USS LOS ANGELES (SSN 688)

The first LOS ANGELES, a naval overseas tanker, was built by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, California. The ship was launched in 1916 and built for the Union Oil Company. After commissioning on 9 August 1917, she operated along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts making numerous trans-Atlantic crossings carrying fuel oil to Brest, France, and Portsmouth and Davenport, England. In 1919, the end of World War I, she was decommissioned and returned to her former owners.

The second LOS ANGELES (ZR-3), an air ship, was commissioned on 25 November 1924. The ship was built by the Zeppelin Airship Company at Friedrichshafen, Germany, for the United States Navy and was christened by Mrs. Coolidge, wife of President Calvin Coolidge. LAS ANGELES served for more than seven years as an aerial laboratory and testing platform for the development of coordinated naval air and sea tactics. she conducted the first mid-air docking of a fixed wing fighter by an airship. The second LOS ANGELES was decommissioned on 30 June 1932.

The third LOS ANGELES (CA-135), a heavy cruiser, was commissioned on 22 July 1945. She was financed by war bonds purchased by the citizens of Los Angeles. She operated in the Seventh Fleet off the China coast and in the Western Pacific from January 1946 until January 1947. She was deactivated on 9 April 1948. LOS ANGELES was recommissioned in January 1951 and deployed to the Far East during the Korean conflict. As the Flag Ship for RADM Arleigh E. Burke, Commander, Cruiser Division FIVE, she provided gunfire support at KoNiji, Wonsan, and other coastal areas. From 1953 to 1963 LOS ANGELES made six deployments to the Far East, and participated in the Quemoy-Matsu operation of 1958. She was overhauled twice by Mare Island Naval Shipyard (Interestingly, USS LOS ANGELES (SSN 688) was overhauled in the same drydock thirty years later). On 15 November 1963, USS LOS ANGELES (CA 135) was decommissioned.

USS LOS ANGELES (SSN 688), the fourth naval ship to be named after the City of Los Angeles, is the lead ship of her class. Designed as a follow-on to the STURGEON class submarines built during the 1960s, the Los Angeles class incorporated improved sound quieting and a larger propulsion plant than previous classes. Her many capabilities include wartime functions of undersea warfare, surface warfare, strike warfare, mining operations, special forces delivery, reconnaissance, carrier battle group support and escort, and intelligence collection. Her missiles can hit on target 75 percent of the Earth’s land surface.