May 5th, 1973.
It’s been 43 years since the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) was commissioned at Ingalls Shipbuilding Division, Pascagoula, Mississippi. Two years of construction, beginning on August 4, 1969, followed by the launching on December 11, 1971 and subsequent fitting out saw the completion of what would become one of the most sophisticated intelligence gathering tools to serve the U.S. Navy at the time.
In the nearly thirty years that followed, she would see service in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and serve with distinction in such exotic places as the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and of course, the Sea of None of Your Business!
The USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) stepped up as a special test platform for a variety of new and innovative submarine projects and was often known as the ‘go-to’ boat when time or the sensitivity of a special mission required nothing less than success. Successful completion of these emergent tasks tested the officers and crew, teaching them to deliver on demand. Keeping the boat on mission became a way of life for those of us who served aboard.
Finally decommissioned on February 11, 2000, her legacy lives on in the men that served aboard. Clearly the lessons learned in 300 feet of black steel carried on to produce a number of Commanding Officers, Executive Officers and Engineers, as well as at least one Rear Admiral, Sub Group Commander, and Deputy Commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy. For those that left the service, they proved themselves in civilian life time and time again, as entrepreneurs, corporate presidents and vice-presidents, technicians and operators, and perhaps most importantly, husbands and fathers.
The USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) was a harsh school-mistress, but we have never forgotten the lessons learned at her knee. She was more than a boat, more than a machine. She was our home, and she forged each of us into who we are.
We remember.
Happy 43rd, USS William H. Bates!
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