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USS San Juan (SSN 751)

USS SAN JUAN is the 40^th LOS ANGELES - class Attack Submarine and the first improved submarine in her class. SAN JUAN and all following submarines in the class are quieter, incorporate an advanced BSY-1 sonar suite combat system and the ability to lay mines from their torpedo tubes. They are configured for under-ice operations in that their forward diving planes have been moved from the sail structure to the bow and the sail has been strengthened for breaking through ice.

In August 2023, SAN JUAN left her homeport Groton, Ct., enroute to Bremerton, Wash., in preparation for her inactivation. She arrived at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on September 20, 2023.

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Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

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• Click here to see which USS SAN JUAN memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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Accidents aboard USS SAN JUAN:

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USS SAN JUAN History:

The contract to build USS SAN JUAN was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Groton, Connecticut on November 30, 1982. Her keel was laid there on August 9, 1985, she was launched on December 6, 1986, and commissioned at Groton on August 6, 1988 with Mrs. Sherrill Hernandez as sponsor. Conceived as the first "improved" LOS ANGELES-class boat, she introduced quietering measures and a strengthened sail tailored for under-ice operations while integrating an upgraded combat system - features that anticipated the post-Cold War focus on stealthy intelligence collection, rapid strike, and Arctic access.

In the early 1990s, SAN JUAN conducted Atlantic workups from New London and began the pattern that would define much of her career: multi-month deployments alternating with intensive maintenance and training along the U.S. East Coast. She was the pathfinder for the "688i" under-ice capability, and in 1993 executed the first through-ice surfacing by an improved LOS ANGELES-class submarine - an operational milestone that validated the class's Arctic design changes just as post-Soviet dynamics and renewed interest in the High North were reshaping allied undersea operations.

On March 19, 1998, during training south of Long Island, the submerged SAN JUAN collided with the surfaced ballistic-missile submarine USS KENTUCKY (SSBN 737). There were no injuries. KENTUCKY suffered damage to a stern plane and SAN JUAN's forward ballast tank was breached, but both boats returned to port under their own power. The incident, occurring close to the U.S. coast at the end of the immediate post-Cold War drawdown, prompted scrutiny of peacetime submarine deconfliction procedures.

As the tempo of Middle East operations rose after the 1990s, SAN JUAN's Mediterranean and Red Sea patrols became increasingly tied to crisis response and maritime security. In late winter 1998, she conducted a maintenance call at Souda Bay, Crete - mooring outboard the tender USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39) - and worked out of key Sixth Fleet hubs in the central and eastern Mediterranean as U.S. and allied forces enforced stability and monitored sanctions and no-fly-zone regimes.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, SAN JUAN's tasking reflected the broadened campaign against transnational threats and, by 2003, major combat operations in Iraq. Ordered from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea during Operation Iraqi Freedom, she supported Tomahawk strike operations into Iraq before returning to New London on April 23, 2003 - an illustration of how fast-attack submarines were employed as strike, screening, and intelligence platforms at the opening of that conflict.

Through the mid-2000s, SAN JUAN alternated deployments with fleet training and test work on the U.S. East Coast and in the Mediterranean. On October 18, 2005, she visited Souda Bay, Crete, during a deployment supporting counter-terrorism and maritime security missions in the Levant and North Africa sea lanes, a period when Sixth Fleet surface and air patrols were tightly synchronized with submarine operations.

On July 3, 2006, operating off the U.S. East Coast, SAN JUAN fired a live MK-48 heavyweight torpedo to complete the SINKEX of the decommissioned ammunition ship ex-USNS BUTTE (T-AE 27), part of a multi-platform weapons evaluation that underscored the sub's lethality against large surface combatants and logistics ships alike. Later that year, her itinerary spanned the seam between U.S. European and African theaters, a sign of the Navy's growing emphasis on cross-AOR flexibility.

On March 13, 2007, during pre-deployment training with the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65) Carrier Strike Group off Florida, a combination of lost communications and a reported red flare triggered "missing submarine" procedures and a rapid search by ships and aircraft. SAN JUAN surfaced and re-established comms in the early hours of March 14; no casualties or damage were reported - an episode that led to renewed fleet emphasis on communications protocols and distress indicators during high-tempo exercises.

SAN JUAN's broader engagements now stretched well beyond NATO's core waters. In November 2009, she made a historic port visit to Simon's Town near Cape Town, South Africa, and conducted at-sea events with the South African Navy - the first such series involving a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine - reflecting Washington's push for deeper maritime security cooperation with African partners amid increasing attention to the southwest Indian Ocean and Cape sea routes.

On April 8, 2010, SAN JUAN entered Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, for an Engineered Overhaul that delivered extensive maintenance and modernization. She undocked on August 4, 2011 and completed the availability in early 2012. The refit restored material readiness for another decade of deployments and exercises.

With overhaul complete, the boat returned to sustained operations. She came home from a six-month European Command deployment on September 23, 2016, after missions that matched the resurgence of Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean with allied presence and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) patrols. On April 27, 2018, she again returned to Groton from the EUCOM area, underscoring the continuing demand for Atlantic SSNs in deterrence, surveillance, and strike-ready roles.

In early 2021, SAN JUAN shifted south into the central Mediterranean to join NATO's annual ASW exercise Dynamic Manta, operating from Souda Bay and in company with allied surface, air, and submarine forces as well as the French Navy's CHARLES DE GAULLE carrier strike group. The exercise sharpened multiship prosecution and evasion skills in crowded, acoustically complex waters where several of Europe's choke points meet. Following further tasking in the theater, she returned to Groton on August 24, 2021, after a seven-month deployment.

Her final operational chapter unfolded across 2022-2023. After winter workups and pre-deployment maintenance, SAN JUAN made a 13-day port call at Naval Station Rota, Spain on April 3, 2023, then moored at Limassol, Cyprus from April 5-7, with a brief personnel transfer off Gibraltar later in the month - movements that mirrored growing allied focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea periphery following Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She returned to Groton on June 6, 2023, from this six-month European Command deployment, having steamed about 37,500 nautical miles.

In late summer 2023, SAN JUAN departed New London for the last time and headed for inactivation on the U.S. West Coast. In transit she took part in Canada's Operation Nanook 2023 alongside Canadian and French naval units and U.S. forces, then continued through the Northwest Passage - an increasingly navigable route that highlights the strategic reality of a warming Arctic - before entering Puget Sound. She arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility at Bremerton on September 20, 2023 to begin deactivation and decommissioning.

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Homeports of USS SAN JUAN:

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USS SAN JUAN Image Gallery:

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

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