BREMERTON — This was no retirement cruise. On the final journey of the USS Pittsburgh, its 150-man crew took the 34-year-old fast-attack submarine from its home port in Connecticut to Bremerton via the Arctic.

"There aren't too many people in the history of the world, let alone the submarine force ... that have done that transit under the ice," said Cmdr. Jason Deichler, the submarine's final sea leader as it begins its inactivation and decommissioning at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

There have been visits to the increasingly contested Arctic ice and waters from Kitsap-based submarines before. But the Pittsburgh was the first such submarine, formerly part of the Atlantic force and among America's fleet of more than 60 Los Angeles-class nuclear attack subs in service since the 1980s, to make the trek through the Arctic en route to its decommissioning at Naval Base Kitsap and the shipyard, Deichler said.

But its month-long trip here was one of many "lasts," he said.

"All I heard from the men was, 'This is the last meal, this is the last turn, is the last shutdown,'" said Deichler, a native Pittsburgher who waved the NFL's Steelers' flag before disembarking Tuesday afternoon at the naval base. "The pride they have in this ship is just amazing, the best I've ever seen."

Commissioned in 1985, the 360-foot-long submarine was armed with torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles, some of which were launched against Iraq in both Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

The vessel, as part of the Navy's "most versatile platform," also wrapped up its most recent six-month deployment in February, one that included "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance," the commander said, as well as port visits to Spain, Norway and Scotland.

Rear Adm. Douglas Perry, commander of Bangor-based Submarine Group 9, rode aboard the Pittsburgh for a portion of its final ride to Washington, ending at Sinclair Inlet. Perry praised the crew and talked up Pittsburgh's legacy as a submarine on the "cutting edge" with propulsion technology and its ability to launch torpedoes and Tomahawks.

The boat also holds a special place in Perry's heart: it was the submarine on which he was qualified.

But Perry acknowledged the Pittsburgh's time had come, as the Los Angeles class vessels, to include the USS Bremerton, give way to the newer Virginia class subs.

"It's time for her to hand the torch off to the next class of submarines," he said.

The Navy currently inactivates and defuels nuclear-powered submarines at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

It was not just the last journey for the submarine but the last sea deployment for Jason Van Gordon, a senior chief whose family greeted him at the pier Tuesday. He'd only seen his family, which lives in Port Orchard, once since November.

There were lots of hugs for dad. "You've grown so much taller," he told daughter Kaitlyn 7. "You're gonna be taller than me before long."