USS Ohio, America's oldest working sub, returns to Bremerton following deployment

BREMERTON — With a massive silver and black lei draped across its sail, the USS Ohio rumbled its way into Puget Sound on Monday for the first time in about two years.

The 560-foot-long Ohio, the country's oldest submarine, has been away from Naval Base Kitsap since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and in a time of increased tensions with China in the Indo-Pacific region. Its return to Bremerton was confirmed by Lt. Cmdr. Ben Anderson, a spokesman for the Navy's Submarine Group 9.

The Ohio and its sister boat, the USS Michigan, are often forward-deployed to Guam, where two teams of submariners alternate deployments to crew the boat and keep it in the Western Pacific.

Earlier this year, the Ohio and its crew trained with the Marine Corps' expeditionary forces near the Japanese island of Okinawa, among the ways the Navy and Marine Corps are integrating in increasingly volatile waters. And in 2020, the Ohio had to find ways to keep COVID-19 at bay, like other Navy vessels at sea, during the onset of the pandemic.

The 1981-commissioned Ohio was the first of its class of 18 boats. Once a ballistic-missile-carrying submarine, the Ohio and three others of its namesake class were converted to conventional weapons. In 2006, the Ohio's conversion to a guided-missile submarine was completed, and today, it carries around 150 Tomahawk missiles. It can also deploy teams of special forces like Navy SEALs.

The Ohio was also the first submarine to welcome a women officer aboard. It last completed a $223 million overhaul in 2019 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

The Ohio is due to be retired in 2026.

​​​​​​Josh Farley is a reporter covering the military and Bremerton for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-9227, josh.farley@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @joshfarley.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: USS Ohio returns to Bremerton following deployment