USS Thresher (SS-200) - End of Active Duty

End of Active Duty

Clearing her patrol station, Thresher nested alongside Fulton (AS-11) for voyage repairs before pushing on for Oahu on 4 April 1945. Arriving at Pearl Harbor 20 days later, Thresher ended her active combat service, after fifteen war patrols. Undergoing a routine refit and voyage repairs, Thresher subsequently rendered target training services out of Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok. She was operating out of the latter base on 15 August 1945 when the war in the Pacific ended.

Thresher cleared Eniwetok on 15 September, arrived at Pearl Harbor on 22 September, and stood out to sea on 26 September. Making port at San Francisco, on 4 October, the boat subsequently left the West Coast on 31 October. She transited the Panama Canal on 10 November and arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 18 November. She was decommissioned there on 13 December 1945.

Thresher was recommissioned on 6 February 1946 to be used as a target during atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. However, during the refurbishing, it was decided she had deteriorated beyond economical repair, and work was stopped. Thresher was decommissioned for the final time on 12 July 1946. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 23 December 1947, and on 18 March 1948 sold for scrap to Max Siegel of Everett, Massachusetts.

Thresher received 15 battle stars and a Navy Unit Commendation for World War II service, placing her among the highest decorated US ships of the Second World War.