Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Radio Call Sign: November - Juliet - Quebec - Uniform

John Adams (SSBN 620)

Lafayette Class Ballistic Missile Submarine: Laid down, 19 May 1961, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME; Launched, 12 January 1963; Commissioned, USS John Adams (SSBN 620), 12 May 1964; Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 24 March 1989; Disposed of through Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program, 12 February 1996 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 7,250 t., Submerged: 8,250 t.; Length 425' ; Beam 33'; Draft 32'; Speed, Surfaced/Submerged 20+ kts; Complement 120; Test depth 1,300'; Armament, 16 Polaris missile tubes, four 21" torpedo tubes; Propulsion, S5W Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor, two geared turbines at 15,000 shp, one propeller.

Size	Image Description	Source
109k	John Adams. Copy of painting by or after John Singleton Copley, ca. 1783. (George Washington Bicentennial Commission)	NARA FILE #: 148-CD-4-18. Official U.S. Navy Photograph # HD-SN-99-01727, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
437k	Front & back cover of the John Adams (SSBN-620) launching Program at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, 12 January 1963.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
298k	The John Adams (SSBN-620) starts to slides bow first into the water during her launching at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, 12 January 1963.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
331k	The John Adams (SSBN-620) enters the water on the launching ways at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, 12 January 1963.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
268k	The John Adams (SSBN-620) is more than half way down the launching ways at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, 12 January 1963.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
268k	With crew and dignitaries on board, the John Adams (SSBN-620) is waterborne and underway following her launching, 12 January 1963.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
317k	The John Adams (SSBN-620) underway during her shakedown period off the New England coast, April 1964.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
96k	The John Adams (SSBN-620) underway during her shakedown period off the New England coast, April 1964.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
121k	The John Adams (SSBN-620) against the backdrop of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, April 1964.	Official US Navy photo courtesy of Wendell Royce McLaughlin Jr.
327k	Cover of the John Adams (SSBN-620) Commissioning Program at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, 12 May 1964.	Photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
115k	John Adams (SSBN-620), entering Pearl Harbor on 12 January 1970 during a dependents cruise. Across the stern is Diamond Head and across the bow is Honolulu.	Text courtesy of Don Sparks, YNC(SS)-Ret USS JOHN ADAMS (B & G) May 1966 - July 1970. Photo courtesy of John Hummel.
27k	Commemorative post card marking the death of John Adams exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson also died the same day. Post mark dated on the bicentennial, 4 July 1976.	Photo courtesy of Jack Treutle.
48k	Port side view of the John Adams (SSBN-620) underway, circa 1980.	Photo "courtesy of the Cavanaughs" & The unofficial* USS John Adams (SSBN 620) Homepage.
59k	John Adams (SSBN-620) in Ft. Lauderdale FL., 1981.	Courtesy of The unofficial* USS John Adams (SSBN 620) Homepage.
39k	"The John Adams (SSBN-620) and the Sailing Ship *Baltimore*." This picture was on the front page of the Charleston, South Carolina paper the "News and Courier" in 1982.	Text and photo courtesy of The unofficial* USS John Adams (SSBN 620) Homepage.
115k	Commemorative post card marking the decommissioning of the John Adams (SSBN-620), 24 March 1989.	Courtesy of Richard Leonhardt.
611k	An aerial view of four Lafayette class (SSBN-616) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines in the early stages of being scrapped out in a graving dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington, 17 May 1993. The Lafayette (SSBN-616) & Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631) are most likely the two on the port side. They were the first two boats of this class to be decommissioned. The next two boats to be decommissioned were the John Adams (SSBN-620) & Tecumseh (SSBN-628), and they might be the two on the starboard side.	USN photo # DN-ST-95-01860 by Calvin Larsen, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
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.