TCG Uluçalireis (S-338) (Ex-USS Thornback SS-418)

TCG Uluçalireis (S-338) (Ex-USS Thornback SS-418) at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum

USS Thornback saw service in the last months of WWII, sinking one Japanese warship and damaging another, before returning to the US and being placed in the Reserve Fleet. In 1953 she was converted to the latest Guppy IIA-class specification and re-entered service in 1953, serving in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean. USS Thornback was transferred to the Turkish Navy on 2nd July 1971, and was immediately renamed TCG Uluçalireis with pennant number S-338. She then gave thirty years of valuable service to the Republic of Turkey before being finally transferred to the care of the Rahmi M Koç Museum in 2001. During her Turkish Navy service TCG Uluçalireis received many awards for meritorious service, and participated in many NATO and national operations in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black Seas.

TCG Uluçalireis remains the property of the Turkish Navy.