USS PARCHE DECOMMISSIONING...
A silent warrior's final day
By Chris Barron, Sun Staff
October 20, 2004
On a dark and gloomy rain-filled day, a shroud of secrecy
permeated the air on the Bremerton waterfront.
It was the perfect setting for the final day in
the top-secret career of the Bangor-based USS Parche, one of the world's most
prolific spy submarines.
By the time its life ended Tuesday in a
decommissioning ceremony at the Bremerton naval base, the Parche was the most
highly decorated ship in Navy history - even though most Americans have never
heard of it.
Commissioned in 1974, the Parche spent 30 years
and 19 deployments as America's top espionage sub, reportedly tapping the
undersea military communication lines of the Soviet Union during the Cold War,
plucking lost Soviet weaponry from the ocean floor and gathering intelligence on
other enemies afterward.
The Parche (pronounced PAR-chee) was officially
designated by the Navy as a "research and development" submarine. And
it did plenty of that, testing new sonar and undersea warfare technologies.
But its highly classified missions, none of which
have ever been officially confirmed, are the most intriguing aspect of its
history. Many of those missions were deemed to be of "vital importance to
U.S. national security," earning the submarine an unprecedented nine
Presidential Unit Citations. The vast majority of ships never receive even one.
For being the most decorated ship ever, shouldn't
more people be made aware of what it accomplished?
"Those that need to know, know," said a matter-of-fact
Rear Adm. Ben Wachendorf, who commanded the Parche from 1988 to 1993.
Wachendorf, now U.S. defense attaché in Moscow,
traveled from Russia to be at Tuesday's ceremony.
"I wouldn't have missed it for
anything," he said. "It means a lot to be able to say goodbye to an
old friend."
In fact, all but one of the Parche's nine former
commanders were present at the Parche's decommissioning. In addition, about 130
former crew members, most belonging to the USS Parche Association, were on hand
to witness the sub's inactivation.
Those who returned to see their sub one last time said it was not only
the camaraderie of submarine life that made Parche special, but also the exotic
and extremely challenging missions it completed, which often involved excruciatingly
long periods spent submerged with dwindling food and supplies.
"It's the end of the life cycle," said
Manchester resident Will Longman, chairman of the Parche Association.
"It's very meaningful. The camaraderie does not go away. And the uniqueness
of Parche imparts its own special camaraderie."
The Parche also was the last of the Navy's 37
Sturgeon-class fast attack subs to be deactivated - though it barely resembled
any of the otherr ships of that class.
Th at's because its hull was extended by 100 feet
to accommodate extensive classified modifications in a four-year stay at Mare
Island Naval Shipyard near San Francisco in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In 1994, the Parche and its crew of 190 moved from
Mare Island to Bangor. It had already earned six Presidential Unit Citations by
that time and earned another three after its transfer to Bangor, including a
ninth for its final deployment that ended in late September.
The Parche's final resume also included 13 Navy
Expeditionary Medals and 10 Navy Unit Commendations - all unprecedented
numbers.
"Parche has had a career unmatched in the
annals of submarine history," said Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan, commander of
the Pacific Fleet submar ine force.
"Parche has gathered enough citations that
are just truly remarkable ... based on her superb performance in critical
national tasking.
"She now ranks among the most
legendary vessels to ever have sailed under our flag."
Sullivan compared the Parche's storied past to
other historic Navy vessels, such USS Constitution, USS Monitor, USS Missouri and
USS Nautilus. "And now there is Parche," he said.
The ship figured prominently in "Blind Man's
Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage," a nonfiction
book published in the 1990s, which described how it spent its Cold War days
spying on the Soviet Union.
It's also been reported the sub, with a claw-like
device, was able to pi ck up lost Soviet missiles or bombs from the sea floor.
Later, it reportedly deployed unmanned drones to complete many of the espionage
tactics.
Following the Cold War, the Parche continued its
highly classified missions, with many observers citing an even higher sense of
secrecy. It's said the Parche spent plenty of time in the Persian Gulf,
gleaning intelligence on Iraq and Iran, and traveled through the Western Pacific
keeping tabs on China and North Korea.
Capt. Richard Charles, the Parche's first
commander, traveled from Mobile, Ala., for Tuesday's ceremony. He took command
while the sub was being built and went on its first deployment, a five-month
journey in the Mediterranean Sea. After that, the sub transferred to the West
Coast and began its spy missions a few years later.
"Those guys in the Pacific had all the
fun," Charles joked. "I just built it."
"It's always sad to see a ship retire, but
after a while, they are like you and me; they wear out."
Ironically, the name of the Parche's last at-sea
commander, Capt. Charles Richard, was a mirror image of the sub's first.
Richard was relieved in a change-of-command ceremony Tuesday after leading the
Parche on two post-September 11th deployments, including one that lasted 122
days in 2002.
"Being commander of this ship was an
extraordinary experience and I was fortunate to be given the experience,"
he said. "I hope that each man who has served aboard this ship will look
back and swell with pride kn owing that he answered his country's call."
Following the ceremony, the Parche, probably one
of the least known subs to the general public because of its highly classified
missions, silently shifted over to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. There, it will
be torn apart and recycled over the next few years.
And it's probably the first time in the
Parche's history that its whereabouts will be known.
"That just proves our success that nobody
knows what we do," said Bremerton resident Curt Mathews, who retired off
the Parche last year. "It's kind of fun. People say, 'The Parche? I never
heard of it?' Well, that's good.
"And we like it that way and that's why we
were successful in all of our missions