USS Barb (SSN-596)
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| period of service |
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Keel laying: | November 9, 1959 |
| Launch: | February 22, 1962 |
| Commissioning: | August 24, 1963 |
| Decommissioning: | December 20, 1989 |
| Status: | Canceled |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | 4,400 tons submerged |
| Length: | 84.7 meters |
| Width: | 9.8 meters |
| Draft: | 8.8 meters |
| Drive: | A S5W pressurized water reactor |
| Crew: | 12 officers, 115 sailors |
| Motto: | Caveat tyranny |
The USS Barb (SSN-596) was a nuclear-powered submarine of the United States Navy and was part of the Permit-class submarine to.
history
The Barb was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding in 1959 and launched in 1962. The boat was christened by the wife of Rear Admiral Eugene Bennett Fluckey , who commanded the USS Barb (SS-220) during World War II. The ship is named after the barbel . The commissioning took place in August 1963.
The Barb spent most of the early years testing weapons and developing new tactics for nuclear submarines. In 1968, the Barb was on duty outside Vladivostok when, on April 11, she overheard dozens of Soviet navy warships , all pinging with active sonar . The ships were looking for the sunken Gulf class K-129 submarine .
On July 8, 1972, the Barb was in Apra Harbor on Guam , where minor repairs were carried out in advance of a patrol around the Mariana Islands . Since a typhoon was approaching Guam, the boat should be completed quickly and left the port before the storm hit. At 4 a.m., a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress took off from Andersen Air Force Base and was supposed to fly over the storm. At 5:25 a.m., however, the plane crashed over the ocean, the six-man crew survived the crash, but were in the water. A Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter spotted the survivors and notified Guam where the Barb and USS Gurnard (SSN-662) were leaving.
At 1:15 the next morning, the Barb saw the crew's lights but was unable to carry out a rescue due to the weather conditions. At 7:40 a.m., the first three survivors were finally rescued; a crew member had to swim to the liferaft with a line. At 10 o'clock the Barb found the fourth survivor and took him in. A fifth man was rescued by the Gurnard , the last crew member died that night.
Upon their return, both boats received the Meritorious Unit Commendation and ten crew members received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for Heroism .
From mid-1980 to late 1982, the boat was overhauled in the Mare Island Naval Shipyard . There improvements from the SUBSAFE program were made. Errors were found in a total of four test drives, each of which had to be improved. In 1989 the boat was decommissioned and abandoned in the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program in the Puget Sound Navy Yard . The demolition was completed in 1996.
