Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in
Newport News, Virginia, was awarded the contract to build USS
San Francisco on 1 August 1975, and her keel was laid down on 26 May 1977. She was
launched on 27 October 1979, sponsored by Mrs. Robert Y. Kaufman, and
commissioned on 24 April 1981 with Commander J. Allen Marshall in command.
San Francisco joined Submarine Force US Pacific Fleet following an initial shakedown cruise and moved to her homeport at
Pearl Harbor. She completed deployments in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 with the
U.S. Seventh Fleet and various independent operations in the
Pacific in 1986, earning the
Battle Efficiency "E" for Submarine Squadron Seven in 1985. She earned a
Navy Unit Commendation and a second Battle Efficiency "E" for Submarine Squadron Seven, and her crew was awarded the
Navy Expeditionary Medal for independent operations in 1988.
San Francisco entered a Depot Modernization Period at Pearl Harbor from 1989 to 1990 and then went on to conduct deployments to the Western Pacific in 1992 and 1994. The submarine was awarded the 1994 Commander Submarine Squadron Seven "T" for excellence in tactical operations and a
Meritorious Unit Commendation for the 1994 Western Pacific deployment. On 18 December 2002,
San Francisco arrived at her new homeport at
Apra Harbor, Guam. The submarine was homeported at Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego, California, in 2009.
Grounding with seamount On 8 January 2005 at 02:43 GMT,
San Francisco suffered a collision with an
undersea mountain about southeast of
Guam while operating at flank (maximum) speed at a depth of . Official US Navy reporting subsequent to the
grounding cited the location as "in the vicinity of the
Caroline Islands". The position of the impact was estimated by a newspaper account as , between
Pikelot and
Lamotrek Atolls. The collision was so serious that the vessel was almost lost; accounts detail a desperate struggle for positive buoyancy to surface after the forward ballast tanks were ruptured. Ninety-eight crewmen were injured, and Machinist's Mate Second Class Joseph Allen Ashley, 24, of
Akron, Ohio, died from head injuries on 9 January. Other injuries to the crew included broken bones, spinal injury, and lacerations.
San Franciscos forward ballast tanks and her sonar dome were severely damaged, but her pressure hull was not breached and no damage to her
nuclear reactor occurred. She surfaced and arrived in Guam on 10 January, accompanied by , , and , as well as
MH-60S Knighthawks and
P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft. The Navy said it had "absolutely no reason to believe that it struck another submarine or vessel." Later, an examination in drydock showed unmistakably that she had struck an undersea mountain. Moreover, a subsequent report "found that the (submarine's parent) squadron and the group could have done more to prepare the ship for sea." Specifically, it determined that the submarine's squadron "did not take adequate action to correct previously identified deficiencies in open ocean navigation onboard SFO," and did not provide adequate oversight of
San Franciscos navigation performance. Additionally, "The report also notes the document known as a 'Subnote' from the Group, which laid out a path and average speed, was delivered to the ship two-and-a-half days before
San Francisco sailed, and the Group's own requirements are that it be to the ship three to five days before sailing." Ultimate responsibility for navigational safety rests with the ship's captain and crew, not the Subnote; however, "The report found that the Subnote did route the
San Francisco through the area where it hit the seamount." In June 2006, the Navy announced that
San Franciscos bow section would be replaced at the PSNS with the bow of , which was soon to be retired.
San Francisco is four years older than
Honolulu, but she had been refueled and upgraded in 2000–2002. The cost of her bow replacement has been estimated at $79 million, as compared with the estimated $170 million to refuel and overhaul the
nuclear reactor of
Honolulu. On 10 October 2008,
San Francisco undocked after a successful bow replacement at the PSNS. The dry-docking project involved cutting the forward ballast tanks and sonar sphere, weighing over 1,000,000 pounds, off the former USS
Honolulu and attaching them to
San Francisco.
San Francisco completed repairs and sea trials in April 2009, then shifted homeport to
Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego, California.
Final deployment and conversion San Francisco returned to Point Loma from her sixth deployment in October 2016. Her change of command and farewell ceremony was held on 4 November 2016, after which she was homeported to Norfolk for conversion to a
moored training ship (MTS) at the Navy's
Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston, South Carolina. On 11 May 2017, the ship was placed in "'In Commission Special' – stand down for MTS conversion", a 32-month long process that was expected to begin in early 2018. The conversion was completed in mid-2021 and on 16 August she was moved from Norfolk to Charleston. She was decommissioned on 15 May 2022. ==See also==