Hey all, newbie to the forums, newbie to ship models, newbie to submarine models, working on that good old USS Skipjack.

I've decided to model the Skipjack as it was during decom, and I haven't been able to find much in the way of pictorial references. My problem really is this, when I was in Groton, I was never part of or witness to a decom, and I'm wondering if the boats get into full dress (flying pennants and such) during decom as they do for commissioning. If so, what is the proper order of the pennants? I knew it at one time, but it went the way of all that boot camp knowledge that was never actually used once I got to the fleet.

Thanks for the help, and I hope I'm not bringing up one of those questions that gets asked every other day.

Jon

I've been here a few years now and I've never seen this one asked. The only stupid question is one neve asked. I'm afraid I don't have the answer for you, but it seems to me I've seen pictures of ships being decommisioned, and they're pretty well dressed for it. No idea at all on the pennants.

Welcome aboard. I'll bet somebody here has the answer for you.

Where's COB, he'd know. He I'm sure would have seen one go through a decomission.

And welcome to the MSW!

Jon,
I've seen/been part of numerous decom ceremonies. I've never seen pennants displayed on a sub. Usually the ceremony involves brass and/or dignitaries who need a place to sit and stand. A small platform made of wood with a rail is placed on the hull aft of the sail. The front side has some red white and blue bunting. I was on the Seadragon in 1984 when we had to get the boat ready for the ceremony. We got some paint and covered the side facing the pier so it looked nice. The other side looked pretty shabby with rust and faded black paint. Go to google and type in "USS Parche decommissioning" and you'll see some pictures of a typical platform and how the ship is prepared.
HTH,
Cob