COMSUBRON 6 will be the immediate superior in command for the six Los Angeles-class attack submarines homeported in Norfolk: USS Albany (SSN 753), USS Boise (SSN 764), USS Montpelier (SSN 765), USS Newport News (SSN 750), USS Norfolk (SSN 714), and USS Scranton (SSN 756). The COMSUBRON 6 staff will be responsible for preparing and certifying their submarines and crews for operations and warfighting in support of the combatant commanders’ objectives.Are those six the only submarines left in Norfolk, other than the 774s being built at Newport News? Since the Sub Force is normally loath to give up O-6 billets leading to Flag like this, I figure they had a lot of budgetary pressure to combine the staffs.
COMSUBRON 8 was originally commissioned in February 1946 in Groton, Conn. It was decommissioned in December 1969 and re-commissioned in August 1979 in Norfolk, where it has remained until the consolidation.
In other submarine news, both USS Florida (SSGN 728) and my old boat USS Connecticut (SSN 22) returned home from historic deployments. OK, Florida's deployment was probably a little more historic.
Have you ever been part of a decommissioning crew or staff?
