The USS GUITARRO (SSN 665) website at coldwarboats.org has been launched, and already has a few photos, a Commissioning Booklet from 1972. and a couple of interesting postal covers in the Ship’s Post Office.
The site is ready for fitting out - all it needs is your submissions of photos, stories, and artifacts. It can be found here: https://coldwarboats.org/the-boat-665/uss-guitarro-ssn-665/quarterdeck-665
Guitarro was a Sturgeon-class submarine, and boasted an impressive service career during the Cold War. She played a major role in developing tactics for prototype combat systems deployed to the Pacific submarine fleet, in particular the Submarine Towed Array Sensor System (STASS) along with its BQR-20 series digital sonar displays. In the mid-1970s, Guitarro also installed the first digital submarine combat system (BQQ-5 sonar and Mk-117 fire control system) and participated in the development of submarine-launched Harpoon and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Despite her accolades, she is remembered for her pre-commissioning sinking at the pier during fitting out at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 15 May 1969. Lack of oversight and communication between civilian construction testing groups resulted in a complete flooding of the boat, a rapid unrecoverable sinking, leaving her resting on the bottom showing nothing but sail.
Quick thinking by the crew of the nearby YTM 270 Santanta prevented the Guitarro from rolling over by nosing the tug up against the sail. No lives were lost and the amazing part of the story is the refloating of the Guitarro only three days later!
Damages exceeded $20 million dollars and added 32 months to her fitting out schedule. But, like the loss of the USS THRESHER (SSN 593) and her legacy of SUBSAFE, the sinking of the Guitarro would produces changes forever imbedded in the practices of the submarine community including changes in oversight and communication in ship-building, and requiring disconnects in all cables and hoses that would be run through watertight doors and hatches.
Photos of the disaster and recovery can be found here: https://coldwarboats.org/the-boat-665/up-scope-separator-665/the-sixties-665/the-sixties-index-665/1969-the-sinking-of-the-guitarro-665
If you have photos, stories, or artifacts related to the 665, reach out to me until we get a Site Lead volunteered! I'll make sure it gets on the Guitarro site. If you're planning a Guitarro reunion, again, let me know. The new Guitarro website has a reunion function already built in that will let you organize, promote, and keep track of attendees and events.
All Guitarro shipmates are invited to make the USS GUITARRO (SSN 665) site on Cold War Boats their new on-line home.
Welcome Aboard!
https://coldwarboats.org/the-boat-665/uss-guitarro-ssn-665/quarterdeck-665
Photo by John MacKay, CC By-SA 4.0
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