USS Pennsylvania (SSBN-735)

The contract to build Pennsylvania was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, on 29 November 1982 and her keel was laid down there on 10 January 1984. She was launched on 23 April 1988, sponsored by Mrs. Marilyn Garrett, and commissioned on 9 September 1989, with Captain Richard M. Camp commanding the Blue Crew and Captain Lee Edwards commanding the Gold Crew.

On 29 September 1989, Pennsylvania ran aground as she entered the channel during her first visit to Port Canaveral, Florida. Tugboats freed her in about two hours. A U.S. Navy investigation determined that Pennsylvania was properly positioned in the channel, but the channel had been silted by the recent passing of Hurricane Hugo. Pennsylvania had been rerouted to Port Canaveral shortly after another submarine had struck a buoy that had repositioned in the entrance channel of Kings Bay but it was thought at the time that the channel to Port Canaveral was not affected. Pennsylvania received no damage. This was a rare occasion of a warship running aground and the Commanding Officer not being disciplined. Shortly thereafter, Pennsylvania departed on her first strategic deterrent patrol which lasted 82 days.[4]

In 2001, Pennsylvania won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the United States Atlantic Fleet.

In 2009, Pennsylvania was featured in an episode of the British television documentary series Big, Bigger, Biggest.[5]

In 2012, Pennsylvania completed a mid-life ​2 ¹⁄₂-year Engineered Refueling Overhaul (ERO) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where her reactor was refueled for an estimated 25 more years of service.

On 28 March 2014 Commander John E. Cage relieved Commander Gustavo Gutierrez as commanding officer. On 17 April 2015 Commander Andrew Clark took command at a ceremony in Bangor, Washington.

On 14 June 2014, the Gold crew under the command of Commander G. Tiger Pittman, completed a record-setting 140-day strategic deterrent patrol. This is the longest strategic deterrent patrol completed since the beginning of the Poseidon C3 missile program in the 1970s.[6]

• In Tom Clancy's 1994 novel Debt of Honor, USS Pennsylvania is one of several submarines sent to deal with a Japanese invasion of the Northern Mariana Islands. She becomes the first U.S. nuclear submarine to sink an enemy warship when she fires a torpedo at a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force hunter-killer (SSK)-type submarine.

• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

USS pennsylvania website USS Pennsylvania website

Photo gallery of USS Pennsylvania (SSBN-735) at NavSource Naval History* Video: The Largest Submarine in the U.S. Navy