Launched: 5 April 1958 - USS Growler (SSG-577)
Growler was laid down on 15 February 1955 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 5 April 1958 sponsored by Mrs. Robert K. Byerts, widow of Commander Thomas B. Oakley, Jr., who commanded the third Growler on her 9th, 10th, and fatal 11th war patrols.
According to the documentary "Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines", the primary target for Growler in the event of a nuclear exchange would be to eliminate the Soviet naval base at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The patrols made by Growler and her sisters represented the first ever deterrent patrols in the history of the submarine Navy, preceding those made by the Polaris missile submarines.
From May 1960 through December 1963, Growler made nine such deterrent mission patrols, the fourth of which, terminated at Yokosuka, Japan, on 24 April 1962, as the Navy displayed one of its newest weapons.
Decommissioned, 25 May 1964, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA.;
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Mare Island Group; Struck from the Naval Register, 30 September 1980;
Final Disposition, on permanent display, 29 September 1988, as a museum ship, Intrepid Park, New York, NY.
Photo caption: Growler (SSG-577) looking over her bulbous missile hanger, underway, with a Regulus missile in the launcher pod. Circa 1959-60.
On March 26, 1945, the American General Patton sends a task force on a secret mission, which is supposed to be a diversion, but in fact aims to free Patton's son-in-law Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters from the German prisoner camp Oflag XIII-B near Hammelburg in Germany. On 26 March 1945, LTC Creighton Abrams, commanding officer of Combat Command B - 4th US Armored Division, gathered the special task force. The camp was taken by this task force on March 27, 1945, but the liberators did not have the capacity to take all 1500 POWs with them and were forced to leave those requiring medical attention behind until reinforcements could come. After several hours of dodging German troops, "Task Force Baum" was surrounded at a nearby farm. Captain Baum, wounded in the leg, was captured the following evening and sent to Oflag XIII-B at Hammelburg.
The 14th Armored Division liberated the camp on April 6th, 1945 just two weeks after the failed Task Force Baum raid and freeing Baum and Waters. Captain Baum was returned to the 4th Armored Division soon after. He was promoted to Major and Patton was alleged to have offered Baum a Medal of Honor for a successful completion of the mission. As a Medal of Honor warrants an investigation into the events behind the awarding of it, which Patton would not have wanted, Baum received a Distinguished Service Cross. Patton awarded it to him personally.
The mission was a total failure, of the 314 officers and men, 26 were killed during the raid. Only a few made it back to the American lines, the rest was taken prisoners by the Germans. General Patton stated later that he didn't know for sure, that his son-in-law was in Camp Hammelburg. He said that his goals were to liberated American POWs and to bluff the Germans about the Third Army's direction of attack.