Commissioned on 29 March 1945, USS STICKLEBACK (SS-415) managed to squeeze in a two-day war patrol before the cease-fire was declared in mid-August. Less than a year later, she was decommissioned. But the Korean War brought the boat back into action; after the conflict ended she changed jobs again to take part in training operations.
On 28 May 1958, STICKLEBACK was in the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands, engaged in an antisubmarine warfare exercise with the destroyer escort USS SILVERSTEIN (DE-534) and a torpedo retriever boat. The following afternoon, the boat was completing a simulated torpedo run on SILVERSTEIN when she inexplicably lost all power and broached just 600 feet ahead of her former target. SILVERSTEIN threw her engines into reverse and turned hard to port, but she was unable to change course fast enough. She rammed the sub, tearing a large hole in her port side. The entire crew was offloaded and then SILVERSTEIN—along with the submarine USS SABALO (SS-302), the destroyer escort USS STURTEVANT, and the submarine rescue ship USS GREENLET (ASR-10), all of whom were at the scene when the accident occurred—attempted to pass lines beneath STICKLEBACK to hold her up, but to no avail. Just before 7 PM, the boat sank beneath the waves, coming to rest in close to 11,000 feet of water.
