The USS Simon Lake (AS-33) was a submarine tender, the lead ship of her class, laid down in 1963, launched in 1964, and commissioned the same year. The vessel sailed for Pearl Harbor on her shakedown cruise in 1965 and arrived at Charleston, where she tended submarines until 1966. The ship was assigned to Scotland as a tender for Submarine Squadron 14 and operated from there until 1970. Freshly converted to Poseidon missile capability, she serviced submarines from 1979 to 1985 and won two Battle Efficiency 'E' awards. Later, the tender underwent a significant upgrade and participated in Teamwork '92, a joint North Atlantic operation. Converted to an attack submarine tender, she received awards for superior service to the fleet in 1994. Four years later, the ship supported Operation Southern Watch in the Persian Gulf in 1998, receiving the Navy Unit Commendation and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. During her last two years of service, the vessel received further awards until decommissioning in 1999. The USS Simon Lake underwent deactivation in preparation for dismantling in 2015 and was scrapped in 2019. Hundreds of materials applied on ships contained asbestos - a carcinogenic mineral, the culprit of many Navy veterans' asbestos disease.
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