VETERAN'S DAY AND MEMORIAL DAY ARE EVERYDAY.
A VETERAN LIVES AS LONG AS HE OR SHE IS REMEMBERED.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." ---C. S. Lewis
"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." ---C. S. Lewis
USS Bonefish (SS-582) was the second submarine to bear the name Bonefish. She was named to honor the USS Bonefish (SS-223) which was lost while on patrol in June 1945.
Bonefish is the third ship of the Barbel class of conventionally powered attack submarines; the last ones built by the United States.
Bonefish was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, NJ. Her keel was laid June 3, 1957 and was commissioned July 9, 1959.
Bonefish was originally designed and configured to be a missile guidance control unit as a part of the Regulus program. Following the phase out of the Regulus program the Bonefish was converted to an attack submarine whose primary job is anti-submarine warfare.
Keel Laid: 06/03/1957
Launched; 11/22/1958
Commissioned: 07/09/1959
Decommissioned: 09/28/1988
Struck from the Naval Register: 02/28/1989
Final Disposition: 08/17/1989 - sold for scrapping
Periscope depth:
#1 scope - 59'9"
#2 scope - 63'9"
Normal complement: 8 officers, 80 enlisted men
Armament:
6 - torpedo tubes
equipped to fire Mk 14, Mk 16, Mk 37, Mk 48, Mk 45 and various mines
Propulsion:
2 - Westinghouse Main Motors on a single shaft
1 - 5 blade propeller
3 - Fairbanks Morse 38ND 8 1/8 engines coupled to
3 - General Electric Main Generators (each supplying940 KW)
Power generating:
2 - main storage batteries (each battery had 252 cells) supplying a nominal 500 VDC
3 - General Electric Main Generators supplying 940KW each.
3 - 75 KVA MG sets supplying 120V 60hz power
2 - 25 KVA MG sets supplying 120V 400hz power
Commanding Officers:
LCDR E. H. Kiehl July 1959 - June 1960
LCDR J. W. James June 1960 - June 1962
LCDR P. C. Keenan June 1962 - January 1964
LCDP J. P. Leahy January 1964 - July 1966
CDR R.R. Gavazzi July 1966 - July 1968
CDR J. W. Blanchard July 1968 - August 1970
CDR D. F. Greenhoe August 1970 - September 1972
CDR R. G. Riley September 1972 - September 1974
LCDR L. L. Lubbs September 1974 - June 1976
LCDR J. R. McCleary June 1976 - April 1978
CDR R. A. Killion April 1978 - May 1980
CDR M. C. Current May 1980 - May 1982
CDR M. G. Ralston May 1982 - April 1984
CDR J. F. Struble April 1984 - July 1986
LCDR J. Toney July 1986 - March 1988
LCDR M. Wilson March 1988 - April 1988
Best Friends Calvin Clark, John Check, Walt Rawlings
Best Moment Any West Pac
Worst Moment Getting shafted in Kauai.
Other Memories LUZON STRAIT 1974 West Pac, transiting from Pearl to Subic. Came out of the Philippine Sea into the Luzon straits and were met by a Typhoon heading north out of the South China Sea. We rode it out on the surface for 3 days. Ahead 1/3, just maintaining position, snorkeling on the surface, one engine, snorkel mast raised and we ?flamed out?, shut the engine down on high vacuum shutdown.. Depth gauge going from 19 to 90 feet, on the surface. The biggest roll I remember was 38 degrees. Needless to say there were no bridge watch standers. The OOD conned from #1 periscope. When we got into Subic all our running lights were gone, the gyro repeater on the bridge was missing, all deck hatches were gone. We had one mooring line left and that was trailing off into the ocean, the only reason we kept that was that it had tied a knot around a stanchion in the superstructure. Took a full 30 day upkeep to get us patched up. On 24 May 1974, she stood out of Pear1 Harbor for yet another assignment with the 7th Fleet in Far Eastern waters. Bonefish returned to Pearl Harbor from that routine deployment on 7 November and began 13 months of local operations. On 6 December 1975, the submarine departed Oahu bound for the Orient. During that tour of duty, she participated in exercises with units of the Korean and Taiwanese navies as well as with elements of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. She concluded 7th Fleet assignments on 25 April 1976 when she stood out of Subic Bay on her way home. The warship arrived back in Pearl Harbor on 15 May. After a four-week standdown I was transfered in June 1976