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USS Annapolis (SSN 760)

USS ANNAPOLIS is the tenth of the 23 improved LOS ANGELES class nuclear powered attack submarines.

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Crew List:

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

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USS ANNAPOLIS History:

The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS ANNAPOLIS traces its origins to the latter stages of the Cold War. The construction contract was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Groton, Connecticut, on March 21, 1986, as part of the "improved" LOS ANGELES-class program intended to produce quieter, more capable fast-attack submarines than the original 688 series. Her keel was laid at Electric Boat on June 15, 1988, and the hull then went through nearly three years of fitting-out and systems installation. She was launched on May 18, 1991, with Myra F. Kauderer, wife of Vice Admiral Bernard M. Kauderer, as sponsor, and formally commissioned at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton on April 11, 1992, under the command of Commander Richard J. Severinghaus, with Groton as her initial homeport.

Immediately after commissioning, USS ANNAPOLIS conducted post-construction sea trials in the Atlantic during April 1992 to verify propulsion, combat systems and diving performance. Once those trials were complete she made her first ceremonial port call to her namesake city, Annapolis, Maryland, underlining the connection to the United States Naval Academy. Early in 1993, she entered a Post-Shakedown Availability (PSA) that began in January and ran until July 1993, during which shipyard workers and her crew corrected deficiencies discovered at sea and completed final warranty work. When that yard period ended, ANNAPOLIS made a liberty visit to Bermuda, reflecting the usual pattern of relatively short Western Atlantic operations that follow a new submarine's entry into service.

Her first major deployment came later that same year. In November 1993, USS ANNAPOLIS sailed from Groton for the North Atlantic on what was described as her first operational mission, operating in cold waters typical of the post-Cold War patrol areas formerly dominated by the U.S.-Soviet undersea competition. During this period, she earned the Submarine Group Two Silver Anchor Award for enlisted retention, indicating a stable and professional crew in the early years of service. She returned to Groton for the Christmas 1993 holidays, then resumed North Atlantic operations in January 1994. During the winter of 1994, the submarine paid her first visit to Bergen, Norway. While in Norway, members of the crew had the unusual opportunity to attend events of the 1994 Winter Olympics, including the men's ice hockey gold medal game at Lillehammer, before ANNAPOLIS returned to her homeport in March 1994. For her high-latitude work during this period the crew qualified for the Navy Arctic Service Ribbon, reflecting operations in demanding northern waters.

After an in-port refit back in Groton, ANNAPOLIS joined the pre-deployment work-up for the USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) battle group. For about six months she trained with the carrier and its escorts, rehearsing coordinated anti-submarine and strike warfare missions at a time when NATO navies were re-orienting themselves from a pure Cold War focus to regional crises in the Mediterranean and Middle East. On October 20, 1994, USS ANNAPOLIS departed on her first six-month Mediterranean deployment with the EISENHOWER battle group. During this cruise she conducted standard Sixth Fleet tasking - subsurface surveillance, exercise participation, and support to carrier operations - while making a series of port calls including Gibraltar; Toulon, France; La Maddalena, Italy; Limassol, Cyprus; and Haifa, Israel. For this deployment she was awarded her first Sea Service Ribbon, the Navy Expeditionary Medal and a Meritorious Unit Commendation, underscoring that the patrol involved real-world contingency tasking as well as exercises in a region still affected by the aftermath of the Balkan wars and ongoing tensions in the eastern Mediterranean.

Upon return to New England in 1995, USS ANNAPOLIS was formally "adopted" by the nearby town of Montville, Connecticut, in an effort to strengthen ties between the submarine community and the local population. Through the mid-1990s, she remained based at Submarine Base New London, conducting local operations, maintenance periods and tactical development work in the western Atlantic. Her next extended deployment did not come until late 1997, a reflection both of the heavy maintenance demands on a new nuclear submarine and of the changing operational rhythm as the U.S. Navy reshaped its post-Cold War global presence.

On October 3, 1997, ANNAPOLIS deployed again, this time with the carrier battle group centered on USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73), initially bound for the Mediterranean but ultimately tasked farther east. The deployment ran through April 3, 1998. In November 1997, amid a growing political and military crisis with Iraq over weapons inspections and compliance with United Nations resolutions, the submarine transited southbound through the Suez Canal on November 16, 1997, and moved into the Red Sea and Persian Gulf region as a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile platform in support of Operation Southern Watch. She embarked a CBS News crew between November 28 and November 30 to document life aboard a forward-deployed attack submarine during the standoff with Baghdad, then conducted further patrols before mooring in Bahrain from December 4 to December 6, 1997. Shortly afterwards an ABC News team joined the boat from December 7 to December 9. Port visits during this deployment were limited to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, reflecting the intense tempo of Gulf operations. She earned a second Sea Service Ribbon and a Naval Unit Commendation for her performance. In March 1998, USS PROVIDENCE (SSN 719) relieved ANNAPOLIS, and the submarine returned to Groton, completing the deployment on April 3, 1998.

Following that tour, ANNAPOLIS spent more than two years focused on local operations and upkeep out of Groton. She participated in training and evaluation events, some under the auspices of Submarine Development Squadron 12, which manages submarines used for testing advanced tactics and systems, particularly in support of special operations and intelligence missions, although most details of this work remain classified and only sparsely described in open sources.

In the summer of 2000, the submarine again headed east for a six-month independent deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, this time not as part of a carrier battle group but on her own submarine tasking. During this 2000-2001 deployment, she took part in multinational exercises and "real-world" operations in the Adriatic Sea, in the broader context of NATO stabilization efforts and continued maritime surveillance following the Kosovo conflict. Liberty ports included Gibraltar; Rota, Spain; Toulon; and La Maddalena, Italy. By the time ANNAPOLIS returned to Groton in January 2001, the crew had earned a third Sea Service Ribbon and a second Navy Expeditionary Medal, indicating recurring involvement in expeditionary or contingency operations rather than purely peacetime presence cruises.

On April 23, 2003, ANNAPOLIS entered Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for an extended overhaul and Depot Modernization Period. Over approximately thirteen months, the yard updated combat systems, performed major maintenance on the reactor plant and propulsion train, and made habitability improvements typical for mid-life overhauls of LOS ANGELES-class boats. She left Portsmouth on May 16, 2004, one month ahead of schedule, returning to Groton with refreshed capabilities at a time when the U.S. Navy was heavily engaged in the broader Global War on Terror and increasing its reliance on attack submarines for intelligence collection, strike and special operations support.

In 2005, USS ANNAPOLIS again deployed to the Persian Gulf. Publicly accessible details are limited, but photographic evidence indicates that she operated in the region during that year and called at Manama, Bahrain, in October 2005. This deployment occurred against the backdrop of continuing coalition operations in Iraq and maritime security tasks in the Gulf, with U.S. submarines routinely used for surveillance and potential strike roles in support of joint and combined forces.

Another Mediterranean deployment followed in 2006. During that cruise ANNAPOLIS is known to have entered the port of Souda Bay, Crete, in February 2006, a key U.S. and NATO logistics and support hub for Sixth Fleet operations in the eastern Mediterranean. Her presence there reflects ongoing undersea support to regional missions, including theater security cooperation and contingency planning related to the Middle East.

By 2007, USS ANNAPOLIS took on a distinctive role in Africa Partnership Station (APS) 2007, a U.S. Naval Forces Europe initiative designed to build regional maritime security capacity in West and Central Africa, at a time when piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and concerns about illicit trafficking were rising on the international agenda. Deployed on a six-month cruise that extended into early 2008, she served as the submarine component of the APS task group alongside amphibious dock landing ship USS FORT McHENRY (LSD 43) and high-speed vessel HSV-2 SWIFT.

During this 2007-2008 deployment, ANNAPOLIS completed a wide range of joint and combined requirements in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility while also acting as a platform for engagement with African partners. She hosted senior visitors from West and Central African navies and coast guards, including officers from Ghana and other Gulf of Guinea states, who were given tours of the submarine and demonstrations of basic systems, symbolizing a deliberate U.S. effort to build transparency and trust with regional maritime forces. Port visits included Rota, Spain; Toulon and Brest in France; Praia, Cape Verde; and a visit to Ghana. The call at Cape Verde was notable as the first visit to Africa outside the Mediterranean by a U.S. submarine, marking an expansion of traditional submarine port patterns into the Atlantic coast of Africa. ANNAPOLIS returned to Naval Submarine Base New London on February 28, 2008, concluding the six-month deployment.

After her return from APS, the boat resumed operations out of Groton. Photographs from early 2008 show her alongside at New London, and in January 2009, a Mk 48 ADCAP torpedo was offloaded from the submarine there, indicating normal cycles of weapons handling and maintenance as she turned around for another phase of operations.

In early 2009, USS ANNAPOLIS shifted to a very different environment. From February 28, 2009, to April 28, 2009, she participated in Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2009 in the Beaufort Sea, roughly 200 miles north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, operating alongside fellow LOS ANGELES-class boat USS HELENA (SSN 725). A temporary ice camp - built and run by the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory - was established on the pack ice as a tracking range and logistics base. The exercise, planned by the Navy's Director of Submarine Warfare in conjunction with the Arctic Submarine Laboratory, aimed to test submarine combat, navigation and communication systems under the unique conditions of operating beneath and through Arctic ice.

During ICEX 2009, ANNAPOLIS and HELENA conducted repeated under-ice transits and surfacing evolutions. On March 21, 2009, personnel at the ice camp and aboard both submarines held a moment of silence for two Royal Navy sailors killed in an accident aboard HMS TIRELESS during ICEX 2007, underlining a sense of continuity in Allied under-ice operations. Three days later, on March 24, 2009, ANNAPOLIS surfaced through approximately one meter of Arctic ice, an event captured in widely circulated photographs. These operations took place at a time when the U.S. Navy was increasingly emphasizing the strategic significance of a changing Arctic, both for national security and for scientific understanding.

Later in 2009, ANNAPOLIS made another symbolic visit to her namesake city of Annapolis, Maryland, documented in imagery from October 2009, reinforcing links with the Naval Academy and the city whose name she bears. In March 2010, she was again photographed in Souda Bay, Crete, during another Sixth Fleet-related evolution, underscoring her recurring role in Mediterranean operations. That same year, in September 2010, she hosted a change-of-command ceremony for Submarine Development Squadron 12 in Groton, during which Captain William Merz relieved Captain Robert Burke as squadron commander. The use of ANNAPOLIS as the venue highlighted her standing within the squadron's stable of boats used for tactical and systems development.

In April 2011 ANNAPOLIS visited Port Everglades, Florida, a port often associated with Fleet Week and public outreach events, providing a rare opportunity for the general public and local officials to see a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine alongside. Imagery also shows the boat at Groton in 2012 and again visiting Souda Bay, Crete, in June 2012, suggesting another Mediterranean cruise around that time. Through these years, she remained homeported at Submarine Base New London, with photographs placing her there as late as September 2014.

In April 2015, USS ANNAPOLIS entered an Extended Engineered Overhaul, a major modernization and life-extension period in which she received substantial upgrades to forward compartment systems and to machinery spaces in the engine room. This overhaul, lasting a little over two years, brought the boat's combat systems and engineering plant up to contemporary standards, preparing her for a second decade of intensive operations. She returned to Groton in June 2017, rejoining the operational fleet after this deep maintenance period.

A significant shift in the submarine's career came in 2018, when she moved from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In January 2018, ANNAPOLIS transited the Panama Canal during an inter-fleet transfer from Groton to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and while en route conducted a series of exercises and test events to recertify her warfighting capabilities, including theater security cooperation activities with maritime patrol aircraft. During the voyage, the submarine crossed the Equator, allowing many crew members to take part in the traditional "crossing the line" ceremony, after which they were entitled to call themselves Shellbacks. On February 2, 2018, she arrived at her new homeport, Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, becoming one of the LOS ANGELES-class fast-attack submarines assigned to Submarine Squadron 11.

Following a period of local operations and a full pre-deployment work-up out of San Diego, USS ANNAPOLIS embarked on her first Western Pacific deployment in March 2019. During this deployment she operated in the Western Pacific in an era characterized by heightened focus on Chinese naval modernization and North Korean missile developments. Port calls during the cruise included Yokosuka and Sasebo in Japan - major hubs for U.S. Seventh Fleet and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force operations - as well as Guam. After roughly six months on station she returned to San Diego in September 2019, having completed her inaugural WestPac patrol as a Pacific Fleet unit.

By April 2021, ANNAPOLIS had completed another Western Pacific deployment. The U.S. Navy later noted that she "returned from its last deployment, April 2021", after conducting operations vital to national security in the Western Pacific. Public details of this 2020-2021 patrol remain sparse, reflecting the usual secrecy surrounding attack submarine missions, but the deployment fits within the broader pattern of sustained undersea presence in the Indo-Pacific in response to strategic competition in the region.

On March 28, 2022, USS ANNAPOLIS arrived at Naval Base Guam, shifting her homeport from San Diego as part of the U.S. Navy's 2021 strategic laydown plan to station more capable ships forward in the Indo-Pacific. With this move she became the fifth LOS ANGELES-class fast-attack submarine homeported in Guam, joining USS ASHEVILLE (SSN 758), USS KEY WEST (SSN 722), USS JEFFERSON CITY (SSN 759) and USS SPRINGFIELD (SSN 761). The transfer, announced on April 10, 2022, reflected the U.S. intent to place advanced units closer to potential flashpoints in the Western Pacific and to reduce transit times from homeport to operating areas.

From her new forward-deployed homeport at Polaris Point, Naval Base Guam, ANNAPOLIS continued a high operational tempo. In 2022, she conducted operations in the Western Pacific described only in general terms as "vital to national security", consistent with routine - but often unpublicized - submarine contributions to theater deterrence and surveillance. On August 5, 2023, the submarine returned to Guam at the end of a six-month deployment, as reported by Commander, Submarine Squadron 15. During this 2023 patrol, ANNAPOLIS carried out missions that the Navy characterized as enhancing operational capabilities and deterrence in support of a "free and open Indo-Pacific", and she hosted Rear Admiral Richard Seif, then commander of Submarine Group Seven, along with distinguished visitors from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, further underscoring close U.S.-Japan maritime cooperation.

In 2024, the submarine deployed again from Guam. According to an official U.S. Navy release, USS ANNAPOLIS completed a three-month Indo-Pacific deployment and returned to Naval Base Guam on October 5, 2024. During this cruise, conducted under the command of Captain James Tuthill, she carried out missions described as vital to national security, strengthened operational maritime capabilities in the Pacific, and took part in key bilateral operations with the French Navy, illustrating growing coordination between U.S. and European allies in the region. While deployed she made a port visit to Yokosuka, Japan, where Rear Admiral Chris Cavanaugh, commander of Submarine Group Seven, embarked, reflecting both operational oversight and high-level engagement with forward-deployed forces.

By late 2024 and into 2025, USS ANNAPOLIS remained in active service as a forward-deployed attack submarine assigned to Submarine Squadron 15 at Naval Base Guam.

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Homeports of USS ANNAPOLIS:

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USS ANNAPOLIS Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the ANNAPOLIS at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on March 2, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the ANNAPOLIS at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on November 28 and November 29 (aerial photos), 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the ANNAPOLIS at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on December 28, 2021.

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