USS Odax (SS-484), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for odax, a brilliantly colored, red and green fish belonging to the family Scaridae, the parrot fishes. Construction and commissioning Odax′s keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, on 4 December 1944. She was launched on 10 April 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Luise Fogarty, wife of Rhode Island Congressman John E. Fogarty, and commissioned on 11 July 1945. 1940s After shakedown off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Odax got underway 19 September 1945 for Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba to provide services to the Fleet Training Group. On 30 October 1945, she departed for Key West, Florida, for duty with the Fleet Sonar School and conducted operational training until September 1946. In September 1946, as part of the Bureau of Ships post-war investigation of the high-speed submarine, Odax was selected for conversion to a Greater Underwater Propulsive Power Program (GUPPY) submarine and returned to the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Completing conversion in August 1947, the first of the GUPPY submarines, she departed for Key West for extensive research development work. 1950s In August 1951, Odax again arrived at the Portsmouth Navy Yard for conversion. The major aspect was the addition of a snorkel and redesignation as a GUPPY II submarine. She first put her snorkel to tactical use in a large-scale convoy exercise in the spring of 1952. From 1952 through 1955, Odax provided services to the Operational Development Force and Fleet Sonar School in Key West and to the Fleet Training Group in Guantanamo Bay. During 1956 she received new equipment of improved design at the Charleston Naval Shipyard and departed in December, bound for the North Atlantic, to operate with the British Fleet. Subsequent operations in 1957 included services to the Operational Development Force, training submariners in the latest tactics of undersea warfare. In September 1958, Odax deployed to the Mediterranean Sea for a tour with the Sixth Fleet. During this deployment she transited the Suez Canal to participate in a Baghdad Pact exercise in the Arabian Sea. After her return home, Odax changed home port transferring to Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1959. She sailed from here early in 1960 to return to the North Atlantic for Barrier Patrol. 1960s Odax departed Charleston, South Carolina in August 1960 for South America to conduct exercises with naval