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USS Asheville (SSN 758)

Named after the city of Asheville, N.C., USS ASHEVILLE is the 47^th fast attack submarine in the LOS ANGELES - class and the fourth ship in the Navy to bear the name.

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Crew List:

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

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USS ASHEVILLE History:

USS ASHEVILLE was ordered on November 26, 1984, from Newport News Shipbuilding. Her keel was laid on January 9, 1987, she was launched on February 24, 1990, sponsored by Dorothy Helms, and she commissioned at Newport News on September 28, 1991. Entering service as a late-flight, vertical-launch-capable LOS ANGELES-class submarine, she spent her first years in post-shakedown workups and Atlantic-to-Pacific transition evolutions as the Navy refined tactics for improved quieting, littoral navigation, and strike. In the mid-1990s, she also became a testbed for specialized hardware: most notably, a high-frequency Advanced Mine Detection System (AMDS) with arrays in the sail and a prominent chin dome that supported bottom navigation and mine-avoidance in constrained waters. After a successful trial period, the AMDS installation was removed during a later overhaul and the boat reverted to the class's standard bow suite.

Fleet employment broadened sharply in the second half of the 1990s. In December 1996, ASHEVILLE hosted the demonstration of Northrop Grumman's Sea Ferret concept, a small reconnaissance drone intended for submarine control and covert targeting: after a simulated underwater launch, operators aboard the submarine passed command of the UAV back and forth with U.S. Marine and U.S. Army teams while sharing a continuous video and sensor feed - an early glimpse of distributed, cross-domain ISR with a submerged controller. In 1998, she returned from a six-month Western Pacific deployment to Pearl Harbor, then cycled through a maintenance period at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and resumed workups. In mid-1999, she conducted extended EASTPAC operations that mixed carrier-group integration with acoustic trials, including a rare fixed-mooring sound test off Ketchikan, Alaska, followed by port calls at San Diego, Esquimalt and Victoria in British Columbia.

On January 11, 2000, ASHEVILLE deployed from Pearl Harbor with the JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN 74) battle group for a six-month Western Pacific and Fifth Fleet cruise tied broadly to Operation Southern Watch and maritime security in the Arabian Gulf. ASHEVILLE made documentary port calls at Yokosuka from January 27 to February 3, entered Hong Kong on February 8 for a synchronized in-company arrival with the carrier group, shifted to Singapore on February 17, and then crossed into Fifth Fleet with visits to Manama, Bahrain, on March 7 and Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, on March 18, interleaving those logistics periods with classified national-tasking patrols and the first recorded participation by a U.S. submarine in Fifth Fleet's maritime interdiction operations. She turned over duties to JEFFERSON CITY (SSN 759) in early April, diverted to Subic Bay on April 28 for engagement and community events amid domestic instability in the Philippines, then returned to Yokosuka on May 8 for upkeep and weapons handling at Sasebo on June 15 before heading back to Hawaii and concluding the deployment in time for Independence Day on July 2.

Through the early 2000s, the submarine alternated maintenance with Pacific commitments as San Diego became her operating hub. She returned to Naval Base Point Loma on April 1, 2005, after a six-month Western Pacific deployment that combined "national security missions" with multinational training and port visits to Guam, Singapore, Japan, Saipan, and Hawaii, reflecting the theater's growing focus on coalition ASW and presence as China's navy expanded and North Korea accelerated missile testing. On August 1, 2006, she sailed again for a six-month WESTPAC that included stops at Yokosuka and Hong Kong as well as Guam and Saipan. She returned to San Diego on February 3, 2007, then entered the floating dry dock ARCO (ARMD 5) at Point Loma on April 27 for a scheduled upkeep, exiting on August 16 to resume preparations for subsequent operations. In 2010, she deployed from February 3 to August 3 across Seventh Fleet waters with multiple calls at Guam and Sasebo, then, after a brief ARCO maintenance window, shifted south for a distinct mission under U.S. Fourth Fleet: on December 16, 2011, she arrived home in San Diego after a four-month counter-narcotics deployment of more than 20,000 nautical miles that underscored how attack submarines were occasionally tasked for interdiction support against transnational criminal networks in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

ASHEVILLE's operational cadence remained brisk in the 2010s. She departed San Diego on March 26, 2013, for a six-month Western Pacific cruise and arrived at Yokosuka on April 16 for a scheduled visit. Her time in Japan included STEM outreach events and routine upkeep in support of patrols along the First Island Chain. The crew's performance across the 2013-2014 cycle drew formal recognition with a Meritorious Unit Commendation announced on November 6, 2014, citing port engagements in Japan, the Philippines, and Guam as complements to operational tasking.

A major shift came in 2017 as the Navy continued to thicken its forward presence. After completing an engineered overhaul at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in November, ASHEVILLE executed a homeport change to Apra Harbor, Guam, arriving on December 14 to join Submarine Squadron 15 as one of the Indo-Pacific's forward-deployed attack submarines alongside the tenders FRANK CABLE (AS 40) and EMORY S. LAND (AS 39). A change-of-command at Naval Base Guam followed on January 22, 2018, marking the start of a new Guam-based employment cycle built around shorter transits to high-demand operating areas in the Philippine Sea and East China Sea.

Forward operations from Guam quickly folded in allied and partner work. On December 11, 2020, ASHEVILLE conducted at-sea exercises off Guam with the French Navy's RUBIS-class SSN EMERAUDE, practicing tracking, evasion and communications procedures that matched the growing emphasis on allied undersea interoperability in the Western Pacific. In March 2023, she made a documented port call at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, hosting Australia's deputy prime minister for an onboard visit amid expanding U.S.-Australian submarine cooperation. The visit framed a patrol period that tracked with broader allied posture adjustments following the advent of AUKUS and intensified multilateral ASW training along the approaches to the Indian Ocean and the southern arc of the First Island Chain.

Sustainment remained a constant thread. To preserve material readiness for late-life tasking, ASHEVILLE periodically returned to San Diego to use the Navy's West Coast floating dry dock. She undocked from ARCO after a scheduled availability in earlier cycles and, most recently, entered ARCO at Naval Base Point Loma on October 24, 2024, for routine docking work before resuming Guam-based operations - an illustration of how forward-deployed SSNs pair overseas laydown with stateside dock capacity to keep hull, plant and combat systems on schedule. By early 2025, the Pacific Southwest chapter of the Naval Submarine League noted her presence in San Diego for floating-dry-dock work while administratively assigned to Submarine Squadron 15.

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USS ASHEVILLE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the ASHEVILLE at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on March 10, 2008.

The photo below was taken by me and shows the ASHEVILLE at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on March 14, 2012. On March 16, the ASHEVILLE held a change of command during which Cmdr. Douglas Bradley relieved Cmdr. Gerald Miranda as commanding officer.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ASHEVILLE at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on May 8 and 10, 2012.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ASHEVILLE at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on October 4 (the first photo) and October 11, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS ASHEVILLE at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on October 15, 2024.

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