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USS Alexandria (SSN 757)

USS ALEXANDRIA is the seventh of the 23 improved LOS ANGELES - class nuclear-powered attack submarines and the third ship in the Navy named after the cities in Louisiana and Virginia. During her 2004 deployment, the ALEXANDRIA became the first improved LOS ANGELES - class submarine to circumnavigate the globe in the way she did: Departing Groton, CT., on June 11, 2004, she transited under the Arctic ice to the Pacific, entered the US Central Command's area and returned home via the Suez Canal, Mediterranean, and Atlantic Ocean. During this deployment, the ALEXANDRIA also became the first US nuclear-powered submarine to visit Goa, India.

After a scheduled two-year engineered overhaul at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, the ALEXANDRIA shifted her homeport from Groton, Ct., to San Diego, Calif., in November 2015.

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Crew List:

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

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History of USS ALEXANDRIA:

USS ALEXANDRIA was ordered on November 26, 1984, for construction at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut. Her keel was laid on June 19, 1987; she was launched on June 23, 1990, christened by sponsor Myrtle "Tookie" Clark; and she commissioned at Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, on June 29, 1991, with Cmdr. Paul E. Normand in command. An Improved LOS ANGELES-class boat with vertical launch capability, she initially operated from Groton under Submarine Force Atlantic.

Following trials and initial training, ALEXANDRIA completed her post-shakedown availability in early 1992 and settled into the Atlantic readiness cycle of local operations, inspections and certifications out of New London, preparing for her first long deployment.

In August 1993, the submarine deployed with the USS AMERICA (CV 66) Battle Group to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean as NATO and U.N. attention focused on the Balkans. En route she made a port call at Faslane, Scotland, before entering the Mediterranean, where she conducted upkeeps at La Maddalena, Italy, and liberty visits to Toulon, France, and Souda Bay, Crete. The deployment synchronized with the period in which the AMERICA group supported operations connected to the enforcement of no-fly measures over Bosnia-Herzegovina, situating ALEXANDRIA's presence within the broader crisis-response posture of late 1993.

In early 1994, the boat's transit pattern included a publicly recorded three-day port visit to Gibraltar beginning January 23, 1994, followed by stateside engagement on the East Coast - images and captions also place her at Port Everglades, Florida in 1994. Through the year she cycled ORSE, inspections, and in-port periods at Groton typical of a post-deployment reset.

During 1995, ALEXANDRIA's command history shows the classic Atlantic workup cadence: local operations in the Narragansett Bay/OpAreas, maintenance periods, certifications (including ORSE), and short underway phases to keep weapons, navigation, and engineering teams current as the Submarine Force consolidated post-Cold War readiness standards.

Across 1996, she continued New London-based training, inspections, and pre-deployment preparations under SUBDEVRON TWELVE, accumulating exercise time in East Coast ranges while completing scheduled upkeep. These "quiet" but essential cycles - check rides, tactical development, and crew proficiency events - set the table for her late-decade operations.

In 1997, ALEXANDRIA remained on the Atlantic rhythm, executing local operations, evaluations, and maintenance spelled out in her command history, with periodic underway periods to certify combat systems employment and navigation teams ahead of higher-tempo tasking.

1998 marked a pivot toward North Atlantic operating areas again. Her command history documents the year's sequence of local training, inspections, and deployment preparations culminating in a late-year posture to re-enter northern waters and NATO lanes as Russian submarine activity and allied ASW training regained emphasis.

1999 is unusually well-documented. After New Year's stand-down and an FMA upkeep in Groton, ALEXANDRIA got underway January 14-22 for a Pre-Deployment Supply Assist, visited Port Canaveral January 23-24, and on January 25 hosted a VIP cruise with the Secretary of the Navy. She entered dry dock USS OAK RIDGE (ARDM 1) February 17-March 17, then resumed POM training in the NBOAs through spring. A short dry-dock period followed in USS RESOLUTE (AFDM 10) August 8-11, immediately before a Northern Atlantic deployment (August 13-December 17) that included Faslane, Scotland (August 29-September 1; November 8-18 for FMA upkeep) and a port call at Haakonsvern, Norway in between. Homeward bound, she paused at Port Canaveral November 29-December 1, conducted ORSE December 14-17, and stood down in Groton through year's end.

The 2000 command history records completion of POM Certification in mid-November 2000, immediately followed by deployment to the Mediterranean Sea/Persian Gulf, aligning with Sixth and Fifth Fleet tasking as the U.S. emphasized maritime security and strike readiness in the CENTCOM theater at the turn of the millennium.

Through 2001, ALEXANDRIA's official history traces sustained operations across Fifth and Sixth Fleet waters - patrols and theater engagement linked to pre- and post-9/11 tasking - placing the boat in the Persian Gulf as part of the broader undersea contribution to maritime interdiction, surveillance, and strike-support postures then in effect.

In 2002, she cycled back through Atlantic workups, certifications, and upkeep out of Groton to reset after CENTCOM tasking, a year characterized by local operating areas and deployment preparation as the Submarine Force managed high demand across EUCOM and CENTCOM simultaneously.

By 2003, ALEXANDRIA's command history shows her returning to contingency-driven forward operations as major combat operations in Iraq began in March. Her movements that year fit the pattern of Atlantic SSNs providing EUCOM/CENTCOM flexibility - intelligence collection, strike readiness, and choke-point coverage across the Mediterranean and Red Sea axes - before the boat later shifted toward the Indo-Pacific chapter that followed mid-decade.

In October 2004, she operated with the Indian Navy during Exercise Malabar off India's southwest coast, joining the Yokosuka-based cruiser USS COWPENS (CG 63) and frigate USS GARY (FFG 51). The boat's schedule included a brief port call at Goa on October 3 before the at-sea phase concluded on October 11. The exercise underscored growing U.S.-India maritime interoperability at a time when both navies emphasized coordinated anti-submarine and maritime interdiction skills.

From May to November 2006, ALEXANDRIA deployed with the ENTERPRISE (CVN 65) Strike Group across the U.S. Sixth, Fifth and Seventh Fleet areas, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Maritime Security Operations. The strike group's composition included ENTERPRISE, USS LEYTE GULF (CG 55), USS NICHOLAS (FFG 47), USS McFAUL (DDG 74) and USNS SUPPLY (T-AOE 6), among others, and split its time between Mediterranean transit exercises, the North Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. For this deployment the crew later received a Meritorious Unit Commendation on November 26, 2007.

In March 2007, ALEXANDRIA operated under the Arctic pack during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2007, paired with the Royal Navy submarine HMS TIRELESS (S88). During the exercise a high-pressure air system incident aboard TIRELESS on March 21-22 fatally injured two Royal Navy sailors. The Anglo-American team stabilized the situation and continued with a scaled set of trials from the ice camp. That spring, the Navy facilitated limited filming around the exercise for the feature "Stargate: Continuum", which used ALEXANDRIA's dramatic surfacing through the ice for a sequence shot in sub-zero conditions - an unusual cultural footnote to a demanding polar test series.

In the subsequent years, ALEXANDRIA remained active on forward tasks. She is documented in Souda Bay, Crete, on July 30, 2008, while on a six-month deployment slated to operate in the U.S. Central Command area. She again visited Souda Bay on November 3, 2012, and January 25, 2013, during Sixth Fleet patrols that combined maritime security and theater engagement across the Eastern Mediterranean - a region shaped by the Syrian civil war's early years and persistent Levantine instability.

On October 23, 2013, the submarine arrived at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY), Kittery, Maine, for an engineered overhaul. She undocked on January 21, 2015, with PNSY noting the project - roughly 280,000-290,000 man-days - was on track for completion that summer and ultimately recognized as the Navy's fastest engineered overhaul to date.

On November 10, 2015, after completion of the overhaul, ALEXANDRIA arrived at her new homeport, Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego, joining Submarine Squadron 11 as part of the Pacific Fleet - a move consistent with the Navy's rebalance of fast-attack assets toward the Indo-Pacific. A change of command followed at Point Loma on April 15, 2016.

ALEXANDRIA began 2017 already forward-deployed in the Western Pacific. On February 19, 2017, she pulled into Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan, for a liberty and logistics visit during an Indo-Asia-Pacific deployment - typical of Seventh Fleet SSN patrols that blend theater ASW, ISR, and strike readiness amidst North Korea's accelerating missile testing and South China Sea friction. After roughly six months at sea, the submarine returned to Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego, on May 18, 2017.

In 2018, ALEXANDRIA remained San Diego-based under Submarine Squadron 11, executing workups, inspections, and local operations to reset the crew for the next employment cycle. On April 5, 2019, ALEXANDRIA held a change of command at Point Loma - Cmdr. Chris Carter relieved Cmdr. Todd Santala - marking the handover that typically follows a deployment/workup cycle. The spring ceremony sits in a year when the boat is frequently visible in community and fleet-engagement events around San Diego as crews pivot toward the next phase of operations. By May 2020, ALEXANDRIA was back in the Seventh Fleet operating areas. She was photographed transiting Apra Harbor, Guam, on May 5, after a port period alongside the submarine tender USS FRANK CABLE (AS 40). Navy images from the same month show tender teams conducting periscope and topside maintenance on the SSN. The Guam upkeep highlights how forward-based tenders sustain deployed submarines without pulling them all the way back to U.S. homeports - a crucial enabler during COVID-era restrictions when pier services and medical protocols were tightly managed.

In July 2021, ALEXANDRIA participated in Summer Fury 21 off Southern California - an exercise led by the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing that tested expeditionary maritime integration, with the SSN contributing to the undersea piece of distributed maritime operations and joint integration. Two months later, on September 14, 2021, she featured in the DESI 2021 closing events at San Diego: Submarine Squadron 11 documented combined tactical development work with the Chilean Navy's SCORPENE-class submarine CS CARRERA (SS 22), including sustained tracking/evasion problems against a simulated high-value objective diesel-electric adversary training for U.S. crews.

ALEXANDRIA again shifted west in early 2022. She arrived Yokosuka, Japan, for a scheduled port visit on April 18, 2022, a classic waypoint for Seventh Fleet SSNs balancing theater engagement and logistics along the First Island Chain. Less than two months later - June 5, 2022 - she returned to San Diego, with official captions noting the completion of a seven-month deployment to the Western Pacific. The timing places her at sea through much of the winter-spring period that saw heightened U.S.-ally coordination in Northeast Asia and ongoing deterrence signaling after Russia's February invasion of Ukraine (which, though centered on Europe, drove global allied posture reviews).

Following that cruise, the boat entered a scheduled maintenance window. She entered the West Coast's only Navy-operated floating dry dock, ARCO (ARMD 5), for a maintenance availability and undocked on April 5, 2023, concluding roughly seven months in dry dock and shifting pierside to complete the availability. The turnaround under CSS-11 sustained ALEXANDRIA's hull, propulsion plant, and combat systems for her next deployment cycle.

ALEXANDRIA then deployed from San Diego in late 2024 to the Indo-Pacific. During the patrol she completed a scheduled port visit to Busan, Republic of Korea, from February 10-15, 2025, reinforcing alliance undersea cooperation on the peninsula amid continued North Korean missile activity and regional great-power competition. She returned to Naval Base Point Loma on May 15, 2025, concluding a seven-month deployment that spanned the Pacific under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command tasking.

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Homeports of USS ALEXANDRIA:

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USS ALEXANDRIA Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the ALEXANDRIA at Submarine Base Groton, Conn., on October 15, 2015. On October 20, USS ALEXANDRIA left Groton and proceeded to her new homeport of San Diego, Calif. After a visit to Mayport, Fla., and a Panama Canal transit, she arrived at San Diego on November 10, 2015.

The photo below was taken by Sebastian Thoma and shows the ALEXANDRIA at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on January 9, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the ALEXANDRIA at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on April 18, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the ALEXANDRIA at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on October 11, 2017.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS ALEXANDRIA at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on May 28, 2023.

The photos below were taken by me and show USS ALEXANDRIA at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., in late July 2024.

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