For the last time US Navy sub docks on Saipan port

In what would be her last call on the Port of Saipan, the nuclear submarine USS Kamehameha returned to the island’s waters Monday, a little over six months before it will be decommissioned after nearly 36 years of service.

According to the ship’s weapons officer, Chap Godbey, the US Navy submarine is visiting the Northern Marianas for rest and recreation for its 150-man crew and to load food supplies such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

The last time the submarine visited Saipan was in 1997.

Navy Lieutenant Godbey, who supervised a media tour of the boat, said the USS Kamehameha is a special purpose ship employed by the US Navy in brown water operations.

It has two sealed delivery vehicles installed where the silos of its Poseidon missiles were once located. The SDVs is where Special Operations Forces are launched from either in submerged or surface conditions.

Before its conversion to a brown water attack submarine, the USS Kamehameha was part of the US Navy’s “41 for Freedom” Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines and provided the US its deterrent capability.

The USS Kamehameha is 425 feet long, with a hull diameter of 33 feet and a draft of 29 feet. It weighs 7,300 tons surfaced and 8,200 tons submerged.

It can submerge to a depth in excess of 800 feet and cruises at a speed of 25 knots. It has four torpedoes tubes, from where MK-48 torpedoes could be launched.

USS Kamehameha is the oldest ship in the US Navy’s submarine fleet and is the last remaining ship of the Benjamin Franklin class of submarines..

It was commissioned in December 10, 1965 and has served off the waters of Guam; Charleston, South Carolina; East Coast of the US Mainland; Rota, Spain; and the Atlantic Ocean.

Currently the ship’s home base is at Pearl Harbor, where it will be deactivated on August 8 at the submarine base in Pier Sierra 1B.

Finally on October 2001, the ship will be decommissioned in Bremerton, Washington. It will then be sold for scrap and its prized metal will be use to make other ships or, as Lieutenant Godbey puts it, use to make quality razor blades.

The USS Kamehameha is one of only hundreds of US Navy warships that periodically call on the Port of Saipan for rest and recreation.

Commonwealth’s leaders, including Saipan Chamber of Commerce President Anthony Pellegrino, have voiced their support for the island becoming an R&R stop for US Navy servicemen in the region.