USS L. MENDEL RIVERS (SSN 686)
Welcome to the RIVERSDELIVERS Home Page
Planning is underway for our 2011 Reunion in Charleston, SC
Stay tuned to the website, blog, and your email for reunion news and updates!
RIVERS DELIVERS!!
Planning is underway for our 2011 Reunion in Charleston, SC
Stay tuned to the website, blog, and your email for reunion news and updates!
RIVERS DELIVERS!!
Welcome to RIVERSDELIVERS.ORG. This website has been set up to allow crew members, families, and friends of the ex-USS L. MENDEL RIVERS (SSN 686) catch up with and keep in touch with former shipmates.
"Make no mistake - seapower...is vital to our survival against those who would destroy our freedom."
L. Mendel Rivers
HISTORY OF THE USS L. MENDEL RIVERS (SSN 686)
The USS L. MENDEL RIVERS is a long hull variant of the STURGEON Class of Submarines, the deepest diving and most versatile class of submarines in the US Fleet. She was about 300 feet long with a beam of 32 feet and a surface displacement of 4,442 tons. She was capable of speeds in excess of 20 knots and depths in excess of 800 feet. She was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., and was commissioned on February 1, 1975, the second to the last of her class.
RIVERS was equipped with the most sophisticated of submarine technology of her time, including an arsenal of MK 48 ADCAP torpedoes. She also had the ability to employ Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and conduct submarine launched mine laying. She was outfitted to operate and surface from under the Arctic ice floes, with vertical fairwater planes positioning and the strongest of hulls.
Yet RIVERS was equipped to perform more than the classic submarine mission. She was the paramount intelligence collecting platform; her ability to remain undetected in shallow waters and her capability for processing surveillance information were unmatched.
From the time of her commissioning, RIVERS played a substantial role in protecting the peace throughout the Cold War and into the modern times of small scale conflicts.
During the latter half of the Cold War, RIVERS operated on the frontier of anti-submarine warfare in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. After the Cold War, RIVERS was one of the few submarines fitted with a Dry Deck Shelter (DDS), enabling her to covertly insert special forces troops into littoral waters. The Dry Deck Shelter is a submersible launch hanger with a hyperbaric chamber that attached to the ship's Weapons Shipping Hatch. To this day, the DDS provides the most tactically practical means of SEAL delivery due to its size, capabilities, and location on a submarine, and RIVERS performed many special forces exercises, both at home and abroad.
The USS L. MENDEL RIVERS is a long hull variant of the STURGEON Class of Submarines, the deepest diving and most versatile class of submarines in the US Fleet. She was about 300 feet long with a beam of 32 feet and a surface displacement of 4,442 tons. She was capable of speeds in excess of 20 knots and depths in excess of 800 feet. She was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., and was commissioned on February 1, 1975, the second to the last of her class.
RIVERS was equipped with the most sophisticated of submarine technology of her time, including an arsenal of MK 48 ADCAP torpedoes. She also had the ability to employ Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and conduct submarine launched mine laying. She was outfitted to operate and surface from under the Arctic ice floes, with vertical fairwater planes positioning and the strongest of hulls.
Yet RIVERS was equipped to perform more than the classic submarine mission. She was the paramount intelligence collecting platform; her ability to remain undetected in shallow waters and her capability for processing surveillance information were unmatched.
From the time of her commissioning, RIVERS played a substantial role in protecting the peace throughout the Cold War and into the modern times of small scale conflicts.
During the latter half of the Cold War, RIVERS operated on the frontier of anti-submarine warfare in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. After the Cold War, RIVERS was one of the few submarines fitted with a Dry Deck Shelter (DDS), enabling her to covertly insert special forces troops into littoral waters. The Dry Deck Shelter is a submersible launch hanger with a hyperbaric chamber that attached to the ship's Weapons Shipping Hatch. To this day, the DDS provides the most tactically practical means of SEAL delivery due to its size, capabilities, and location on a submarine, and RIVERS performed many special forces exercises, both at home and abroad.
The current webmaster is Brian Daugherty
(MMC(SS)(Retired) and 686 MLPO from '96-'99)
Contact me at brian.daugherty@riversdelivers.org if you would like to help out with the construction or content of this website. I am particularly interested in receiving any photos of the boat that anyone might have.
If you would like to make a donation to aid in the financing and upkeep of this website click on the DONATE button below. Transactions are secure and are managed via PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal account to make a donation.
