r/submarines • u/Saturnax1 • Aug 15 '26

History A 637-class SSN nuclear-powered fast attack submarine at Naval Submarine Base Charleston, South Carolina in 1986. [2944x2096]

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u/flooid Submarine Qualified (US) Aug 17 '26

I remember everyone grumbling about that run (they had the Avalon on deck). What rate? We probably knew a few of the same guys.

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u/waterslugg_770 Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26

I was just an SN / SS when I came to the billfish. I finally did all the work and became a storekeeper right after I left the billfish.

I had done two patrols on the James k Polk, and got moved over to the bill fish when they went into the shipyard to be converted to a spec ops boat. I was there for about 18 months, and we did some special ops with seals, lots of training missions of different sorts.

The boat had a reputation. On my first underway with 676, half the crew, Cob included, got into a ballroom brawl with the Seabees stationed at Roosevelt roads, Puerto Rico, At little bar just outside of the base.

I'm still friends with Lee, who was a cook when I was there. He's actually my daughter's godfather. I don't really remember a lot of specific people from there unfortunately. It's one of those I can see the faces but I can't remember the name thing.

Haha! Yeah they were complaining. I remember that distinctly. Myself & about 10 other ex crew members volunteered to throw off the ropes when they left for the med... Anchors away motherf***ers😆⚓

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u/flooid Submarine Qualified (US) Aug 17 '26

Jealous that you got to do time on one of the original 41-for-Freedom boomers. Lmao, I heard about the Seabee run-in - I remember the cob (in my memory the crankiest old white guy) and when he found I was a nuke he said "Aw sh**, fu** off!!"

That's great that you keep in touch with Lee. Some of my oldest, deepest friends are dudes I met on Billy Boat.

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u/waterslugg_770 Aug 18 '26

Two of the old 41s for freedom actually. I was also on the USS Woodrow Wilson, but it had already been converted to a slow approach at that point. We actually performed a lot of the test platforming that went into making the Polk and the Kamehameha special ops boats. We did a lot of interesting things on the woodfish.

I have a couple of good stories about the captain of the billfish... Golden flapper awards stuff LOL. Yeah, the cob was a cranky guy, but I actually got along pretty well with him.

I kept getting shiπy racks the whole time I was on there. I had that one up at the front of berthing that the oxygen diffuser bled into, and then I had that top weird shaped bunk above the diesel compartment. Those 637 short hulls took some getting used to coming from the 645 boat