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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski.

Radio Call Sign: November - Delta - Uniform - Alpha

Gato (SSN-615)

Thresher Class Attack Submarine: Laid down, 15 December 1961, at the Electric Boat Division, General Dynamics Corp., Groton, CT.; Launched, 14 May 1964; Commissioned, USS Gato (SSN-615), 3 November 1967; Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 1 October 1995; Laid up at Bremerton Naval Shipyard; Final Disposition, entered the NPSSRP (Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., completed 1 November 1996.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 3,540 t., Submerged: 4,200 t.; Length 292'; Beam 31' 8"; ; Speed, Surfaced 15 kts, Submerged 28+ kts; Operating Depth 400'; Complement, 143; Sensors, BQR-5 bow mounted sonar, TB-26 Towed Sonar Array; Armament, four 21" torpedo tubes, forward, MK 48 torpedoes, UUM-44A SUBROC, UGM-84A/C Harpoon, MK 57 deep water mines, Mk 60 CAPTOR mines; Propulsion System, one S5W nuclear reactor, two Westinghouse steam turbines, one propeller 15,000 shp.

Size	Image Description	Contributed By
71k	Commemorative post mark on the occasion of Gato's (SSN-615) keel plate being laid, 15 December 1961.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
171k	Launching program for the Gato (SSN-615) at Electric Boat on 14 May 1964.	Courtesy of Darryl Baker.
164k	Gato's (SSN-615) sponsor, Mrs. Lawson P. Ramage.	Courtesy of Darryl Baker.
138k	Inside pages of the launching program for the Gato (SSN-615) at Electric Boat on 14 May 1964.	Courtesy of Darryl Baker.
27k	Commemorative post card marking the launching of the Gato (SSN-615), 14 May 1964.	Courtesy of Richard Leonhardt.
100k	Gato (SSN-615) underway, probably off the Atlantic coast during her alpha seatrials, circa 1965.	Official US Navy photo courtesy of Wendell Royce McLaughlin Jr. Photo added 04/26/06.
160k	Gato (SSN-615), in floating drydock Shippingport ARDM-4, Groton, 1994.	Photo by Lester G. Palifka, submitted by Ken Hart.
57k	Gato (SSN-615), dockside at Bremerton Naval Shipyard, 1995.	Courtesy of Lester Palifka.
83k	Gato (SSN-615), mid water visitors coming along side, stern view, date and location unknown.	Courtesy of globalsecurity.org
82k	Gato (SSN-615), mid water visitors coming along side, starboard view, date and location unknown.	Courtesy of globalsecurity.org
202k	Floating drydock Shippingport (ARDM-4), Groton, 1994 with partial view of Gato (SSN-615).	Contributed by Ken Hart, photo courtesy of Lester Palifka.
179k	View of starboard side, Floating drydock Shippingport (ARDM-4), Groton, 1994 with bow view of Gato (SSN-615).	Contributed by Ken Hart, photo courtesy of Lester Palifka.
276k	Floating drydock Shippingport (ARDM-4), Groton, 1994 with port side stern view of Gato (SSN-615).	Contributed by Ken Hart, photo courtesy of Lester Palifka.
276k	Floating drydock Shippingport (ARDM-4), Groton, 1994 with Starboard stern view ofGato (SSN-615).	Contributed by Ken Hart, photo courtesy of Lester Palifka.
63k	Cover of Gato (SSN-615) Welcome Aboard pamphlet.	USN Photo courtesy of Ken Hart.
126k	Front cover of Gato (SSN-615) Departure Ceremony pamphlet, 7 April 1995.	USN Photo courtesy of Ken Hart.
129k	Back cover of Gato (SSN-615) Departure Ceremony pamphlet, 7 April 1995.	USN Photo courtesy of Ken Hart.
42k	Starboard side close-up of sail of Gato (SSN-615) in Groton, May 1995.	Photo by Ken Hart.
222k	Meal request ticket from Gato (SSN-615) mess, known as The Black Cat Cafe.	Photo by Ken Hart.
222k	Gato (SSN-615), alongside at Groton, in May of 1995, shortly before her decommissioning. *Gato* had just returned from a one-week run, which included surfacing at the site where Thresher (SSN-593) sank, where a ceremony was held, including reciting the names of all who had perished with her, a twenty-one gun salute, a prayer recital, and a wreath tossed onto the gravesite by Captain Rick Martinez USN, commanding *Gato* . I was privileged to be aboard that week.	Photo by Ken Hart.
262k	Gato (SSN-615), forward line handling crew standing ready as we near New London after returning from the ceremony at Thresher's (SSN-593) gravesite.	Photo by Ken Hart.
307k	Gato (SSN-615), sonar room, underway in May of 1995.	Photo by Ken Hart.
303k	Gato (SSN-615), bridge cockpit, May 1995.	Photo by Ken Hart.
23k	Lt. Michael J. Mosley glances at the intrusion of my lens in Gato's (SSN-615) bridge cockpit May 1995.	Photo by Ken Hart.
216k	Gato's (SSN-615) pennants, May 1995.	Photo by Ken Hart.
54k	Commemorative post mark on the occasion of Gato's (SSN-615) decommissioning, 24 April 1996.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
83k	Trench 94, Hanford Site, Washington, 1994. Hull sections containing defueled reactor compartments of decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines are put in disposal trenches. Once full, the trench will be filled with dirt and buried. The compartments are expected to retain their integrity for more than 600 years.	USN photo & partial text courtesy of home.flash.net/~tomj/tunny/chop/rx. & submitted by Jack Treutle.
569k	Sealed reactor compartments are shipped by barge out of Puget Sound Naval Base down the coast and along the Columbia River to the port of Benton. There the radioactively-contaminated hull sections are transferred to special multiwheeled high-load trailers for transport to the Hanford Reservation in Washington State. Pictured below is the burial ground for spent fuel of the following 77 nuclear reactor submarines as of March 2003: Patrick Henry (SSBN-599), Snook (SSN-592), George Washington (SSBN-598), Scamp (SSN-588), Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601), Thomas Jefferson (SSBN-618), Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600), Dace (SSN-607), John Adams (SSBN-620), Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602), Barb (SSN-596), Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), Pollack (SSN-603), Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685), James Monroe (SSBN-622), Skipjack (SS-585), Nathan Hale (SSBN-623), Plunger (SSN-595), Shark (SSN-591), Lafayette (SSBN-616), Sam Houston (SSBN-609), Jack (SSN-605), Haddo (SSN-604), Tinosa (SSN-606), Guardfish (SSN-612), Permit (SSN-594), Queenfish (SSN-651), Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631), John Marshall (SSBN-611), George C. Marshall (SSBN-654), Flasher (SSN-613), Guitarro (SSN-665), Alexander Hamilton (SSBN-617), George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), Tecumseh (SSBN-628), Halibut (SSGN-587), Will Rogers (SSBN-659), Henry L. Stimson (SSBN-655), Daniel Boone (SSBN-629), Greenling (SSN-614), John C. Calhoun (SSBN-630), Casimir Pulaski (SSBN-633), Skate (SSN-578), Sargo (SSN-583), Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657), Sturgeon (SSN-637), Benjamin Franklin (SSBN-640), Swordfish (SSN-579), Seadragon (SSN-584), Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634), Simon Bolivar (SSBN-641), Hammerhead (SSN-663), Mariano G. Vallejo (SSBN-658) , Tullibee (SSN-597), Lewis & Clark (SSBN-644), Pargo (SSN-650), Seahorse (SSN-669), Gurnard (SSN-662), Flying Fish (SSN-673), Gato (SSN-615), Puffer (SSN-652), Seawolf (SSN-575), Baton Rouge (SSN-689), Bergall (SSN-667), Whale (SSN-638), Henry Clay (SSBN-625), James Madison (SSBN-627), Finback (SSN-670), Spadefish (SSN-668), Sunfish (SSN-649), George Bancroft (SSBN-643), Grayling (SSN-646), Pintado (SSN-672), Tunny (SSN-682), Archerfish (SSN-678), & Woodrow Wilson (SSBN-624).	USN photo & partial text courtesy of home.flash.net/~tomj/tunny/chop/rx. & submitted by Jack Treutle.