It's History Time...My favorite Ship

Growing up and traveling between New London and Groton, I was always trying to see off the Gold Star Bridge to see my Ship at State pier. It was easier then because there was only on bridge, What is now the Southbound Span of I-95. Sitting down below was the AS11 U.S.S. Fulton, Submarine tender. She always looked like a Mother with her children all nestled along side.

I have video footage taken of her being towed down the Thames River when she left for the last time  in 1991.

She actually had a rather eventful career, Her keel was laid in 1939, and she was launched in December 1940. She was commissioned in September 1941 and during World War Two was assigned to the Asiatic Pacific theater.

Off Saipan in 1944

USS SkipJack, USS Nautilus, USS Triton, alongside at New London.

In 1946 she was assigned to Joint Task Force , Service Group for Operation Crossroads (Atomic Bomb Testing at Bikini Atoll)

She was Decommissioned in April 1947 and sent to the California as a member of the Reserve Fleet.
 She was recommissioned in 1951, and Decommissioned again in September 1991, In December of that year she was struck from the Naval Register.

In October of 1994 she was transferred to the Maritime Administration and lay up in the James River, Lee Hall VA, for the National Defense Reserve Fleet.

On November 15, 1995 she was sold for Scrapping in Brownsville Texas.

Launched in 1940, Scrapped in 1995, she was around for 55 years of service.
Which, as I write this is the same amount of time I have been around, perhaps scrapping is closer than I thought.