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USS Oklahoma City submarine is retiring after 33 years. Here's what you need to know.

Jana Hayes, Oklahoman
·4 min read
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The nuclear-powered fast attack submarine named for Oklahoma's capital city will be decommissioned Friday after nearly 34 years of service in the US Navy.

Despite its motto, "The Sooner, The Better," the USS Oklahoma City is retiring right around the end of its projected lifespan.

Command of the ship will be relinquished at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, where it will then be dismantled, recycled and its nuclear reactor sent to safely decay.

Here are some quick facts about the USS Oklahoma City:

  • 360 feet long

  • 6,900 tons when submerged

  • has one nuclear reactor and one shaft for propulsion

  • holds Tomahawk missiles and MK 48 torpedoes

How to watch the USS Oklahoma City decommissioning ceremony

Three Oklahoma City council members — Ward 1's Bradley Carter, Ward 7's Nikki Nice and Ward 8's Mark Stonecipher — will attend the decommissioning ceremony, along with other past and present city officials.

The Navy will livestream the ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday on youtube.com.

Carter, a former member of the Army, said he sees the ceremony as a way to honor both his grandfather and uncle who served in the Navy, as well as the men and women who have served on the USS Oklahoma City.

"Oklahoma and Oklahoma City (have) had a pretty longstanding and proud relationship with the Navy," Carter said.

"There's a lot of history in this. … I didn't feel like I could miss it," he added.

What you should know about the USS Oklahoma City

Commissioned for service in 1988, the USS Oklahoma City has been home to a 140-person crew and traveled around the globe, including to the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, the Eastern Pacific and its home port of Guam.

Its crew also has formed a relationship with its namesake over the decades. Carter said some of the commanders run in the annual Memorial Marathon honoring those lost in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

"Regardless of where they've been, where they are … keeping the relationship with our city has been so important to them," Carter said. "We want to make sure that we're doing the same thing for them."

The USS Oklahoma City is part of the Los Angeles-class of submarines — built during the Cold War to hunt other submarines and surface ships — which are steadily retiring and being replaced with the Virginia class.

Commander Sean Welch told the Kitsap Sun in November he and others will miss the "688s," which submarines of the class are often called.

"They're just fun to drive," Welch said.

It was also the first of the Navy's submarines to upgrade to all-electric navigation.

A tug boat pushes the USS Oklahoma City toward the pier, where dock workers will tie the massive vessel in place.
A tug boat pushes the USS Oklahoma City toward the pier, where dock workers will tie the massive vessel in place.

What happens after a Navy ship is decommissioned?

It can take years before a decommissioned submarine is finally dismantled, as the Puget Sound shipyard is the only place in the world that can recycle the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines.

Some equipment will be refurbished and used elsewhere, metals will be sold for scrap and non-recyclable materials will be disposed of.

But one piece of the submarine will remain for quite some time.

The nuclear reactor compartment will spend the next 1,000-plus years buried in an Eastern Washington ditch called the Hanford site, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy.

There it will join the more than 130 others that came before it for an estimated millennium of radioactive decay.

"During this time the majority of the radioactivity will have naturally decayed to stable atoms," the Navy says about the process. "The remaining small amount of radioactivity is in structural metal alloys that are highly corrosion resistant in Hanford soil conditions."

Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) return from a four-month deployment. Oklahoma City is one of four forward-deployed submarines assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron Fifteen out of Apra Harbor, Guam.
Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) return from a four-month deployment. Oklahoma City is one of four forward-deployed submarines assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron Fifteen out of Apra Harbor, Guam.

Legacy of USS Oklahoma City to live on through local tribute

The ship's sail, the tower-like structure atop the body of the submarine, will be preserved and sent to Oklahoma City for display, attached to a replica of the hull.

Plans for a memorial along the Oklahoma River have been underway for several years, and Carter said he's been told it will require between $500,000 and $750,000.

"We're going to try to bring back as much of this submarine as the Navy will allow, so people can see it and understand the story behind it," Carter said.

The submarine is not the first Navy vessel to be named after Oklahoma City. The first USS Oklahoma City, a Cleveland-class light cruiser, was commissioned in 1944 and was one of six to be converted into guided missile cruisers during the Vietnam War.

Its anchor and bell also will be displayed at the planned memorial.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: USS Oklahoma City submarine to be decommissioned, dismantled