Pogy II SSN-647

Pogy II

(SSN-647: dp.3,600 (surf.), 4,640 (subm.); 1. 292'2"; b. 31'7";
dr. 28'8"; cpl. 107; s. 20+ k.; a. 4 21" tt., SUBROC;
cl. Sturgeon)

The second Pogy was laid down 5 May 1964 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J.; launched 3 June 1967 and sponsored by Mrs. George Wales. The contract for the eonstruetion of Pogy waB eaneelled 5 June 1967 and the submarine was towed to Philadelphia for temporary berthing. The contract for the eonstruetion of Pogy was reassigned to Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Paseagoula, Miss. 7 December 1967 and the uncompleted submarine was towed to that yard on 8 January 1968 for completion.

Pogy put to sea on 22 April 1975 for local operations. On 27 April 1975, about 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) off the coast of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, her lookout sighted a capsized 15-foot (4.6 meters) sailboat drifting out to sea, and the crew quickly rescued the boat's owner. He had been in the water for about an hour, and his only injuries were scrapes and bruises incurred while being hoisted up the rough side of the submarine. The same day, Pogy conducted SINKEX 1-75, a test of a warshot Mark 48 torpedo against a target submarine. She intercepted the decommissioned hulk of submarine USS Carbonero (SS-337)[1] drifting on the surface and carrying a noisemaker for the torpedo to home on acoustically. Pogy verified positions using her periscope, then dived to about 200 feet (61 meters) to shoot the torpedo. Interior Communications Electrician IC1(SS) Joseph J. Varese, who had earned his Submarine Warfare insignia on Carbonero, and was now leading petty officer of Pogy's Interior Communications Division, was given the honor of throwing the firing switch to shoot the torpedo. A few minutes later, Pogy transmitted the traditional message: "SIGHTED SUBMARINE SANK SAME".

On 25 August 1996, Pogy deployed in support of SCICEX-96 experiments. In October 1996, she transited the Bering Strait and began collecting thousands of water samples from over a hundred locations under the polar ice cap in the Arctic Ocean. She continuously recorded ocean currents and water salinity and temperature, and surfaced 19 times through the ice cap to measure surface conditions before returning to San Diego, California, on 26 November 1996.

Pogy was decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 June 1999. Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, was completed on 12 April 2000.