USS Ling (SS/AGSS-297) (Hackensack, New Jersey)

 museum, military, submarine, interesting place, United States Navy

Laid down in November 1942 at the Cramp Shipbuilding Yard in Philadelphia, USS Ling is the 13th member of the Balao Class of Submarines to be built for the US Navy, but after supply issues arose following her August 1943 launch she was towed to the Boston Navy Yard where she was outfitted and commissioned into service in June 1945. Joining the US Atlantic Fleet for her shakedown and training cruises, the Ling began her transit to join the US Pacific Fleet in the fight against the Japanese Empire but arrived at the Panama Canal shortly after the Japanese announced their surrender on August 14th, 1945, ending the Second World War.

Ordered to remain in Panamanian waters as dozens of Allied ships returned Veterans home and shuttled occupation forces to both theatres, the Ling and her crew conducted routine exercises and patrols throughout the Caribbean before returning to the US East Coast in mid-1946 where she briefly operated before reporting to Boston Naval Yard for her deactivation. Formally decommissioned in October 1946, Ling was towed to Naval Submarine Base New London and entered the US Navy Reserve Fleet, Atlantic Submarine Force where she would remain for the next 14 years before being called upon once again for duty. Towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in March 1960, the Ling was brought out of mothballs and upgraded to serve as a training Submarine for Naval Reservists, a duty which she began in 1962 with her reactivation as AGSS-297, an auxiliary Submarine.

Serving as both a static and underway training aid for Naval Reservists for the next nine years out of Brooklyn, the Ling and her onboard systems were eventually outdated by the fleetwide introduction of advanced Nuclear-powered Submarines to the US Navy, prompting her final deactivation and striking from the US Naval Register in December 1971. After spending six months pierside in Brooklyn awaiting her fate, the Ling was formally donated to the Submarine Memorial Association on June 18th,1972 for use as a museum ship and memorial at their Hackensack site, and following a tow up the winding Hackensack river she arrived at her new home on January 13th, 1973.

Now on display as a memorial to submariners and veterans of all kinds who gave their lives in service to their country, the Ling is actively maintained by a volunteer force and regularly hosts onboard tours, events and overnight encampments. Extensively restored to her World War Two-era appearance, the Ling’s volunteer crew have gone to great lengths to refurbish and outfit the Submarine to near-mint condition, with her internal compartments filled with authentic World War Two-era fittings. Their efforts have seen the Ling listed on both the New Jersey and US National Registers of Historic Places.

Her status, like that of the museum which hosts her, came under threat in 2007 when property owner North Jersey Media Group ordered the museum to leave their land to free up the space for redevelopment. While the museum is presently seeking new sites should they be evicted, they have also started a petition to allow the facility to remain onsite.

www.atlasobscura.com/places/uss-ling-submarine
www.navsource.org/archives/08/08297.htm