USS DIXON (AS-37) (Submarine Tender) 'READY FOR SERVICE'

USS DIXON (AS-37), a L. Y. Spear Class Submarine Tender, was commissioned on 7 AUG 1971. 

USS DIXON served her country for 24 years, 4 months and 8 days, until decommissioned on 15 DEC 1995. Built in Quincy MA, USS DIXON was commissioned in Norfolk, VA and then steamed for her homeport of San Diego, CA. She spent ten years close to home on the West Coast, then made her first West Pac - Indian Ocean deployment in 1981. The cycle repeated with ten years passing again before another West Pac in 1992. USS DIXON tended the Fleet, winning numerous awards for Technical and Service Excellence over her career. In October 1995 she transited the Panama Canal, headed for Norfolk, VA. She was decommissioned in December 1995. In July 2003 the hulk of DIXON was sunk in a Fleet exercise off the coast of North Carolina.

The USS DIXON (AS-37) deployment history and significant events of her service career follow:

 

AS-37 Deployments - Major Events

Month Year     to         Month Year     Deployment / Event

SEP      1967                                        Keel Date: 7 SEP 1967

at General Dynamics

JUN     1970                                        Launch Date: 20 JUN 1970

AUG    1971                                        Commissioned: 7 AUG 1971

SEP      1971    -                                   Shellback Initiation - 16 SEP 1971 - Pacific Ocean

SEP      1971    -           JAN     1972    Mediterranean-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf

FEB     1973    -                                   Shellback Initiation - 4 FEB 1973 - Pacific Ocean

JAN     1981    -           MAY   1981    West Pac-Indian Ocean

MAY   1981    -                                   Shellback Initiation - 29 MAY 1981 - Pacific Ocean

MAY   1981    -                                   Shellback Initiation - 29 MAY 1981 - Pacific Ocean

Summer 1986 -                                    Open Invitation to HMS Swiftsure at San Diego

JAN     1987    -           JAN     1988    Alaska

MAY   1988    -           JUN     1988    Alaska

JUN     1992    -           JAN     1993    Desert Storm

JUN     1992    -           JAN     1993    Desert Storm

DEC     1992                                        Shellback Initiation - 11 DEC 1992 - Indian Ocean

OCT     1995    -           OCT     1995    Panama Canal

DEC     1995                                        Decommissioned: 15 DEC 1995

AS-37 General Specifications

Class: L. Y. Spear Class Submarine Tender

Named for: George E. Dixon

Complement: 1338 Officers and Enlisted

Displacement: 22640 tons

Length: 644 feet

Beam: 85 feet

Flank Speed: 20 knots

Final Disposition: Disposed of in support of Fleet training exercise 21 July 2003

More Navy Women Joining the Silent Service

Thirty Years Ago: Ensign Roberta McIntyre, the first female to qualify as a surface weapons officer, checking the main gauge board in the propulsion plant of the submarine tender USS Dixon, where she served as electrical officer.

The Navy has announced that women officers will start to be assigned to Virginia-class attack submarines as soon as next year. And that enlisted women would likely follow.

It also is assigning women to five more crews of the larger Trident-class submarines starting January 2013. There are currently 24 women assigned to submarines as of August 30. There are another 24 female officers in the submarine training pipeline, with 18 more waiting to enter after them.

The primary reason for this expansion is the lack of opportunity for advancement and increased responsibility. Naval leaders found in the early 1980s that restricting women to a limited type of ship (tenders, repair ships, and a training carrier) virtually prohibited them from serving in increasingly responsible billets up the chain of command that would eventually lead to command at sea.

Many female surface warfare officers left the Navy in the mid-1980s because there was no career path. By 1987 the “Combat Logistic Force” ships (ships that provided food, fuel and ammunition via underway replenishment) opened, and in 1994 women were being assigned to surface combatants. The Navy does not want to repeat the mistake of spending thousands of dollars in training prospective submarine officers, only to have them leave the submarine force for lack of submarines for them to serve aboard.

As then-Chief of Naval Personnel Admiral Ronald Zlatoper emphasized in May 1993, during testimony to Congress at the hearings to open combatant surface ships to women, changes to the assignment of women in ships is evolutionary, not revolutionary.

He said it is, “a logical progression after 50 years of service by Navy women…including 20 years in naval aviation and 15 years at sea.” Well, women have now been in naval aviation for 40 years and in ships for 35 years…it is certainly time for women to be assigned to submarines without the broo-ha-ha we are still seeing in letters to the editor of Navy Times because of a fraternization scandal involving a Naval Academy female midshipman and the chief of the boat — the top enlisted sailor — aboard the USS Nebraska, a ballistic-missile submarine.

Part of the problem is that it is a major personnel policy change, which always seems to throw men for a loop.

Naval tradition personified both the sea and ships as female, which provided both comfort and tragedy. Many naval traditions and folklore sprang from the relationship of women, the sea and ships, and women on board ships were actually considered to be good luck. There are also historical accounts of women leading their nations in war, on both land and sea. Nevertheless, the U.S. Navy did not allow women as permanent members of ships’ crews until 1978, late in the 20th century.

This created an ethos of exclusion and male privilege that persists to this day.

I am frankly tired of hearing the same old whiny reasons why women should not serve on submarines: that there’s no value-added to having women aboard; it’s pushing a social agenda to the detriment of readiness; the lack of privacy and tight quarters guarantee some physical contact will occur [and?]; the wives won’t like it.

One compelling reason for allowing women to serve is a growing shortage of men willing to do so. Four years ago, the Naval Academy produced only 92 male officers for submarine duty, short of its 120-man requirement. Submariners must be volunteers, and satisfy strict physical, psychological and academic qualifications. Beyond that, more women — and fewer men — are getting technical degrees.

The bottom line is this: the Navy needs the women to maintain adequate personnel levels. And as always, the needs of the Navy take precedence over any individual point of view.

I close with a remark made by a Navy woman nearly 20 years ago to Navy Times:

I did not join the Navy to advance a social program, file subjective harassment suits, get pregnant, and accidentally carry out my assigned military mission in the process. I joined to serve my country.