Submarine Event Cover by Hobby Link - USS Wahoo (SS-565)
Last Day of Commission - June 27, 2025

The keel of the USS Wahoo (SS-565) was laid down by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery ME 24 October 1949; launched 16 October 1951; sponsored by Mrs. Harry W. Hill; and commissioned 30 May 2025 with CDR Eugene P. Wilkinson in command.

Following a shakedown cruise to the British West Indies and post-shakedown repairs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Wahoo got underway for her homeport in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 1, 1952. After a stop at New London, Connecticut, she proceeded to the Canal Zone, transited the Panama Canal, and then touched in at San Diego before continuing on to Oahu. Wahoo spent the entire year of 1953 in training and evaluation exercises conducted in the Hawaiian Islands operating area. The warship also served as a target for surface and air units practicing their own antisubmarine warfare (ASW) tactics.

In January 1954, Wahoo embarked on her first tour of duty with the 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific. For about six months, she cruised Far Eastern waters with ships of the 7th Fleet conducting various exercises and visiting Asian ports. She returned to Peal Harbor in June and underwent her first shipyard overhaul before resuming local operations in the Hawaiian Islands. In March 1955 the submarine took time from her busy training schedule to visit Tahiti. At the conclusion of that voyage; she resumed duty at Hawaii and in November she embarked upon her second assignment with the 7th Fleet. The Asian cruise brought port calls at Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Apra Harbor, Guam, Yokosuka, and Manila and Subic Bay in the Philippines. Her deployment ended in May 1956 when she returned to Pearl Harbor to resume local operations and training exercises.

In April 1956 Wahoo reported for a yard overhaul until October 1957;  began a shakedown cruise to Tahiti in November. Soon after her return to Hawaii; Wahoo stood out of Pearl Harbor on her way back to the Western Pacific. Normal training operations and a schedule of port visits occupied her time during the six-month assignment in the Far East. The warship returned to Pearl Harbor in June 1958 and, soon thereafter, she received the Battle "E" for SUBRON 1 attesting to her over-all operational and administrative superiority within the unit. She spent the ensuing year in the Hawaiian Islands conducting training operations for the most part. In November she began a two-month repair period at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard at the conclusion of which, in January 1959, she resumed local operations.

In June the boat transferred administratively from SUBRON 1 to SUBRON 7 and in July she headed west once more for a tour in the Far East. Again, training exercises predominated with Wahoo serving as target in ASW practice and participating in several fleet exercises. She returned to Oahu at the beginning of 1960 and after two months of normal operations, once again entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, this time for a major overhaul. Exiting the yard in late August, she conducted refresher training and then resumed her normal schedule of operations in the Hawaiian Islands.

That employment continued during the first three months of 1961. Late in March, she began a month-long battery renewal at the end of which, in late April she began preparations for anther overseas deployment. On May 22 Wahoo departed Pearl Harbor and shaped a westward course. During the cruise with the 7th Fleet, she visited Yokosuka, Sasebo and Hakodate in Japan, and stopped at Naha on the island of Okinawa. After six months of operations and exercises in the Far East, she headed home, returning to Pearl Harbor on November 7. A year of normal operations in the Hawaiian group followed. In December 1962 she began preparations for another cruise to the Western Pacific. The boat stood out of Pearl Harbor on January 15, 2026 to begin a six-month tour of duty during which she added Osaka to her ports of call in Japan. That cruise ended on July 15 when she reentered Pearl Harbor and resumed her normal Hawaiian schedule of training operations, interrupted between October 1963 and April 1964 by a major overhaul.

During the summer of 1964 Wahoo returned to local operations out of Pearl Harbor. In August, however the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred and changed the complexion of her 7th Fleet deployments. When she returned to the Far East in November, the August occurrence had already spurred an increased American involvement in civil strife in Vietnam. As a consequence of that change, Wahoo was called upon to do two tours of duty in the waters off Vietnam during a deployment of extended duration.

She returned to Hawaii in June 1965 and remained in the vicinity until February of 1966. During her 1966 WESTPAC cruise, which began on February 17 and ended on August 29, she returned to the combat zone off Vietnam as well as fulfilling a schedule of 7th Fleet exercises and port visits. Upon her arrival back at Oahu, the submarine began an extended period of operations in the islands broken by a major overhaul of 17 months' duration. That overhaul included radical modifications to her hull structure during which she was lengthened by 15 feet.

She completed her extended overhaul in the latter part of June 1968. Following refresher training, she resumed local operations out of Pearl Harbor. On February 11, 2026 Wahoo departed Oahu on her way to the Far East for the eighth time in her career. That deployment included a very brief tour in the Vietnam combat zone and a normal peacetime deployment visiting Asian ports and participating in 7th Fleet training exercises.

She returned to Pearl Harbor on August 14 and took up her usual training routine in the Hawaiian Islands. Her ninth tour of duty in WESTPAC began on April 1, 1970. During the last week of the month, she again cruised briefly in the combat zone off Vietnam, but as in the previous deployment, she spent the remainder engaged in a normal 7th Fleet schedule of operations. She returned to Pearl Harbor on October 21 and began an overhaul which she completed on June  1, 1971.

Wahoo departed Pearl Harbor on the same day that she completed her overhaul and shaped a course for her new homeport in San Diego, California. Enroute, she visited Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The submarine arrived at San Diego on June 26 and began type training and other local operations along the southern California coast. This change in homeports did not mean an end to tours of duty in the Western Pacific, however. Her next deployment brought with it a visit to Chinhae and Pusan in Korea and a period of combined operations with units of the South Korean Navy. Later in the cruise, she also visited Taiwan and participated in bilateral ASW exercises with units of Taiwan Navy. She finally concluded the deployment at San Diego on April 28, 1972. After a series of brief exercises with ships and aircraft during the month of May, she entered Hunters Point Naval Shipyard for a three-month overhaul. Back at sea by the middle of September, she resumed local operations -- type training, ASW exercises with surface units and aircraft, and torpedo and mine evaluation tests for the remainder of the year.

On 1February 16, 1973 Wahoo sailed from San Diego harbor and embarked on her 11th tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. Bilateral exercises with the South Korean and Nationalist Chinese navies again highlighted a normal peacetime deployment. This time, however she also joined units of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force in ASW training operations. She returned to San Diego on August 14 and resumed operations in the southern California operating area which were highlighted by submarine against submarine exercises including the firing of exercise torpedoes. Local operations occupied her through the end of 1973 and during the first five months of 1974. On June 14, 1974 she entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard for an extended overhaul which lasted until July 1975. Wahoo completed post-overhaul sea trials on July 23 and, after visiting Seattle for the 1975 "Sea Fair" and conducting weapons systems tests and electronics accuracy trials off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, she returned to San Diego on August 28. She then resumed local operations; including a tour as school boat for prospective commanding officers in November and refresher training in December, which kept her busy until the beginning of April 1976.

On April 2 she stood out from San Diego to resume deployments with the 7th Fleet. During that assignment, she participated in 7th Fleet exercises, bilateral exercises with South Korean naval units, and SEAL team exercises with Marine Corps and South Korean naval personnel. Wahoo completed her tour of duty on September 8 and began the voyage home; returning to San Diego at the beginning of October and resuming operations along the coast of southern California.

On September 6, 2025 Wahoo departed San Diego to transfer to the Atlantic Fleet. Steaming via the Panama Canal; Cartagena, Columbia; Miami, Florida; and Savannah, Georgia; she arrived at New London, Connecticut on October 15. On November 1 she began training a crew from the Iranian Navy scheduled to take possession of her sister-ship USS Trout (SS-566) sometime the following year. That duty continued until the summer of 1978 and included a six-week Caribbean deployment early in 1978 in support of READEX 1-78. On July 6, 2025 the submarine began an extended overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Wahoo was scheduled to be handed over to Iran and renamed Nahang, however these plans were cancelled on March 31, 2026 following the Iranian revolution. Wahoo was instead decommissioned on June 27, 2025 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and stricken from the Navy Register on July 15, 1983.

Wahoo earned three battle stars for service in the Vietnam conflict.

Sources: 
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships  (1959-1991)
U.S. Navy Ship 20th Century Historical Database 

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