom to CHICAGO's, making CHICAGO the oldest fast-attack submarine in the Pacific Fleet and the custodian of that long-standing undersea warfare tradition.

In 2020, CHICAGO took part in exercise Valiant Shield 2020 in the western Pacific, a large U.S.-only field training exercise focusing on joint integration of naval, air, and ground forces in a blue-water environment. Imagery and exercise summaries place the submarine operating in company with the amphibious assault ship USS AMERICA (LHA 6) and logistics ships USNS SACAGAWEA (T-AKE 2), USNS CHARLES DREW (T-AKE 10), and USNS JOHN ERICSSON (T-AO 194) during portions of the exercise, underscoring her role in supporting distributed maritime operations and joint force training.

On April 7, 2021, CHICAGO held another change-of-command ceremony on the historic submarine piers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, with Commander Andrew J. Kopacz relieving Commander Chance Litton as commanding officer, reflecting the continuing normal rotation of leadership even as the submarine approached the final phase of her service life. She remained an active contributor to Pacific Fleet operations, with photographs showing her departures and returns from Pearl Harbor during this period.

CHICAGO's final deployment came in 2022. On March 28, 2022, she departed Pearl Harbor for what was described as a regularly scheduled western Pacific deployment. Over the next seven months she operated extensively in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations, performing a full spectrum of tasks including anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, intelligence and surveillance missions, and theater security operations across the Indo-Pacific. On November 2, 2022, she returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam from this final cruise, reuniting her crew with their families and closing out decades of operational service.

With inactivation already planned, CHICAGO departed Hawaii for the Pacific Northwest early the next year. On January 17, 2023, she arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, to begin the formal inactivation and decommissioning process, which included defueling her nuclear reactor and preparing the hull for eventual recycling. Her decommissioning ceremony was held on July 21, 2023, at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. At that ceremony, attended by current and former crew members, CHICAGO formally left the active fleet, closing the career of a submarine that had served from the closing years of the Cold War through Desert Storm, post-Cold War regional operations, the Global War on Terrorism, and the era of renewed great-power competition in the Indo-Pacific.

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USS CHICAGO Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by me and shows the CHICAGO during her inactivation process at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on July 15, 2024.

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