The contract to build Pogy was awarded on 23 March 1963, and her keel was laid down on 5 May 1964 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 3 June 1967, under the sponsorship of Mrs. George Wales. She was the last ship launched by New York Shipbuilding which went out of business shortly afterwards. On 5 June 1967, the contract for her construction was canceled, and she was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an incomplete state and laid up.
This section needs expansion with: History for 1971-1975. You can help by adding to it. (January 2010)
Pogy put to sea on 22 April 1975 for local operations. On 27 April 1975, about 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) off the coast of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, her lookout sighted a capsized 15-foot (4.6-meter) sailboat drifting out to sea, and the crew quickly rescued the boat's owner. He had been in the water for about an hour, and his only injuries were scrapes and bruises incurred while being hoisted up the rough side of the submarine. The same day, Pogy conducted SINKEX 1-75, a test of a warshot Mark 48 torpedo against a target submarine. She intercepted the decommissioned hulk of submarine USS Carbonero (SS-337)[1] drifting on the surface and carrying a noisemaker for the torpedo to home on acoustically. Pogy verified positions using her periscope, then dived to about 200 feet (61 meters) to shoot the torpedo. Interior Communications Electrician IC1(SS) Joseph J. Varese, who had earned his Submarine Warfare insignia on Carbonero, and was now leading petty officer of Pogy's Interior Communications Division, was given the honor of throwing the firing switch to shoot the torpedo. A few minutes later, Pogy transmitted the traditional message: "SIGHTED SUBMARINE SANK SAME".
This section needs expansion with: History for 1975-1996. You can help by adding to it. (January 2010)
Having surfaced in the Arctic ice pack, crew members from the Pogy assemble a topside deck enclosure to provide protection from the elements while water samples are collected and cataloged in 1996.
On 25 August 1996, Pogy deployed in support of SCICEX-96 experiments. In October 1996, she transited the Bering Strait and began collecting thousands of water samples from over a hundred locations under the polar ice cap in the Arctic Ocean. She continuously recorded ocean currents and water salinity and temperature, and surfaced 19 times through the ice cap to measure surface conditions before returning to San Diego, California, on 26 November 1996.
This section needs expansion with: History for 1996-1999. You can help by adding to it. (January 2010)
Pogy's diving plane fins can be seen as part of The Fin Project at Pelican Harbor Park in Miami, Florida.
Pogy's Ballast Control Panel is on display at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, CT. There is a plaque on the rear wall of the exhibit denoting it as such.
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
United States
