Posted on: Wednesday, August 8, 2001

USS Kamehameha inactivated today

By Jean Chow
Advertiser Staff Writer

After 36 years of service, the submarine USS Kamehameha will be inactivated today by Navy officials at Pearl Harbor.

The oldest active attack submarine in the Navy, the USS Kamehameha was commissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1965 as a ballistic missile sub.

While in commission, the Kamehameha conducted operations out of Pearl Harbor, Guam and Rota, Spain, and has been honored with several awards, including Atlantic Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine Top Performer in 1985 and the Meritorious Unit Commendation for operations on multiple occasions.

The Kamehameha successfully completed 63 deterrent patrols as a strategic sub before its missile systems were inactivated in 1992 and it was converted to a special purpose attack sub.

The following year, the Kamehameha arrived in Pearl Harbor to become part of Submarine Squadron One.

Since then, the sub was deployed to the Western Pacific, working with special forces such as the Navy SEALs. The ship completed its last deployment in June.

The Kamehameha is one of two submarines with a Hawai'i identity — the other, the USS Honolulu, also is home-ported in Pearl Harbor — but the Navy plans to name one of its new attack submarines the USS Hawai'i.

It is slated for commission in 2007.

U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, who spoke at the 1965 launching of the Kamehameha, will speak at the inactivation ceremony today.

A formal decommissioning ceremony is planned for October in Bremerton, Wash.