August 17, 200520 yr From Navy Times San Francisco heads to yard By Christopher Munsey Times staff writer The attack submarine San Francisco, damaged during a collision with an undersea mountain earlier this year, departed Guam Aug. 17 for a surface transit across the Pacific for permanent repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington. San Francisco will make a stop in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during its voyage back to Washington, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, spokesman for Commander, Submarine Force Pacific. Including the time spent in Hawaii, the transit is expected to take “a few weeks”, Davis said. San Francisco will not submerge during the transit, but will make the trip under its own power, he said. One of three attack submarines forward-deployed in Guam, San Francisco crushed its bow during a collision with an undersea mountain in the Pacific near the Caroline Islands Jan. 8. The collision fatally injured a crew member, Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Joseph Allen Ashley. San Francisco underwent temporary repairs at a drydock in Guam at an estimated cost of $19 million, then started two months of training. The submarine completed a round of sea trials July 25-26, to prove it could safely make it back to Puget Sound under its own power. The current plan for a permanent repair at the Puget Sound shipyard calls for removing a bow section from a decommissioned Los Angeles-class submarine, removing San Francisco’s repaired bow, and fitting the replacement on, Navy officials have said. The cost estimate for the permanent repair is $79 million, said Patricia Dolan, a spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command. Navy officials have said they want to send a replacement submarine to Guam to make up for San Francisco’s absence during the repair process. The name of the replacement submarine has not been announced.
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