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Submarine Squadron 16 was
established during World War II, and amassed
more than 500,000 tons of enemy shipping sunk,
earning both the Presidential Unit Citation and
six Navy Unit Commendations before being
decommissioned after the war. The squadron was
formally recommissioned at Charleston, S.C., on
Oct. 18, 1963, as the Navy's second Fleet
Ballistic
Missile
(FBM) Submarine Squadron.
The Chief of Naval Operations
deployed Submarine Squadron 16 to Rota, Spain,
on Jan. 28, 1964, and embarked upon USS Proteus
(AS-19). USS Lafayette (SSBN 616) completed its
first FBM deterrent patrol with the Polaris
missile and commenced the first refit and
replenishment at Rota. During the early 1970s,
the submarines assigned to Squadron 16 were
completing conversion to the Poseidon missile.
That transition was completed when USS Francis
Scott Key (SSBN 657) returned to Rota on Jan.
14, 1974.
Treaty negotiations between
Spain and the United States in 1975 resulted in
a planned withdrawal of Squadron 16 from Spain,
and the Chief of Naval Operations ordered
studies to select a new refit site on the East
Coast. The treaty with Spain was ratified by the
U.S.
Congress
in June 1976 and called for the withdrawal of
the squadron from Spain by July 1979. Kings Bay,
Georgia, was selected as that new refit site,
and the site selected was announced by the
Secretary of the Navy in November 1976. |
