page_title: USS Grayling (SS-209)
section_title: Start of War, and Raising of Nimitz's Flag
hierarchical_section_title: USS Grayling (SS-209) / Start of War, and Raising of Nimitz's Flag
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Grayling (SS-209) Memorial plaque
context_page_description: USS Grayling (SS-209), a Tambor-class submarine, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grayling.
  Her keel was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine on 15 December 1939. She was launched on 4 September 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Marion Barnes Bryant Leary wife of Rear Admiral Herbert F. Leary, and commissioned on 1 March 1941 with Lieutenant Commander Eliot Olsen in command.
context_section_description: Grayling sailed for Pearl Harbor on 17 December, arrived 24 December, and had the honor of being chosen for the Pacific Fleet change of command ceremony on 31 December 1941. The ceremony would normally have taken place on a battleship, but all the fleets battleships had been either sunk or damaged during the attack 3 weeks earlier. On that day, Admiral Chester Nimitz hoisted his flag aboard Grayling as Commander, Pacific Fleet and began the United States Navy's long fighting road back in the Pacific.
caption: USS Grayling (SS-209) Memorial plaque
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