Career
Ordered:	20 July 1961
Laid down:	1 June 1962
Launched:	22 June 1963
Commissioned:	29 May 1964
Decommissioned:	23 July 1993
Fate:	submarine recycling
Stricken:	23 July 1993
General Characteristics
Length:	1143.3 meters (3751 feet)
Propulsion:	S5W reactor
Armament:
Motto:	United for Freedom

USS Tecumseh (SSBN-628), a James Madison-class ballistic missile submarine, was named William Penn when the contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 20 July 1961. She would have been the first ship of the United States Navy to bear that name, but was renamed on 11 April 1962, becoming the fourth ship to be named for the leader of the Shawnee people before her keel was laid down on 1 June 1962. She was launched on 22 June 1963 sponsored by Mrs. Robert L.F. Sikes, and commissioned on 29 May 1964, with Commander Arnett B. Taylor in command of the Blue Crew and Commander Charles S. Carlisle in command of the Gold Crew.

Based at Pearl Harbor, Tecumseh deployed to the Mariana Islands on 17 December 1964, arriving at Guam 12 days later to commence deterrent patrols. She conducted 21 strategic deterrent patrols into 1969, then transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. She proceeded via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal to the East Coast and arrived at Newport News, Virginia, on 8 November 1969. Soon thereafter, she entered the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company yards for a conversion which replaced her Polaris missile system with its Poseidon missile counterpart. Emerging from drydock on 9 May 1970, Tecumseh underwent a thorough overhaul through that fall and winter before being assigned a new home port of Charleston, South Carolina, on 18 February 1971.

She conducted sea trials and shakedown out of Charleston before conducting two deterrent patrols in late 1971. Subsequently deployed to Holy Loch, Scotland, Tecumseh arrived in Scottish waters on 9 February 1972. She conducted 18 more deterrent patrols out of Holy Loch through 1976.

21 years of history go here

Tecumseh was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 23 July 1993. Ex-Tecumseh entered the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program in Bremerton, Washington, and on 1 April 1994 ceased to exist.

See USS Tecumseh for other ships of the same name.

References

Based on data from the Naval Vessel Register