USS Topeka (SSN 754)

USS TOPEKA is the 43^rd LOS ANGELES Attack Submarine and the third ship in the Navy to bear the name.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: November 28, 1983
	Keel laid: May 13, 1986
	Launched: January 23, 1988
	Commissioned: October 21, 1989
	Builder: Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Conn.
	Propulsion system: one nuclear reactor
	Propellers: one
	Length: 360 feet (109.73 meters)
	Beam: 33 feet (10 meters)
	Draft: 32,15 feet (9.8 meters)
	Displacement: Surfaced: approx. 6,255 tons
	Displacement: Submerged: approx. 7,102 tons
	Speed: Surfaced: approx. 15 knots
	Speed: Submerged: approx. 32 knots
	Armament: Tomahawk missiles from 12 VLS-tubes, four 533 mm torpedo tubes for Mk-48 torpedoes, Harpoon missiles
	Cost: approx. $900 million
	Homeport: Bremerton, Wash.
	Crew: 12 Officers, 115 Enlisted

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Crew List:

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

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History of USS TOPEKA:

USS TOPEKA was ordered from Electric Boat on November 28, 1983; her keel was laid at Groton on May 13, 1986, she was launched on January 23, 1988 with Elizabeth Dole as sponsor, and she commissioned on October 21, 1989, under Commander Timothy M. Richert. An "improved" LOS ANGELES-class attack submarine with retractable bow planes and Tomahawk vertical launch capability, she completed post-commissioning trials and joined the Pacific Fleet as the Cold War ended.

Operating from San Diego under Submarine Squadron Eleven in the early 1990s, TOPEKA earned her first Battle "E" in 1993 and deployed repeatedly to the Western Pacific. Her first WESTPAC ran from August 1992 to February 1993, followed by a second from November 1994 to May 1995 in support of the USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64) carrier battle group - typical Seventh Fleet tasking that mixed independent submarine operations with group screening and surveillance.

In February 1996, the boat changed homeport to Pearl Harbor, reflecting a broader Pacific rebalance. She then executed another WESTPAC from October 1996 to May 1997 and a further deployment across 1999-2000. On New Year's Eve 2000, she famously positioned across the International Date Line, "in two millenniums at once", an anecdote that circulated widely in Navy reporting and public retellings.

After a Pearl Harbor modernization period, TOPEKA shifted homeport back to San Diego in October 2002. On October 11, 2003, while submerged during routine training off Cape Flattery, Washington, she severed a tug's tow line to an empty oil barge. The submarine suffered only minor scraping to a bow plane and no injuries were reported, and the drifting barge was subsequently recovered - an incident documented in contemporaneous regional press.

Through the mid-2000s, TOPEKA's pattern was the familiar pulse of extended forward presence in the Seventh Fleet. She completed a WESTPAC in 2005-April 2006, another from October 16, 2007 to April 16, 2008, and a further WESTPAC from June 23 to December 2009. These cycles included blue-water anti-submarine hunts, indications-and-warning patrols, and strike-warfare readiness in a region where North Korea's missile tests and China's naval expansion kept undersea surveillance at a premium.

A SouthPac cruise followed from May to July 6, 2010, often used to qualify crews in long-range operations and to conduct interoperability events with South American partners. The boat then executed a six-month WESTPAC from March 6 to September 5, 2012 - logging roughly 35,000 nautical miles - before transiting from San Diego to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from November 2 to December 6, 2012. There, she entered an Engineered Overhaul that stretched into 2015, a comprehensive refit and modernization that reset hull-mechanical-electrical life and refreshed combat systems.

Upon completion, TOPEKA changed homeport to Apra Harbor, Guam, arriving May 29, 2015. Forward-deployed with Submarine Squadron 15, she took up short-cycle patrols throughout the Philippine Sea and broader Indo-Pacific. A two-month forward operating period concluded with her return to Polaris Point on July 1, 2016, the first homecoming after national tasking since the move to Guam. The forward basing enabled frequent cooperation with allies and close tracking of regional naval activity at the first island chain.

On January 17, 2017, TOPEKA made a port visit to Fleet Activities Yokosuka during a Seventh Fleet patrol, underscoring alliance ties with Japan. The crew returned to Guam later that month. She again visited Yokosuka on March 2, 2018, while on Indo-Pacific deployment, a stop captured in official Navy imagery and reporting. Such calls provided logistics and crew rest between operations that typically combined intelligence collection, anti-submarine prosecution, and regional presence.

As part of force posture adjustments, TOPEKA executed a change of homeport from Guam to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, arriving December 15, 2020. She promptly entered a Docking Selected Restricted Availability at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in January 2021. Undocking on July 27, 2021, marked a major milestone toward sea-return. Coming out of maintenance, the boat supported two submarine command courses and joined the Rim of the Pacific exercise, departing Pearl Harbor for the at-sea phase of RIMPAC on July 11, 2022.

TOPEKA closed another Western Pacific deployment with a homecoming to Pearl Harbor on November 30, 2023. In December 2024, she completed another change of homeport, arriving at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, on December 12, 2024. Regional reporting and naval releases noted that she was among the submarines programmed for inactivation in Fiscal Year 2025, closing more than three and a half decades of Indo-Pacific service. Her decommissioning is scheduled for 2026.

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Homeports of USS TOPEKA:

Period	Homeport
commissioned at Groton, Conn.
1989 - 1996	San Diego, Calif.
1996 - 2002	Pearl Harbor, Hi.
2002 - 2015	San Diego, Calif.
2015 - 2020	Apra Harbor, Guam
2020 - 2024	Pearl Harbor, Hi.
2024 - present	Bremerton, Wash.

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Accidents aboard USS TOPEKA:

Date	Where	Events
October 11, 2003	off Washington state	USS TOPEKA snagged and parted a cable stretched between the tug ERNEST CAMPBELL and an empty oil barge. The TOPEKA, which was submerged at the time, suffered only a scrape to a bow plane and no crew injuries. No one was injured, and no damage was reported on the ERNEST CAMPBELL. The barge drifted northward in high winds and seas off Cape Flattery for three hours until a tug was able to recover the towline and reattach it. The barge was towed into Port Angeles in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the entrance to Puget Sound. USS TOPEKA was conducting routine training exercises off Washington and was headed to the Bangor Submarine Base when the incident occurred.

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USS TOPEKA Image Gallery: