USS Mariano G. Vallejo (SSBN-658) Sail Memorial

 memorial, military, submarine, United States Navy

Laid down here at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in July 1964 and named in honor of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the USS Mariano G. Vallejo was commissioned into service with the US Navy in December 1966 as the 11th member of the Benjamin Franklin Class of Ballistic Missile Submarines. Assigned to the US Atlantic Fleet for training in the Caribbean Sea, the Vallejo and her crew returned to the Pacific and Mare Island for post shakedown repairs before she joined the US Pacific Fleet in August 1967.

Assigned to Submarine Squadron 15 out of Pearl Harbor, the Vallejo and her crew conducted numerous deterrent patrols during the Cold War, eventually shifting their homeport to Kings Bay, GA in the 1980's and joining the US Atlantic Fleet. Remaining with the US Atlantic Fleet for the duration of her career, the Vallejo was honored in 1987 by conducting the US Navy's 2,500th Nuclear Deterrent Patrol and continued her silent service through the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

The final serving member of the original "41 For Freedom" batch of Ballistic Misslie Submarines in operation, the Vallejo departed Naval Station Charleston on her final deployment in August 1994. Calling at Mare Island while enroute to Bremerton Navy Yard for deactivation, the Vallejo hosted over 3,000 people during her 11 day port call before departing for her last voyage on September 14th, 1994.

Formally decommissioned on March 9th, 1995 the Vallejo entered the Nuclear Submarine & Ship Recycling Program at the Bremerton Naval Yard in October of that year. Though the scrapping of her hull was declared complete in December 1995, the sub's Sail was preserved and returned to its birthplace at Mare Island, where it has remained awaiting its inclusion as part of a memorial to both the Vallejo, her crew and Cold War Submarine Veterans.

www.navsource.org/archives/08/08658a.htm
album.larryshomeport.com/html/vallejo.html
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