 | 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. |
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