SS-524 USS Pickerel Patch

SS-524 USS PICKEREL USS Pickerel (SS-524), 1949-1972 USS Pickerel (SS-524), a 1570-ton Tench class submarine, was built at the Boston Yard. Her construction was suspended in 1946 and she was ultimately completed to the streamlined "GUPPY" ("Greater Underwater Propulsive Power") configuration. Commissioned in April 1949, Pickerel was sent to the Pacific in August and spent her U.S. operational career in that ocean. In March and April 1950 she made a record 5200-mile submerged trans-Pacific voyage. Later in that year, she served in the Korean War zone. During the next two decades, Pickerel deployed to Asiatic waters on several occasions. She was given a "GUPPY III" modernization in 1962 that lengthened her hull and visibly gave her a larger "sail" and three prominent "PUFFS" sonar fins. During the later 1960s, she was employed off Vietnam. USS Pickerel was decommissioned and loaned to Italy in August 1972. She was sold to that nation five years later. The Italian renamed her Primo Longobardo and kept her in service until 1980.