Abraham Lincoln got underway on 20 March 1961 for shakedown and weapons testing at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and returned to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 1 June for post-shakedown repairs. She left Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 17 July 1961 to return briefly to Cape Canaveral for further testing and then proceeded to Charleston, South Carolina, for a final loadout. Abraham Lincoln subsequently got underway on 28 August 1961 as a unit of SUBRON 14. She arrived at Holy Loch, Scotland, in October 1961. She underwent a refit alongside submarine tenderUSS Proteus during November 1961 and, upon its completion, commenced her first deterrent patrol.
Abraham Lincoln operated out of Holy Loch for the next four years. She alternated periods of upkeep at Holy Loch alongside Proteus or submarine tender USS Hunley with deterrent patrols from that port.
A highlight of this period occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Abraham Lincoln was in the middle of a scheduled four-week upkeep period when she received orders to deploy. She departed in short order and successfully carried out a 65-day patrol.
This work was completed on 3 June 1967, and Abraham Lincoln returned to her base at Holy Loch and resumed her schedule of deterrent patrols. She continued the pattern of alternating patrols with periods of upkeep alongside either submarine tender USS Simon Lake or submarine tender USS Canopus through 1972.
The extensive overhaul was completed in December 1973. After shakedown in the areas around Puget Sound and San Diego Abraham Lincoln transited the Panama Canal on 1 June 1974. She held tests and local operations at Cape Canaveral and Charleston, South Carolina. She retransitted the Panama Canal on 26 July 1974 and proceeded to her new home port, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where she arrived on 10 September 1974 to become part of CINCPAC Fleet and Squadron 15. She then continued on to her advanced base at Guam, arriving on 18 October 1974. She then began deterrent patrols in the Mariana Islands from Guam, which she carried out until 1978. She also participated in numerous tests and exercises. During this period, Abraham Lincoln became the first ballistic missile submarine to have conducted 50 strategic deterrent patrols, completing her 50th in 1978.
Deactivation, decommissioning, and disposal
Abraham Lincoln completed her last patrol in October 1979 and arrived at Bangor, Washington, on 30 October 1979 to commence offloading her missiles before beginning inactivation overhaul. Preparations for her retirement continued through 1980 and into 1981.
^Emerson, Jason (14 April 2021). "Lincoln's Descendant Disliked Her Famous Heritage". JasonEmerson.com (Lincoln Historian). Retrieved 9 November 2022. On May 14, 1960, the new ballistic-missile, nuclear-powered submarine Abraham Lincoln was launched from Portsmouth, N.H. Mary Lincoln Beckwith, dressed uncharacteristically in a blue and white polka dot dress, white gloves, white hat, and a pearl necklace, broke a bottle of champagne on the bow and christened the ship. How impressed she was by the occasion is found in her diary, in which she recorded that night: "Cloudy a.m. Sun out p.m. Broke bottle on boat. So home to bed." "Mary Lincoln Beckwith died July 10, 1975 in Rutland, Vt., from colon cancer at the age of seventy-seven. She never married or had any children."