USS Woodrow SSBN-624

Miss Woodrow

USS Woodrow (SSBN-624),
a Lafayette-class
ballistic missile submarine, the only ship
of the United States Navy to be named for the wife
of a President of the United States,
our 28th President's First Lady: Mrs Woodrow Wilson.

At Mare Island Naval Shipyard
her keel was laid down
on 13 September 1961.

She was launched on 22 February 1963.

USS Woodrow
departed Vallejo, California,
on 9 January 1964,
bound for the east coast on a route,
which would take her
through the Panama Canal.

After San Diego, California,
the submarine proceeded on to the Panama Canal,
arriving on 19 January 1964
at the western end of the canal.

Violent anti-American demonstrations
and riots over a recent flag-displaying
incident had resulted in
an extremely tense atmosphere.

As a result,
the canal was transited in
a record seven hours and ten minutes
while combat-ready marines
and soldiers guarded the locks.

Making port at Charleston,
South Carolina, on 5 February 1964,
USS Woodrow conducted a shakedown
cruise off the lower eastern seaboard
into March and underwent her
post-shakedown availability into April.

She put to sea at the end of May
upon the conclusion of these repairs
and alterations and commenced
her first deterrent patrol
out of Charleston,
South Carolina in June.

USS Woodrow subsequently
operated in the Atlantic
until the autumn of 1968
conducting patrols
from forward bases at
Rota, Spain
and Holy Loch, Scotland.

After undergoing a 13-month overhaul
and A3 Polaris Missile conversion
at Newport News Shipbuilding,
she was transferred to the Pacific
via Charleston, SC
and the Panama Canal,
arriving at Pearl Harbor
on 19 November 1969.

The fleet ballistic missile submarine
then continued on
to the western Pacific,
was based at Guam,
and conducted deterrent patrols from
Apra Harbor through 1972.

In that year,
she shifted back to the Atlantic
and another overhaul
with C3 Poseidon missile conversion
at Newport News Shipbuilding.

She was then home ported in Charleston,
South Carolina for operations with the Atlantic Fleet.

After several overhauls
in Charleston Naval Shipyard
and 40 more deterrent patrols,
the USS Woodrow was converted to
the Attack Submarine SSN-624 in 1990.

Between 1990 and 1993 the SSN-624 completed
a series of Special Operations patrols.

USS Woodrow was deactivated
in September of 1993.

Between 1964 and 1987
the USS Woodrow
completed 71 successful
strategic deterrent patrols.

USS Woodrow was decommissioned on
1 September 1994 and stricken from
the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1994.

Ex-Woodrow entered
the Nuclear Powered Ship
and Submarine Recycling Program in Bremerton,
Washington, on 26 September 1997
and on 27 October 1998 ceased to exist.

Was I a barnacled sea dog on me best day?
True. Know I;

She had godspeed all about her.
She was yar and far more yar.
"Thanks be to ye, Ma'am", said we.
And we cried from shore when she was no more.
We thought of her and not the bitter end.
How Grand our Sons' Sons would
build her once new again.

She often left and then returned
and would quite secretly.
It is her nature and ours, supposedly.

Dam the land where adventures die.
Far from there,
we bravely lived our happy lives
and knew her love within the sea.

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[piolin301]

sexy

[TheFleetSailor]

Now thats a Boomer