USS Salmon ( SSR - 573 ) USS " Salmon " ( SSR / SS / AGSS - 573 ) , a , was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the salmon , a soft - finned , gamy fish which inhabits the coasts of America and Europe in northern latitudes and ascends rivers for the purpose of spawning . " Salmon " was laid down on 10 March 1954 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery , Maine . She was launched on 25 February 1956 sponsored by Mrs . Albert M . Bontier , widow of Commander A . M . Bontier who was lost when the submarine USS Seawolf ( SS - 197 ) was sunk during a war patrol in the South Pacific early in October 1944 , and commissioned on 26 August 1956 with Lieutenant Commander Robert R . Hale in command . Service history . 1956 – 1959 . " Salmon " was the second of a class of two radar picket submarines , which were the largest conventionally - powered submarines in the United States Navy since the " Argonaut " of 1928 . She was equipped with BPS - 2 and BPS - 3 radar s in and aft of the sail . Designed to scout in advance of carrier groups using long - range radar , the " Sailfish " - class were designed for a high surface speed . However , their speed achieved was only a few knots more than converted World War II radar picket submarines . " Salmon " conducted her shakedown cruise between 19 February and 10 May 1957 , ranging from Newport , Rhode Island , to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . She departed Portsmouth for the West Coast in late May , transited the Panama Canal on 3 July ; visited Callao , Peru ; and proceeded to San Diego , California , arriving on 25 July . " Salmon " conducted local operations in southern California waters , as a unit of Submarine Division 33 ( SubDiv 33 ) , until she began her first western Pacific deployment on 23 September . She sailed via Pearl Harbor and Midway Island to join the Seventh Fleet off southern Japan on 19 October . For the remainder of the year she participated in fleet training exercises and special operations , with port calls at Yokosuka , Japan ; Hong Kong ; Manila and Subic Bay , Philippines ; and Kaohsiung , Taiwan . " Salmon " departed Yokosuka on 31 March 1958 and returned to San Diego , California , on 19 April . Resuming local operations , " Salmon " remained in the San Diego area for the rest of the year . From 6 January 1959 until 30 May , she underwent overhaul and limited conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard . Giving up a large radome from her superstructure , she gained instrumented Regulus missile guidance capability and improved , longer range sonar . " Salmon " then prepared for her second WestPac deployment . " Salmon " departed San Diego , California , on 17 July and sailed to Pearl Harbor where her crew received Regulus missile guidance training , then proceeded to Japan and joined Seventh Fleet on 21 August . She operated with the fleet in Allied training exercises , provided services for other Seventh Fleet surface and subsurface units for training purposes , and made visits to various ports , before returning to San Diego on 14 February 1960 . 1960 – 1970 . Through 1960 and 1961 , " Salmon " operated from San Diego , California , with occasional visits to San Francisco , California , Astoria , Oregon , Tacoma , Washington , Port Angeles , Washington , and Esquimalt , British Columbia . On 1 March 1961 , she was reclassified an attack submarine and given hull classification symbol SS - 573 , and , on 1 November , she was reassigned to SubDiv 52 . The submarine radar picket mission ended fleetwide at this time as airborne radar superseded it with the full deployment of the Grumman WF - 2 Tracer . On 1 June 1962 , " Salmon " departed San Diego for her third WestPac deployment . She visited Papeete , Tahiti , from 13 to 16 June , then proceeded to Yokosuka for duty with Seventh Fleet . She subsequently operated with antisubmarine warfare ( ASW ) hunter - killer groups in fleet exercises and often engaged in free - play battle problems with individual surface units . During this deployment , she visited Hakodate and Sasebo , Japan ; Naha , Okinawa and Hong Kong . " Salmon " returned to San Diego , California , on 20 December and became flagship of Submarine Flotilla 1 ; and , in addition to that distinction , was awarded the Golden " E " for excellence in battle efficiency for the past five consecutive years , which rated her as the leading submarine of her division . " Salmon " was the first submarine to earn a Golden " E " and was to better that record by winning hashmarks signifying retention of that status during 1963 and 1964 . On 3 June of the latter year , she put into the San Francisco Naval Shipyard to undergo FRAM II conversion . Departing the yard on 19 April 1965 , as a modernized " GUPPY III " , she moved to the Puget Sound , Washington , area for evaluation and sound tests . She then returned to San Diego , to resume local operations , on 4 May . " Salmon " commenced her fourth WestPac deployment on 23 August . She joined Submarine Flotilla ( SubFlot ) 7 of the Seventh Fleet on 14 September and conducted operations in Japanese and southwest Pacific waters until returning to San Diego on 20 April 1966 . " Salmon " s fifth deployment to the western Pacific was from 20 March to 4 October 1967 . During this tour , she provided services to Seventh Fleet units operating off Vietnam in support of Vietnam War operations . In September , she rendezvoused with ballistic missile submarines and somewhere in the Pacific to act as a simulated target submarine for training in antisubmarine tactics . Through the spring of 1968 , " Salmon " underwent overhaul at San Francisco , California , in preparation for support of the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle ( DSRV ) program , to evaluate submarine rescue and salvage equipment at extreme depths . On 1 June , she was redesignated an auxiliary research submarine and given hull classification symbol AGSS - 573 for her role as mother sub and underway submerged launching and recovery platform for the experimental mini - subs . However , delays in the program resulted in her return to San Diego for local operations , following preliminary trials at Puget Sound . She subsequently sailed on 25 October for her sixth WestPac deployment . In November , " Salmon " visited Yokosuka and Hong Kong . From 4 to 19 December , she conducted special operations off the coast of Vietnam , and , from 26 December 1968 to 10 January 1969 , she participated in SEATO exercises out of Sangley Point in the Philippines . She then returned to Yokosuka and then proceeded to Sasebo for special operations before returning to the United States on 5 April . " Salmon " arrived at San Diego , California , on 25 April and conducted local operations for the remainder of the year . She resumed her former hull classification symbol as SS - 573 on 30 June . 1970 – 1977 . On 3 January 1970 , she departed San Diego for her seventh WestPac tour . In February , she conducted type training in the Philippines with submarine and her sister sub , . From there , she visited Buckner Bay , Okinawa ; Bangkok , Thailand ; Sasebo , Yokosuka , and Kobe , Japan ; and Hong Kong . She returned to San Diego on 27 June and resumed local operations . She remained so employed for the rest of 1970 and throughout 1971 . " Salmon " departed San Diego on 17 February 1972 on her eighth deployment to the western Pacific . In April , she rescued survivors from the Japanese coastal freighter " Koei Maru Number 2 " which sank about south of the entrance to Tokyo Bay . In July , she joined units of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force in an antisubmarine warfare exercise . " Salmon " departed Pago Pago on 13 August and re - entered San Diego on 26 August . She remained on the west coast for the remainder of 1972 and for the first five and one - half months of 1973 . On 16 June , she headed west for what was to have been her ninth deployment to the Far East . Upon her arrival in Pearl Harbor , the deployment was canceled due to damage to her number three and number four main engines . On 10 August she sailed back to San Diego to prepare for overhaul . " Salmon " entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 17 November and commenced overhaul nine days later . Decommissioning and fate . " Salmon " was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 October 1977 . In 1992 " Salmon " was converted to a shallow water sonar target and sunk near Hudson Canyon , south of Long Island , as a bottom target on 5 June 1993 .