Career
Awarded:	9 June 1960
Laid down:	15 August 1961
Launched:	4 April 1964
Commissioned:	3 November 1967
Fate:	submarine recycling
Stricken:	18 April 1994
General characteristics
Displacement:	3732 tons
Length:	292 ft 3 in (89 m)
Beam:	31 ft 8 in (9.7 m)
Draft:	24 ft (7.3 m)
Speed:	over 30 knots (56 km/h)
Complement:	99 officers and men
Armament:	4 x 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS Greenling (SSN-614), a Thresher-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the greenling , an elongate, fine-scaled fish found from Kamchatka to California. Her keel was laid down on 15 August 1961 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut.

On 10 April 1963, Thresher, the lead ship of Greeling's class, was lost due to severe design flaws in her non-nuclear piping systems. Because she was still early in the construction process, Greenling was one of three selected Thresher-class submarines selected for conversion to the "improved Thresher class." She was launched on 4 April 1964 sponsored by Mrs. H.C. Bruton. On 29 April, she was towed to Quincy, Massachusetts, for lengthening and submarine safety program (SUBSAFE) modifications. Modifications included increased buoyancy and adding 13 feet 9 inches of length to the hull, providing improved living and working conditions for the crew and space for additional equipment. Before construction of Greenling was completed, she and her sister ships were redesignated the Permit class, after the eldest surviving member of the class. Greenling was commissioned on 3 November 1967 with Commander Guy H.B. Schaffer in command.

On 27 May 1968, Greenling's fleet training exercise was interrupted by the search and rescue operation for USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Her Commanding Officer was designated the Commander of the SAR Task Element, which included of three nuclear and four diesel submarines. That assignment continued until 12 June 1968.

Greenling was decommissioned on 18 April 1994 and was subsequently disposed through the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 30 September 1994.

See USS Greenling for other ships of the same name.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships and the Web site http://www.ussgreenling.com/