Groton - Standing on top of the research submarine NR-1, Cmdr. John P. McGrath looked over his shoulder Wednesday afternoon as a flash in the distance illuminated a blackened sky.

McGrath scurried down into the vessel when it began to pour, and the crew sped up efforts to tie the Naval Research Vessel to the pier at the Naval Submarine Base.

But even the thunder and lightning could not stop Jennifer Tevepaugh, who had been promised the first kiss. She dashed out from under a tent to greet her returning husband, Storekeeper Leading Petty Officer Roger Tevepaugh, and even lingered in the rain to pose for pictures.

”Whatever it takes,” she said.

Meanwhile, McGrath's 7-year-old daughter, Kelly, was jumping up and down in anticipation of seeing her dad. “I can't wait till I get to hug him,” she yelled.

”Me too,” said McGrath's wife, Kimberly, who was holding the couple's other daughter, Meghan, 2, on her hip.

McGrath, the officer in charge, briefly hugged and kissed his family after stepping ashore - and before the wind began to blow rain into the tent, putting a damper on the festivities.

”It's not raining on my parade,” McGrath said as he led the crowd into a nearby office building.

It was a bittersweet moment for the sub's crew; it was the last time they would pull up to the pier on the NR-1 to be greeted by family and friends following a successful deployment.

The NR-1, scheduled to be inactivated by the end of this year after almost 40 years in service, is the Navy's only nuclear-powered, deep-diving ocean engineering and research submarine, and there currently are no plans to build another. The reactor core would last until 2012, but the Navy has not budgeted for the normal maintenance to run the ship until the end of its life.

”It's the end of an era for a very unusual Navy asset,” said McGrath, who also served as the engineer officer on NR-1 from 1997 to 2000.

During the recent four-month deployment, McGrath said the crew completed three missions successfully. He said he could not talk about two of the missions for security reasons. But the third, helping a local foundation search for the wreck of John Paul Jones' Revolutionary War ship the Bonhomme Richard, was no secret.

What they found, however, still is. That's because both the researchers at the Ocean Technology Foundation in Groton and the NR-1 crew are not sure whether one of the shipwrecks they saw off of Flamborough Head, England, is in fact the Bonhomme Richard.

”Maybe,” McGrath said, when asked whether the search was successful. “We investigated 26 wrecks, and we have one candidate that is very intriguing and probably warrants further investigation.”

Melissa Ryan, the foundation's project manager, said the foundation is analyzing the data, and she remains confident that the Bonhomme Richard is within the search area. The NR-1, she said, exceeded her expectations.

McGrath said he “couldn't think of a more fitting way to write the final page in this ship's history than by searching for the Bonhomme Richard.”

The crew will now remove the submarine's equipment from its support ship, the Carolyn Chouest, prepare for the inactivation process at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and plan an inactivation ceremony in Groton, scheduled for Nov. 21.

McGrath said it will take at least six months to dismantle the submarine at the New Hampshire shipyard.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, hopes the NR-1 will then return to Groton. His staffers have asked the Navy and local organizations about the possibility of moving the sub to the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum, which is already home to the USS Nautilus (SSN 571).

J.GROGAN@THEDAY.COM

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