USS Irex SS-482

• A launching first day cover and launch tag
• USS Irex patches and emblems
• The USS Irex SS482 Newsletter
• USS Irex reunions: history and current
• A history of the boat
  and her crew
• A photo album of the
  Irex and her crew
• Documents and sea stories
• Submarine sounds
  (not Irex)
• A page of links for
  the Irex

This web site is dedicated to the submarine USS Irex SS-482 and her crew. It contains a history, photographs, sea stories, documents and links relevant to the history of the boat. It draws upon many sources, but in particular the photos and stories so generously offered by crew members and information gleaned from the U.S.S. Irex (SS482) Newsletter edited over the years by Ron Liles, Wally Krupenevich and then by Al and Terry Hahn.

The Irex was a Tench class fleet submarine that was launched on 7 October 1944 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and commissioned on 14 May 1945. The boat operated from Key West in 1946 and 1947. In July 1947, she became the first operational submarine equipped with a snorkel. After testing the snorkel, the Irex was permanently assigned in February 1948 to Squadron 8 in New London, where she remained until being decommissioned in November 1969.

The boat and her crew had many travels and adventures under their belt, and there are important lessons here about social relations.

My name is (“Howard”) Haines Brown ET1 (SS), and I served on the Irex from June 1956 to August 1958. This site is continually being expanded and improved with the help of fellow crew members. Anyone with comments on the site, information or pictures, please do drop me a note.