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N7KTP > NAVNET 16.11.04 15:13l 61 Lines 3472 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 27522_N7FSP
Read: DG8DG GUEST
Subj: USS TROUT (SS-566)
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<DB0SL<DB0FSG<I4UKI<IK5CKL<IW2OAZ<IZ0AWG<KP4IG<HG8LXL<
CX2SA<W4JAX<GB7FCR<N7FSP
Sent: 041113/1252z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
USS Trout was marked with Navy test and evaluation firsts
By FRED MILES WATSON - Managing Editor - Northwest Navigator
USS Trout (SS-566) was the second boat to be named after the
freshwater fish and was a Tang class submarine built at the Electric
Boat Co., of Groton, Conn.
She was commissioned June 27, 1952 at the Naval Submarine Base,
New London, Conn., with Cmdr. George W. Kittredge in command.
Displacing 2,700-tons submerged, Trout had a draft of 20 feet and
could make 17 knots submerged. At 278 feet in length, there were 89
Sailors in Trout. Firepower consisted of eight, 21-inch torpedo tubes
and eight MK49/57 mines.
Trout's early duties had her operating out of New London as a
unit of Submarine Squadron (SubRon) 10 from 1952 to 1959. During this
period, she conducted training and readiness operations with ships of
the fleet and NATO nations, operating from the North Atlantic to the
Caribbean Sea. She engaged in sonar evaluation tests, practice ASW
exercises, and submerged simulated attack exercises. During submerged
exercises in polar waters in company with sister ship Harder (SS-568),
Trout sailed 268 miles beneath Newfoundland ice floes, setting a
distance record for conventionally powered submarines.
In August 1959, Trout shifted her home port to Charleston, S.C.,
where she was assigned to SubRon 4. She was deployed to the 6th Fleet
in September 1959 for her first Mediterranean cruise. Four months
later, while returning home, she represented the United States at
Bergen, Norway, during the 50th anniversary celebrations commemorating
the birth of the Norwegian Navy's submarine arm.
In February 1960, Trout performed as a test bed for the Bureau of
Ships shock tests. She won her first Battle Efficiency "E" award in
1961. In early 1963, the submarine rendered services for the
Operational Test and Evaluation Force before commencing a six-month
overhaul at Charleston in July of that year.
During the remaining years of the 1960s, Trout made three more
Mediterranean deployments as a unit of the 6th Fleet. Between
deployments, she participated in training and developmental exercises
off the East Coast and in the Caribbean. In July 1970, she was assigned
to the Pacific Fleet.
Homeported at San Diego, Calif., Trout conducted two Western
Pacific (WestPac) deployment-in 1972 and 1975-primarily providing
submarine services during ASW exercises conducted by warships of the
United States, South Korean, or Nationalist Chinese navies. Between
these deployments, the submarine participated in antisubmarine warfare
exercises and conducted local operations off the southern California
operating areas, punctuating this service with weapons tests in the
Pacific Northwest, out of Puget Sound.
After returning from her second WestPac deployment to San Diego on
Jan. 29, 1976, Trout operated off the West Coast until receiving orders
on Dec. 1 changing her home port to Philadelphia.
She was decommissioned and struck from the Navy list on Dec. 19,
1978. On the same day, Trout was transferred to Iran and renamed
Kousseh. But she was abandoned by her Iranian crew at New London in
March of 1979 following the Iranian revolution. She was retained at
Philadelphia while finances were resolved, then returned to United
States custody in 1992. She was used as an experimental ship in 1994
and as a target submarine at Key West, Fla.
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