Post-War Activities
From 27 July to 12 August, the submarine refitted at Guam in preparation for her fourth war patrol, but that patrol never occurred. While she conducted post-refit training, the Japanese capitulation ended hostilities. On 18 August, she got underway from Guam to return to the United States. She transited the Panama Canal on 16 September and reported for duty with the Atlantic Fleet. Six days later, she tied up at the naval base at Staten Island, New York.
The balance of Threadfin’s 28-year career proved to be routine in nature. Initially, she operated out of New London, Connecticut, serving as a training platform for the officers and men learning the ropes at the Submarine School. That duty apparently lasted until December 1962, at which time the submarine was decommissioned to enter the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for an extended conversion overhaul.
Over the next eight months, Threadfin received extensive modifications in an effort to make her more effective in underwater operations—more truly a submarine than simply a submersible. When she emerged from the shipyard the following summer, her hull had been streamlined and her sail modified. In addition, she lost one of her four diesel engines to make room for auxiliary equipment displaced by an expanded sonar facility. Finally, her underwater performance was boosted by the installation of two "greater capacity" batteries—they actually produced the same power as the old style batteries but in a smaller, lighter physical plant—and a snorkel for extended submerged cruising.
At the completion of her Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) conversion, Threadfin was recommissioned at Portsmouth on 7 August 1963 with Lieutenant Commander Daniel G. Bailey in command. In October, she conducted her post-conversion shakedown cruise and, early the following month, reported for duty as a unit of Submarine Squadron 4 at Key West, Florida.
Over the remaining 19 years of her career, Threadfin operated off the East Coast. She participated in several exercises each year and frequently conducted summer training cruises for United States Naval Academy and NROTC midshipmen. Though based in Key West, she made visits to ports on the Gulf of Mexico such as New Orleans, Louisiana, and often ventured north to New London, Connecticut. In October 1962, she participated in President of the United States John F. Kennedy's quarantine of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The following summer, the submarine made what, on the basis of sparse records, appears to be her only post-war overseas deployment with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.
Read more about this topic: USS Threadfin (SS-410)
Famous quotes containing the words post-war and/or activities:
“Much of what Mr. Wallace calls his global thinking is, no matter how you slice it, still “globaloney.” Mr. Wallace’s warp of sense and his woof of nonsense is very tricky cloth out of which to cut the pattern of a post-war world.”
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987)
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)