The USS Pogy was but one of some 30+ front-line nuclear attack subs in the Sturgeon class, and performed monitoring and intelligence gathering during the "Cold War" era. Pogy's missions included clandestine operations all over the world, and she was equipped with the latest and greatest gear, as well as the most elite submarine crews ever assembled. Equipped with the most advanced sonar at the time, Pogy was one of the very first boats to pioneer the use of the towed-array sonar system, which has since become standard equipment on every military submarine on the planet. Pogy's sonar crews set the standard for excellence in sonar, and Pogy's contribution to passive sonar research is legendary.

Pogy was also a beta test platform for some of the most advanced ECM radio gear, and her periscope optics included thermal imaging equipment long before any other boats had such gear.

Pogy also contributed to submarine rescue research, particpating in DSRV testing.

Pogy's opponents were primarily Russian boats. The Russian boats were no match for the US's superior design in terms of quietness, and onboard technology. The only advantage the Russians had against Pogy was speed, which meant they were very noisy and easy to track. Now the real threat from Russian subs is their fleet of rusting junk sitting in the water waiting to contaminate their harbors with deadly radiation. Although they had more boats, so much for "making it up in volume", their penchant for "cheap and fast" ultimately results in them endangering their own country and global water supplies more than any other.

Pogy outlived her cost to maintain and was ultimately scrapped, along with other Sturgeon boats of her era, (See Submarine Recylcing Program Page By Don Shelton) which was painful to hear about, since the design and construction of these Sturgeon class attack boats actually exceeded later boats built to replace that class. See our special page about the bizarre art installation called The Fin Project.

Sturgeon class boats replaced the dreaded Thresher-era boats, and Sturgeons could dive deeper than the newer Los Angeles class boats, and featured more watertight compartments, and superb backup systems designed to handle catastrophic system failures, ensuring a much better survival rate in a combat or emergency situation.

Pogy ultimately finished out her 30+ year life span on arctic research missions and this was probably her crowning achievement, an envy of earlier crews.

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