U.S.S. Asheville IV

A welcoming committee of Sea Gulls escorts and rides the Los Angeles Class Fast Attack Submarine USS ASHEVILLE (SSN 758) as she prepares to pulls into her homeport of Naval Base (NS) Point Loma, California (CA) after an underway period off the coast of Southern California.
1

The USS Asheville SSN-758 is a Los Angeles Class Nuclear Attack Submarine, and the fourth and most recent incarnation of the USS Asheville. The vessel was laid down January 6, 1987, launched on February 24, 1990, and commissioned on September 28, 1991. 2 The vessel is commanded by Commander Jeremy A. Pelstring, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy (B.S. in Ocean Engineering), as well as the University of Virginia (B.S. in Mechanical Engineering). Commander Pelstring has previously served aboard the USS Michigan, the USS Helena, and the USS Montpelier.3

Homeported in Naval Base Guam, USS Asheville is the first naval vessel to have more than 3 namesakes. With Asheville represented among American cities like LA, Chicago, or Providence, Asheville mayor W. Louise Bissette Jr. remarked in 1989, “That’s pretty fast company for a small Mountain City of 60,000.”4

Specifications5

  • Displacement: 6,000 tons
  • Length: 360′
  • Beam: 33′
  • Draft: 29′
  • Speed: 25 knots surfaced, 30+ knots submerged
  • Guns: 3″
  • Crew: 20 officers, 110 enlisted


To view the Microsoft Sway Presentation below in full-screen, The Milestones of the SSN-758, click the second box from the right in the upper right hand corner of the Sway.

  1. US Navy, A Welcoming Committee of Sea Gulls, digital image, Wikimedia Commons, 2003 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Asheville_(SSN-758).jpg
  2. Walter Ashe, “Narratives by Walter Ashe,” Box 1, Folder 1, Walter Ashe Collection. D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections. University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC.

  3. “USS Asheville (SSN 758).” Submarine Force Pacific. https://www.csp.navy.mil/asheville/CO/.

  4. Barbara Blake, Asheville Citizen-Times, October 30, 1986, Box 1, Folder 2, Walter Ashe Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC.
  5. “USS Asheville (SSN-752),” United States Naval Vessel Register.
    https://www.nvr.navy.mil/SHIPDETAILS/SHIPSDETAIL_SSN_758_2004.HTML