Read USS Los Angeles (SSN-688) Decommissioned. Zak wrote his article about the recent decommissioning of the LA. Zak served as a navigator aboard the LA for about five years. Home ported in Pearl Harbor, Zak spent quite a bit of time under the Pacific and other seas in those parts of the world.
Zak correctly and accurately describes the spirit of camaraderie that bonds underwater sailors regardless of political allegiance. I, like Zak, also remember the sinking of the Kursk and her crew. The horror. The families left behind. The memories of the sailors.
Having also served aboard several submarines, one can't begin to explain the intimate relationship that develops between a sailor and his underwater boat. She provides safety, warmth, and companionship. She is home away from home, a place to be with friends, a transport to other worlds, and a character builder.
When my old boats were decommissioned, I felt an emptiness. It felt less empty as the years passed, but the feeling has never fully gone away knowing that an extremely important part of my life is gone.
We received this nice letter from the Commanding Officer of Los Angeles in behalf of Zak and his qualification as a submariner.
(Click on photos to make them larger.)
While in the Pacific on one of his first Pacific runs, we received this picture of the LA. The boat and crew were participating in CARAT 2001 - Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training exercises - with the USS Chicago and with the Singaporean Navy in the Western Pacific.
This is a cruise patch from 2003.
This is a picture from the USS Los Angeles decommissioning ceremony in Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, Jan 23, 2010. She looks good, doesn't she?
Below is a picture of the USS George Bancroft (SSBN 643). She was one of 41 "boomer" boats built during the Cold War. We carried 16 huge missiles aboard - always ready, targeted, and massively destructive. Our duties were ominous every time we went to sea. This was home for usually 70 days at a time - underwater never surfaced. We rotated to sea duty every six months - Gold and Blue crews rotating off and on. I was on both crews at one time or the other. The Los Angeles was a "fast attack" boat. The Bancroft, a "boomer". Two different naval styles and two different types of missions. Zak was a "fast attack" sailor. I was a "boomer" sailor.
Bancroft was decommissioned in 1993 and then sent to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington. The USS Los Angeles will also end up at the PSNS for scrapping. In the picture below, the reactor compartment is being removed from Bancroft. I will admit, I left some initial scribblings (FZ) behind several bulkheads and under the superstructure in a few places. I guess they are there in this picture somewhere.
After removing the reactor and missile compartment, the boats are lined up for scrapping. In the picture below, Bancroft is the middle boat in dry dock.
Once the reactor is removed, it is transported to eastern Washington for burial. The picture below is Trench 94 at the Hanford Site in 1994 where Bancroft's reactor now rests. (The picture below it is from Google Earth and was taken in 2006. You can see how the location has filled up with more reactors.) Hull sections
containing defueled reactor compartments of decommissioned
nuclear-powered submarines are put in disposal trenches. Once full, the
trench will be filled with dirt and buried. The compartments are
expected to retain their integrity for more than 600 years. Interestingly, in my current government role I am responsible for various types of communications security methods employed to keep Hanford and sites like it safe and secure from prying and snoopy visitors. I have driven by the Hanford facility a number of times - always thinking of the reactors buried there off of Bancroft and other boats that propelled me and many other sailors through the depths of the oceans. Soon, the Los Angeles reactor will be buried at Hanford.
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What is cool is that the sail of the Bancroft was NOT scrapped. Rather, it was taken and now resides at this monument that welcomes guests to the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia. The sail is actually from the Bancroft. The rest of the ship depicted in the grass, of course, is sculpted. Many times we surfaced from the depths looking just like this - with an up bubble. I feel good knowing that the sail from the Bancroft is still intact.
Thanks, Zak, for some current memories that took me back to some former memories.
Well done, sir.
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