USSVI Dallas Base

It’s pretty likely that you have never heard of the US Navy’s most decorated warship. That’s because the Navy did not want you to hear of it while it was in service. What may be more fantastic is that it received all of those decorations without once firing a weapon in attack or defense.

The USS Parche was built in 1970 as a hunter/killer submarine. No one, not even the shipbuilders that worked on it, knew what was in store for this special ship. The Parche was built to be a nuclear submarine which would follow enemy vessels both above and below the sea and then destroy them. Part of the Sturgeon class as built, it received its commission in 1974 and served two years in the Atlantic Fleet as intended.