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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Patch contributed by Mike Smolinski

Pintado (SSN-672)
Active Service - Decommissioning

Radio Call Sign: November - Kilo - Michael - Zulu

To Additional Pages

Keel Laying - Launching
Commissioning

Sturgeon Class Attack Submarine: Laid down, 27 October 1967, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA.; Launched, 16 August 1969; Commissioned, USS Pintado (SSN-672), 11 September 1971; Decommissioned, and simultaneously struck from the Naval Register, 26 February 1998; Final Disposition, disposed of through the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program (NPSSRP) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., 27 October 1998.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 3,640 t., Submerged: 4,640 t.; Length 292' 3"; Beam 31' 8"; Draft 28' 8"; Speed, Surfaced 15 kts, Submerged 25 kts; Depth limit 1,300'; Complement 108; Armament, four 21" torpedo tubes amidships aft of bow, MK 48 Torpedoes, UUM-44A SUBROC, UGM-84A/C Harpoon, MK 57 deep water mines, MK 60 CAPTOR mines; Combat Sensors, Radar, BPS-14/15 surface search, Sonars, BQQ-5 multi-function bow mounted, BQR-7 passive in submarines with BQQ-2, BQS-12 active 7, TB-16 or TB-23 towed array, EW Systems, WLQ-4(V), WLR-4(V), WLR-9 ; Propulsion System, one S5W nuclear reactor, two steam turbines, one propeller, 15,000 shp.

Size	Image Description	Source
252k	The front page of the Vallejo Times Herald of 4 July 1975 covering the collision of Pintado (SSN-672) with "armed Russian ballistic missile submarine" a year earlier. The picture show the dented steel sonar dome while she was in dry dock in Guam.	U.S. Navy photo contributed by Darryl Baker.
43k	Oil on canvas painting by the artist Jim Christley entitled "Trailing". During the Cold War the US Naval Submarine Force was tasked with keeping tabs on Soviet Naval movements in particular, the Soviet Submarine Force. Submarines of the *Sturgeon Class* were well suited to this task and often trailed Soviet submarines for days reporting on their movements and recording noise signatures. In this image, such a trailing has turned into a close aboard encounter as a Soviet *Viktor III Class* has turned to port to check his baffles (to listen to see if anyone is immediately astern). A trailing *Sturgeon* has stopped his screw and gone quiet. Extending far behind the US submarine is its towed array sonar which assists in giving a clear picture of the ocean’s acoustics	Photo & text courtesy of subart.net.
145k	Submerged submarines in tandem.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
554k	An aerial port beam view of the nuclear-powered attack submarine Pintado (SSN-672) underway while conducting submarine operations off the coast of San Diego on 28 Mar 1977. Mounted near the stern is the deep submergence rescue vehicle Mystic (DSRV-1), which can provide world-wide, rapid-deployment, all-weather capability for the rescue of survivors of a disabled submarine.	USN photo # DN-SC-86-00167, by PH1 A. Legare, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil.
67k	Two members of Pintado's (SSN-672) crew, Oct 1975.	USN photo courtesy of Bob Shouse. Photo added 09/25/07.
45k	Pintado's (SSN-672) crew heading to the Artic in Oct 1975.	USN photo courtesy of Bob Shouse. Photo added 09/25/07.
62k	Commemorative cake for Pintado's (SSN-672) rendezvous to the Artic in 22 Oct 1975 with the Coast Guard.	USN photo courtesy of Bob Shouse. Photo added 09/25/07.
33k	Pintado (SSN-672) at the Artic in 22 Oct 1975.	USN photo courtesy of Bob Shouse. Photo added 09/25/07.
73k	The Pintado (SSN-672) at sea with a "Battle E" on her sail, circa 1978.	USN photo # 229312, courtesy of Darryl Baker.
37k	Commemorative postal cover issued on the occasion of the Pintado (SSN-672) Polar expedition, October 1978.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
20k	Commemorative postal cover issued on the occasion of the Pintado's (SSN-672) 10th commissioning anniversary, 11 Sept. 1981.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
48k	An Oil on masonite painting by the artist John Charles Roach, entitled "Ballast Point, San Diego", depicts sub base with subs and tenders at the pier in San Diego during mid 1986. The tenders were possibly the: McKee (AS-42) for Subron 7: Dixon (AS-37) for Subron 3: Among the subs were the: Dolphin (AGSS-555): Gudgeon (SS-567): Albacore (AGSS-569): Barbel (SS-580): Blueback (SS-581): Permit (SSN-594): Plunger (SSN-595): Pollack (SSN-603) Haddo (SSN-604): Guardfish (SSN-612): Haddock (SSN-621): Sturgeon (SSN-637): Gurnard (SSN-662) : Hawkbill (SSN-666): Pintado (SSN-672): Drum (SSN-677): William H. Bates (SSN-680): La Jolla (SSN-701): Portsmouth (SSN-707) & Salt Lake City (SSN-716).	Ballast Point, San Diego John Charles Roach 1986.5 Oil on masonite, 1986, courtesy of the USNHC, # 88-163-CR. Text contributed by OMC J. Reid Pallady USNR-RET & QM2(SS) David Johnston, USNR.
73k	Pintado (SSN-672) passing Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, 1995.	Photo by ET2/SS Robert "Bobby" Havicon, courtesy of Federation of American Scientists (fas.org).
88k	The Pintado (SSN-672) heading out to sea towards the Golden Gate Bridge, date unknown.	Official US Navy photo courtesy of Wendell Royce McLaughlin Jr.
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.