USS North Carolina (SSN 777) Leaves Dry Dock at Pearl Harbor

What the undocking of the "Lucky Girl" means, and why it matters to North Carolina.

On August 12, 2026, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) undocked the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS North Carolina (SSN 777). The boat left Dry Dock 1, transited the waters of Pearl Harbor, and moored pier-side to continue preparing for a return to operational status.

The Navy described the evolution as clearing a critical benchmark in the submarine's scheduled lifecycle maintenance period. The work is not finished. But the hardest, most visible chapter of it is.

What is a dry dock, and what does "undocking" mean?

A dry dock is a basin that can be sealed off and drained. A ship or submarine is floated in, the water is pumped out, and the hull settles onto a precisely arranged set of blocks on the dock floor. That exposes the entire hull, including everything that normally sits below the waterline, so crews can inspect, repair, and replace it.

Undocking is the reverse. The basin is flooded, the vessel lifts off the blocks and floats again, and it moves out to a pier. Work continues from there in what the Navy calls the waterborne phase.

For a submarine, the dry dock period is the only time the full hull is accessible. It is also the only time most people will ever see one out of the water, bow towering several stories above the dock floor.

Why was USS North Carolina in the shipyard?

North Carolina entered Dry Dock 1 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on September 4, 2024, at the start of a Depot Modernization Period, or DMP.

A DMP is a major scheduled overhaul that happens roughly at the midpoint of a submarine's service life. According to the Navy's 2024 announcement, the work on North Carolina included structural inspections and repairs, overhaul and replacement of complex mechanical and electrical systems, hull paint and coatings, system modernization, and nuclear work. At its peak, more than 600 people worked on the project daily.

Cmdr. Tad Robbins, the submarine's commanding officer at the time of docking, said the boat was approaching the midway point of her planned life cycle and that the upgrades were meant to keep her combat-ready well into the 2030s.

In other words, this was not a repair. It was a rebuild toward a longer, more capable future.

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Who actually did the work?

The shipyard's civilian workforce and the submarine's own crew, operating as one team.

That structure is the part outsiders tend to miss. A submarine in a shipyard is not handed over to contractors while the crew waits ashore. The crew stays on the job, integrated into the project, standing watches and working alongside shipyard tradespeople for the duration.

The Navy credited the undocking to alignment between Khonsa Phommavong, the PHNSY & IMF project supervisor for North Carolina, and Cmdr. Michael Fritts, the submarine's current commanding officer. Fritts arrived just after the boat entered dry dock and led from the deckplates throughout.

Shipyard Commander Capt. Ryan McCrillis put the credit squarely on the workforce, saying the real story is <cite index="39-1">the dedication of the people who made it happen</cite>.

Phommavong described long days and demanding conditions in the dock, and said the team came to call each other family.

Why is SSN 777 called the "Lucky Girl"?

Two reasons, both matters of record with the Navy.

The first is the hull number. SSN 777, triple sevens.

The second is older. Teak decking salvaged from the battleship USS North Carolina (BB 55), the World War II veteran now preserved as a memorial in Wilmington, is built into the submarine's structure as a good luck charm.

The submarine is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to carry the name North Carolina and the fourth boat of the Virginia class. She was commissioned May 3, 2008, in Wilmington. Sailors and the Navy alike refer to her as the Tar Heel boat.

What happens next?

North Carolina remains at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for the waterborne portion of the availability. When the Navy announced the DMP in 2024, it said the dry dock period would be followed by roughly ten months of systems testing and crew certification before the boat returns to the fleet.

The Navy has not announced a return-to-service date, and this post will not speculate on one.

Why this matters beyond Hawaii

USS North Carolina is homeported in Pearl Harbor and assigned to Submarine Squadron 1, about 4,700 miles from the state whose name she carries. Her crew and their families carry that name every day.

There is a second reason this milestone matters to North Carolinians, and it has nothing to do with the boat.

Everything described above depended on skilled tradespeople. Welders, pipefitters, riggers, shipwrights, electricians, machinists, nuclear-qualified workers, engineers, planners. Two days after North Carolina undocked, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard held a graduation ceremony for 165 newly certified tradespeople from its Apprentice Program and Worker Skills Progression Program. The apprenticeship is a four-year partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor and Honolulu Community College. Graduates earn an associate's degree and national journeyworker certification while working at the shipyard, which is Hawaii's largest industrial employer.

That is the model. That is also the gap.

The submarine industrial base needs roughly 250,000 skilled workers over the next seven years to sustain and build the undersea fleet. Those jobs are not only construction. They include undersea medicine, acoustics, oceanography, robotics, materials science, and advanced manufacturing. Most students have never heard of any of it.

Closing that gap is why the North Carolina Submarine Foundation is developing the STEM Education and Workforce Innovation Center (SEWIC) in Wilmington. A boat like North Carolina does not come out of dry dock on schedule without a workforce that knows how to do the work. Building that workforce starts long before anyone reaches a shipyard gate.

Quick facts: USS North Carolina (SSN 777)

• Class: Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, fourth of the class

• Commissioned: May 3, 2008, in Wilmington, North Carolina

• Homeport: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

• Assigned to: Submarine Squadron 1

• Nickname: The Lucky Girl. Also known as the Tar Heel boat

• Namesake: The State of North Carolina. Fourth U.S. Navy ship to carry the name

• Missions: Anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations support, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance

• Docked: September 4, 2024, Dry Dock 1, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

• Undocked: August 12, 2026

Support the crews

The North Carolina Submarine Foundation supports the crews and families of the three active-duty submarines connected to our state: USS North Carolina (SSN 777), USS Charlotte (SSN 766), and USS Asheville (SSN 758). We also work to build the maritime workforce the fleet depends on.

Sources: Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility via DVIDS, August 12, 2026; U.S. Navy and U.S. Pacific Fleet, September 2024. Photos by Camey Streff and Claudia LaMantia, U.S. Navy.