USS Requin (SS-481) - Second Conversion

Second Conversion

From June through August 1959 the Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina removed all Requin’s radar equipment and improved her streamlining. Upon her conversion to Fleet Snorkel configuration, she was given hull classification symbol SS-481 on 15 August 1959, and rejoined SubRon 6 in Norfolk for operations as a normal attack submarine, a role she retained until her decommissioning.

Requin conducted local operations off the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea. On 20 September 1963, Requin completed her 5000th dive. From 7 January 1964 into May she operated with the Sixth Fleet, then resumed her Second Fleet duties into 1968, interrupted only twice for extended deployments. Operation UNITAS VII in the fall of 1966 called for Requin to cruise around the South American continent for exercises with various South American navies and her last Sixth Fleet deployment sent her back to the Mediterranean for duty from 4 April to 27 July 1967.

Requin’s last Mediterranean deployment began on 4 April 1967. On 8 June, just as she completed a series of exercises with the Sixth Fleet, she received word that the US signal intelligence ship Liberty (AGTR-5) was under attack. Requin’s crew prepared to go to the defense of Liberty, but received orders from the Sixth Fleet commander to surface and proceed to Crete.

On 28 May 1968, in her last deployment before decommissioning, Requin departed Norfolk, Virginia, as part of the search effort for the missing nuclear attack submarine Scorpion (SSN-589). On 29 June 1968, Requin was reclassified AGSS-481 and in October 1968 she began inactivation at Norfolk. Decommissioned on 3 December 1968, she was towed to St. Petersburg, Florida in February 1969 and served there as a Naval Reserve Training ship adjacent to Naval Reserve Center St. Petersburg. On 30 June 1971 Requin was reclassified as IXSS-481, and on 20 December 1971 she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register.