All Info is from the commissioning book that I received when I was a plankowner and my memory except where stated.
All ranks are as of commissioning date
The members of BIRMINGHAM Precommissioning Crew who are listed here, labored long and hard during the building of BIRMINGHAM but are not present as crew members at this commissioning. They are all listed herein in recognition of the significant contributions they made toward her final excellence. They are considered shipmates.
The Birmingham is the third ship to bear that name. The first Birmingham (CL-2)was a light cruiser commissioned in April 1908. She had a varied
career prior to World War I. She was in turn a test platform for naval aviation (from her deck on Nov. 14 1910 Eugene Ely made the
first airplane take-off from a warship), a member of the Atlantic Ice Patrol, a tender to the Atlantic Fleet Torpedo Flotilla, and flagship for the
Destroyer Force Atlantic Fleet. During World War I, she sailed as part of the first troop convoy to Europe. She served the rest of the war in European
waters. Following the war, BIRMIMGHAM was the flagship Destroyer Squardron Pacific Fleet. She was decommissiond on 1 December 1923.
The second BIRMINGHAM (CL-62) was built by Newport News Shipbuilding and commissioned on 29 January 1943. She sailed from Norfolk on 2 June 1943
and took part in the invasion of Sicily. She was then transferred to the Pacific Fleet and to glory. Her first acitons were strikes at Wake Island
and Tarawa. Next came the landing at Bougainville. Here the first serious damage to the "Mighty B" came on 8 November 1943. She was hit by torpedoes
both on the bow and the stern. Still she continued fighting with all batteries and at full speed until a dive bomber landed a bomb on her number four turret.
BIRMINGHAM steamed 5,000 miles to Pearl harbor and then to the west coast for repairs. She was back in action on 14 June 1944 at the Marians landings.
During these landings alone she fired more than 18,000 rounds. Action then followed at Palau, Mindanao Okinawa, Formosa, and Leyte. On 24 October 1944 BIRMINGHAM
was off the coast of Luzon when the USS PRINCETON was mortally hit. BIRMINGHAM had a line over to PRINCETON to land a damage control party when the PRINCETON'S
torpedo magazines exploded. The carnage on BIRMINGHAM was terrible. Two hundred twenty-nine men were killed and over four hundred wounded. BIRMINGHAM
returned to the west coast for repairs. By Feburary 1945 she was back in action at Iwo Jima. Her third battle damage came on 4 May 1945 at the Okinawa
landings. A Kamikaze struck just aft of number two turret. Its 500 pound bomb exploded in the sick bay killin forty-five men. BIRMINGHAM returned
Pearl harbor for repairs. By 26 August she was again back in action at Okinawa. Folloing the war she was decommissioned on 2 Feb. 1947. BIRMINGHAM had
earned nine battle stars.
Additional information found online.
Los Angeles Class Attack Submarine: Laid down, 26 April 1975, at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, Co., Newport News, VA.; Launched, 29 October 1977; Commissioned, USS Birmingham (SSN-695), 16 December 1978. Decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the Naval Register, 22 December 1997; Final Disposition, to be disposed of through NPSSRP (Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA.
Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 6,000 t., Submerged: 6.927 t.; Length 360'; Beam 33'; Draft 29'; Speed, Surfaced 25 kts, Submerged 30+ kts; Depth limit 950'; Complement 129; Armament, four 21" torpedo tubes aft of bow, Harpoon and Tomahawk ASM/LAM missiles from 12 VLS tubes, MK-48 torpedoes; Combat Systems, AN/BPS-5 surface search radar, AN/BPS-15 A/16 navigation and fire control radar, TB-16D passive towed sonar arrays, TB-23 passive "thin line" towed array, AN/BQG-5D wide aperture flank array, AN/BQQ-5D/E low frequency spherical sonar array, AN/BQS-15 close range active sonar (for ice detection); MIDAS Mine and Ice Detection Avoidance System, SADS-TG active detection sonar, Type 2 attack periscope (port), Type 18 search periscope (starboard), AN/BSY-1 (primary computer); UYK-7; UYK-43; UYK-44, WLR-9 Acoustic Intercept Receiver, ESM; Propulsion System, S6W nuclear reactor one propeller at 35,000 shp.