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USS Houston (SSN 713)

USS HOUSTON was the 26^th submarine in the LOS ANGELES class and the 8^th ship in that class built by Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. In December 2004, the HOUSTON changed her homeport from San Diego, Calif., to Apra Harbor, Guam. In January 2012, her homeport again changed from Guam to Pearl Harbor, Hi. On June 6, 2016, the HOUSTON departed her homeport Pearl Harbor, Hi., enroute to Bremerton, Wash., to commence her year-long inactivation process. A decommissioning ceremony was held on August 26, 2017. However, the submarine was officially decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on August 24, 2017.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS HOUSTON. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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• Click here to see which USS HOUSTON memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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Accidents aboard USS HOUSTON:

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USS HOUSTON History:

The attack submarine USS HOUSTON was ordered on August 1, 1975, at the height of the late Cold War build-up of the LOS ANGELES-class, as the United States Navy sought fast, quiet submarines to shadow Soviet forces and escort carrier groups worldwide. Built by Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, her keel was laid on January 29, 1979, and she was launched on March 21, 1981, sponsored by Barbara Bush, then wife of the vice president. The submarine was the fourth United States warship to carry the name of the city of Houston, and unusually her hull number, 713, matched the Houston telephone area code, something that was later often mentioned in public-relations material about the boat. She was commissioned on September 25, 1982, and initially joined the Atlantic Fleet from Norfolk while she completed post-construction testing and shakedown.

Soon after entering service, USS HOUSTON undertook a post-shakedown availability at Newport News Shipbuilding to correct deficiencies and install small improvements identified during early trials. On April 29, 1983, she entered the yard for roughly four months of work, and on May 28, 1983, during a ceremony in Dry Dock 1, Commander C. A. Tzomes relieved Captain G. H. Mensch as commanding officer, symbolizing the submarine's transition from a brand-new unit under her fitting-out skipper to a fully operational attack submarine. Sea trials from October 1-4, 1983 confirmed the yard work, and on November 4 she departed Norfolk for the last time. After a three-day port visit at Willemstad, Curacao, beginning November 12, and a transit of the Panama Canal on November 18, she arrived at her new homeport, Naval Submarine Base Point Loma in San Diego, on November 23, 1983, joining the Pacific Fleet at a time when attention was increasingly focused on the Pacific theater and Soviet activity in the Far East.

Through 1984, USS HOUSTON settled into a demanding pattern of trials, weapons testing and fleet exercises that reflected the rapid evolution of submarine combat systems in the 1980s. From January 16-27, 1984, she was at sea to support a Chief of Naval Operations technical evaluation of the Combat Control System Mk 1 and a new data-link communications system, followed from February 6 to March 4 by operational evaluation of those systems at the Barking Sands tactical underwater range off Hawaii. In March, she took part in the fleet readiness exercise READIEX 84-3, and between April and July made several shorter sorties for additional CNO test projects, including periods at the Trident Refit Facility at Bangor, Washington, and her first Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination from June 6-8. She supported READIEX 84-4 at the end of July, then made a short foreign port visit to Esquimalt, Canada, from September 1 for two days, before returning to Bangor for upkeep and yet more technical work later that autumn. By the end of 1984, she had completed several cycles of acoustic and systems evaluation in the Southern California operating areas while building crew proficiency for forward deployments in the Pacific.

Maintenance and preparations continued into 1985. In January, USS HOUSTON conducted sonar calibration operations, then spent early February on further CNO-sponsored testing at sea before entering Mare Island Naval Shipyard on February 28, 1985, for a ten-week selected restricted availability. After completing navigation certification on June 17 and another ORSE in July, she alternated between short upkeeps alongside the tender USS McKEE (AS 41) in San Diego and additional trials, including an emergent drydocking at Mare Island from September 9-14. A pre-overseas movement certification at the end of September paved the way for her first long-range deployment. On October 3, 1985, she departed San Diego on her maiden western Pacific cruise, operating within the Seventh Fleet's area of responsibility and returning on December 23. Although the detailed daily track remains classified, this first WESTPAC came during a period of heightened tension with the Soviet Union in the western Pacific, and would have included anti-submarine warfare training, surveillance of Soviet units transiting choke points into the Pacific, and port calls at allied bases in the region.

In 1986, the submarine increasingly combined operational patrols with high-end weapons testing. From March 24 to April 4, 1986, she supported an operational test launch (OTL-21) and took part in the major fleet readiness exercise READIEX 86-3, followed almost immediately by an operational readiness evaluation from April 7-11. Another test-launch period, OTL-15, ran from May 12-16, while the commanding officer's billet changed hands on May 24, when Commander A. J. Dionizio Jr. relieved Commander Tzomes as the boat's third skipper. Toward the end of the year, from December 8-12, USS HOUSTON carried out pre-overseas movement work-ups and then completed a pre-deployment certification from December 15-19, setting the conditions for another extended deployment in Asian waters.

On January 5, 1987, USS HOUSTON sailed from Point Loma for a scheduled six-month deployment in the Seventh Fleet area, patrolling across the western Pacific during the final years of the Cold War. While exact port visits are not fully recorded in open sources, the pattern for such deployments involved periods of operations in the Philippine Sea and near Japan, exercises with carrier battle groups and allied navies, and calls at ports such as Yokosuka, Guam or Subic Bay. After her return later in 1987, she conducted local operations in August and September, including several periods in the Southern California operating area, and on October 17, 1987 entered the floating dry dock ARCO (ARDM 5) at Point Loma for a four-month selected restricted availability. She undocked on December 19 and completed another ORSE in March 1988 before beginning pre-deployment preparations in June. In mid-1988, she again left San Diego for a six-month western Pacific deployment, further consolidating her role as a forward-deployed attack submarine supporting deterrence and surveillance in the Pacific.

A significant change of command occurred on March 1, 1989, when Commander J. H. Sohl III relieved Commander Dionizio as commanding officer. That spring, USS HOUSTON operated in the Southern California and Puget Sound areas and participated in the filming of the feature film "The Hunt for Red October", portraying the fictionalized fast-attack submarine representing USS DALLAS (SSN 700) during at-sea sequences off Port Angeles, Washington, and the California coast. The filming, which took place in May and June 1989, coincided with several serious incidents. On June 14, 1989, while at periscope depth in the San Pedro Channel near Santa Catalina Island, an extended mast fouled the tow line of the tug BARCONA. When the submarine went to depth at speed, she pulled the stern of the tug underwater, sinking it and causing the loss of one of the three mariners on board. The episode later became the subject of a detailed marine accident report. Two days later, on the way back to San Diego, the submarine snagged the nets of a fishing vessel, though in that case the nets parted without sinking the boat.

On July 1, 1989, shortly after leaving port for a training sortie, seawater entered the submarine through a vent valve that had not fully closed. As water built up, the commanding officer ordered a steep ascent, but the additional weight and complex hydrodynamics caused the boat to lose speed and begin sliding backward into deeper water before a combination of maximum power and blowing ballast tanks forced her back to the surface. The episode did not injure the crew but led to several sailors being reassigned from submarine service for psychological reasons, and highlighted the importance of rigorous valve status checks and alarm discipline. Later that year, according to the same sources, smaller accidents followed: a fire in the machinery spaces, a near-miss by an exercise torpedo after a navigation error took the submarine into a torpedo range, and the loss of a towed array sonar, again associated with navigation issues. These mishaps contributed to 1989 being remembered aboard as a particularly difficult year.

In late 1989, the Navy responded with leadership changes. On December 8 Commander Stanley R. Szemborski assumed temporary command of USS HOUSTON. By January 1990, the submarine was in port at Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Washington, preparing for an extensive depot modernization period. Commander G. A. Wallace took command in February 1990, and in March the boat shifted to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where on May 4 she entered dry dock at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a planned fourteen-month depot modernization. The work package included hull and systems maintenance and significant combat-system upgrades. HOUSTON undocked on November 14, 1990, completed sea trials on July 1, 1991, and returned to San Diego in August 1991. On September 20, after a three-week period of acoustic trials out of Bangor and a port visit to San Francisco, she returned to Point Loma, and in October-November spent another month in the ARCO dry dock. These years coincided with the end of the Cold War and the 1991 Gulf War. While HOUSTON was largely in overhaul during the fighting in the Persian Gulf, her modernization prepared her for the shifting focus toward regional contingencies and littoral operations that followed.

In January 1992, USS HOUSTON went to sea for a special-operations deployment described in open summaries as highly sensitive and associated with national-level intelligence requirements. Afterwards, in March and April she was back in local waters for operations and another ORSE, and from May through early July 1992 she took part in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise around Hawaii, training with a wide coalition of Pacific navies at a time when post-Cold-War maritime cooperation was gaining importance. On August 13, 1992, Commander Mark R. Lenci relieved Commander Wallace as commanding officer. In September, the submarine participated in a fleet exercise with the battle group of the carrier USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63), and in October completed pre-overseas movement certification. On November 3, 1992, she departed San Diego as part of the KITTY HAWK battle group for a deployment that ranged across the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf. Operating with that group, HOUSTON contributed to maritime security and enforcement of sanctions and no-fly zones, including support to Operation Restore Hope in Somalia and Operation Southern Watch over Iraq, while making port visits that included Pattaya in Thailand in early December, Singapore from December 10 for four days, and Yokosuka, Japan, later in the month for upkeep.

During the early months of 1993, USS HOUSTON took part in a joint exercise with six Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force diesel submarines in February, then supported the carrier USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62) battle group and the amphibious ready group centered on USS BELLEAU WOOD (LHA 3). In March, she joined a submarine-launched mobile mine exercise off Tinian in the Mariana Islands, followed by a fleet maintenance availability in Apra Harbor, Guam, alongside the tender USS HOLLAND (AS 32). In April, she visited Darwin, Australia, reflecting continued U.S. submarine engagement with regional partners in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. On May 3, 1993, she returned to San Diego, ending a roughly six-month deployment in the Seventh Fleet area. That summer, she conducted midshipman training cruises in July and August, a family-oriented dependent cruise in September, and in October entered ARCO for a three-month selected restricted availability, during which maintenance and minor system upgrades were carried out.

The 1994 operating year took USS HOUSTON far into the North Pacific. In February, she went north for torpedo testing at the Nanoose underwater range off British Columbia, acoustic trials at the Southeast Alaska Acoustic Measurement Facility (SEAFAC) in Behm Canal near Ketchikan, and a visit to Esquimalt, British Columbia. After local operations and another ORSE in March, she carried out pre-deployment certification in May and a dependent cruise on May 21. On June 21, 1994, she left San Diego for a six-month western Pacific deployment, spending extended periods in Yokosuka for upkeep with USS HOLLAND in July-August, returning to Yokosuka again in September and November, and visiting White Beach, Okinawa, also in November. A tiger cruise with embarked family members from Pearl Harbor in December accompanied her transit home, closing out a deployment that reflected the routine but complex presence missions of the post-Cold-War era in the western Pacific.

In early 1995, from January 19-23, HOUSTON provided anti-submarine warfare services to surface forces in the Southern California operating area. In March, she combined sea trials with Tomahawk and Harpoon missile operations, then in late March supported the large amphibious exercise Kernel Blitz. A port visit to Naval Air Station Alameda from April 7-10 was followed by a return to San Diego on April 11 and more short local operations. On May 5, 1995, Commander Dale M. Ness took command as the eighth commanding officer. Through mid-1995, the submarine was used intensively for tactical weapons proficiency training and acoustic trials at SEAFAC, with port calls to San Francisco and Bangor, Washington, and frequent short sorties for sea trials and noise-measurement work. This pattern continued into 1996: from late January to mid-February, she combined local operations with ORSE, spent March-April on more SEAFAC acoustic trials, and in May made another brief visit to San Francisco. By late June, she had completed additional sea trials and pre-overseas movement preparations, including an operational readiness evaluation and tactical and certification exercises in June and July.

On August 5, 1996, USS HOUSTON departed Point Loma for yet another western Pacific deployment, this time during a period of renewed tension on the Korean Peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait. She arrived at Fleet Activities Yokosuka on October 3 for ten days of upkeep, visited White Beach, Okinawa, from November 4-10, and then shifted to Guam for a fleet maintenance availability with the tender USS FRANK CABLE (AS 40) between November 16 and 29. In early December, she called in Hong Kong for five days of liberty, then returned briefly to Yokosuka on December 13-14 before participating in the bilateral exercise Shin Kane 97-2. Further time in Yokosuka from December 18-19 preceded additional upkeep in Guam from December 23 to January 13, 1997, with another short stay there on January 16-17. USS HOUSTON returned to San Diego on January 31, 1997, having completed a six-month deployment centered on East Asian waters that emphasized combined exercises with Japanese and other regional naval forces.

Back in home waters, the submarine spent March 1997 in local operations, including a VIP embarkation cruise on March 17, followed by further training deployments in March, May and early June that culminated in tactical weapons proficiency and a tactical readiness examination from May 27 to June 5. An inspection and survey assessment on June 10-11 preceded a three-month selected restricted availability beginning June 25. After sea trials in late September and more local operations in October, she joined as an opposition-force submarine in the COMPTUEX pre-deployment work-up for the ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72) battle group from November 29 to December 19, 1997, contributing to the anti-submarine training of that carrier force.

In early 1998, USS HOUSTON continued this pattern, completing acoustic trials at SEAFAC in January, more local operations and an ORSE later that month, and a change of command on January 30, when Commander Michael A. Zieser relieved Commander Ness. After further radiated-noise analysis work with USS PORTSMOUTH (SSN 707) and additional local operations and pre-deployment exercises in March and April, she departed San Diego on May 1, 1998, for another six-month western Pacific deployment. During this cruise, she made brief stops in Yokosuka and Okinawa in mid-May, arrived in Sasebo, Japan, on June 15 for a three-day visit before joint exercises with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, stopped again in Sasebo on June 27, visited Pattaya, Thailand, from July 8-12, and completed a maintenance availability with USS FRANK CABLE in Guam from July 25 to August 20. A five-day visit to Yokosuka beginning August 25, further time there in October, and a brief stop in Pearl Harbor on October 23 preceded her return to Point Loma on October 31, 1998.

From late 1998 into 1999, USS HOUSTON was heavily used for local exercises, command training and opposition-force duties. She supported another carrier group COMPTUEX, this time for USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64), in February 1999, and made training visits to Esquimalt, Canada, and other West Coast ports through the summer, interspersed with midshipman operations and a dependent cruise. By late September 1999, she had completed another ORSE and soon afterwards conducted special operations in the eastern Pacific, including a period in Pearl Harbor in October before returning to San Diego. At the start of the new century, she participated in Tomahawk operational test launches from April 12-20, 2001, off the West Coast, and in June 2001 carried out routine exercises off the state of Washington that included rehearsal of a crash-back maneuver in which the ship shifted rapidly from full ahead to full astern power. The complex hydrodynamics of this evolution, briefly produced a dramatic bow-up breach of the surface at a steep angle before the crew restored normal trim; the incident ended without damage but reinforced attention to handling characteristics during extreme maneuvers.

On August 31, 2001, USS HOUSTON arrived at Naval Station Bremerton, Washington, after a four-day transit from San Diego, and on September 18 entered Dry Dock 1 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for an engineered refueling overhaul. This major mid-life refit, lasting until late 2004, included refueling of the nuclear reactor and modernization of navigation, fire-control and sonar systems. Reactor refueling began on January 7, 2002, and in May 2002 Commander Christopher J. Kaiser took command during a ceremony at the Naval Undersea Warfare Museum in Keyport, Washington. On October 9, HOUSTON moved from dry dock to a pier at the shipyard, completed cold-operations testing of the reactor plant in November, and in June 2004 carried out post-overhaul sea trials. Further independent steaming exercises and a post-overhaul restricted availability followed in mid-2004, along with acoustic trials out of Alaska. On December 24, 2004, she arrived at her new forward-deployed homeport of Apra Harbor, Guam, becoming the third submarine assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron 15, reflecting a wider strategy of stationing attack submarines closer to East Asian operating areas.

A new commanding officer, Commander John S. Zavadil, took charge on January 7, 2005. Operating from Guam, USS HOUSTON quickly became a regular participant in regional exercises and presence missions. In 2005, she worked closely with the Royal Australian Navy in exercise Lungfish 2005, a tactical development event focused on anti-submarine warfare between nuclear and diesel-electric submarines near Perth, Australia. The following year, she took part in Valiant Shield 2006, a large U.S. joint exercise in the western Pacific intended to demonstrate American ability to coordinate air, sea and undersea forces across a broad theater. In September 2006, she visited Port Kelang, Malaysia, where officers of the Royal Malaysian Navy toured the boat as part of a two-day conference designed to support Malaysia's introduction of its first submarines, underlining HOUSTON's role in regional defense diplomacy.

In 2008, USS HOUSTON participated in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in Hawaiian waters, the world's largest multinational maritime drill, which brought together forces from across the Pacific basin. That same year, the Navy publicly disclosed that very small amounts of low-level radioactive water had been leaking from the submarine since about 2006 during operations and port visits in Japan, Guam and elsewhere in the Pacific. Investigations concluded that the total released radioactivity was extremely small, on the order of a few microcuries, and that there was no health impact to crew or public, but the incident led to closer monitoring of primary-plant discharges on nuclear-powered ships.

On August 28, 2009, Commander David G. Schappert relieved Commander Michael D. Lewis as commanding officer, as HOUSTON continued to operate from Guam. In February 2010, she visited Subic Bay in the Philippines, supporting engagement with a longstanding regional ally, and in November 2010 called at Chinhae in the Republic of Korea for a routine port visit that underscored cooperation with South Korea amid ongoing tensions on the peninsula. In December 2010, she took part in the bilateral exercise Keen Sword 2011 off Japan, integrating her undersea capabilities into complex joint scenarios with Japanese maritime and air forces. On January 31, 2011, she entered Sepangar Naval Base at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, for a port visit and repairs, moored alongside the tender USS FRANK CABLE, linking maintenance activity with regional engagement.

A major basing change came in early 2012. On January 17, 2012, after nine years forward-deployed in Guam, USS HOUSTON arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, completing a homeport change and joining Submarine Squadron 7. A few weeks later, on February 17, Commander Paul Davis relieved Commander Schappert as commanding officer during a ceremony held aboard the museum battleship MISSOURI (BB 63). From her new base in Pearl Harbor, HOUSTON continued to focus on western Pacific deployments while also serving as a training platform between cruises.

On July 15, 2013, the submarine departed Pearl Harbor for a scheduled western Pacific deployment. During this cruise, she called at Apra Harbor, Guam, on August 9, 2013, for maintenance and liberty while conducting operations in the Seventh Fleet area of responsibility, and later moored at Changi Naval Base in Singapore on December 9. She returned to Pearl Harbor on February 14, 2014, after roughly seven months away, a deployment that the boat's public-affairs reporting described as including a "multitude of missions" in support of regional stability and maritime security. On July 31, 2014, Commander Scott McGinnis relieved Commander Davis as commanding officer. At that time, USS HOUSTON was in a selected restricted availability at Pearl Harbor, undergoing maintenance and upgrades in preparation for what would become her final deployments.

In early 2015, the submarine resumed local operations from Pearl Harbor, leaving on January 6 for at-sea training. In the spring, she departed for another western Pacific deployment - open descriptions indicate she sailed in April 2015 - and on May 8 moored at Yokosuka, Japan, for a four-day visit. On July 15, 2015, USS HOUSTON arrived at Changi Naval Base in Singapore for a port call linked to the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise series, and then went to sea for the at-sea phase from July 19-23, rehearsing maritime security and interoperability tasks with regional navies. Two months later, on September 10, she moored in Sasebo, Japan, for a six-day port visit that included interaction with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. After brief stops off White Beach, Okinawa, later in September, she headed back toward Hawaii. On October 28, 2015, USS HOUSTON returned to Pearl Harbor, mooring at Sierra 10 Wharf after completing what was announced as her final scheduled deployment to the western Pacific. Ship's sponsor Barbara Bush, by then former First Lady, sent a video message congratulating the crew on the successful completion of this last cruise.

With front-line deployments concluded, the submarine began her inactivation phase. On June 6, 2016, Pearl Harbor hosted an "Aloha" celebration marking her forthcoming departure, and that same day, USS HOUSTON left her Hawaiian homeport for the last time, bound for Bremerton, Washington. She arrived and moored at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard's Delta Pier on July 14, 2016, entering the shipyard to begin a year-long inactivation process involving de-fueling of the reactor and preparation for disposal. According to naval philatelic records, the boat was placed in inactive status on August 26, 2016, a date marked by a special inactivation postmark, and then formally decommissioned on August 24, 2017.

At an event reported in August 2016 at Bangor, Washington, former and current crew members, families and officials gathered to commemorate more than three decades of service as USS HOUSTON's inactivation and decommissioning process began. Public statements at the ceremony noted that she had been the 132nd nuclear-powered submarine and the twentieth LOS ANGELES-class boat, and that over her career she had completed nine deployments to the western Pacific and earned multiple unit awards, including two Navy Unit Commendations, a Meritorious Unit Commendation and several expeditionary and deployment ribbons. In her later years, she had also served as a training platform for crews from other submarines and for prospective commanding officers, passing on the experience accumulated since her commissioning in 1982. With her decommissioning, the submarine left active service as one of the earlier flight of LOS ANGELES-class boats to be retired in favor of newer VIRGINIA-class units, closing a career that had spanned the late Cold War, the transition to post-Cold-War regional crises, and the long era of operations associated with the post-2001 security environment in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

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USS HOUSTON Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Ian Johnson and shows the HOUSTON at Fremantle, Australia, on September 4, 2005.

The photos below were taken by me and show the HOUSTON at Submarine Base Point Loma, Calif., on October 4, 2012.

The photo below was taken by Sebastian Thoma and shows the ex-HOUSTON laid up at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on May 18, 2018.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the ex-HOUSTON laid up at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on June 12, 2022, awaiting recycling.

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