While in the Far East, the warship participated in various 7th Fleet exercises and visited ports in Japan, the Philippines, the Marianas, and at Hong Kong.

The submarine conducted normal operations out of San Diego until 4 October, when she entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for her first regular overhaul.

Following a post-deployment standdown and local operations, she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a regular overhaul.

There, she engaged in 7th Fleet training evolutions and made port visits at Hong Kong, in the Philippines, and in Japan.

In November, the warship voyaged back to the western Pacific, and the normal round of exercises and port visits ensued.

Her activities included the usual port visits and exercises as well as a tour of duty with Task Force 77 (TF 77) in the Gulf of Tonkin.

That repair period lasted through the year, and a material casualty to the snorkel piping system during sea trials in March 1973 extended it into July 1973.

During that tour of duty, she participated in exercises with units of the Korean and Taiwanese navies as well as with elements of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.

At the end of the South American deployment, she resumed normal operations out of San Diego, and that employment occupied her time for the remainder of 1979 and during 11 of the 12 months of 1980.

She transited the Panama Canal on 23 June and arrived in Naval Station Charleston, South Carolina, her new home port, on 6 July.

At the end of those operations, she visited Hamburg, West Germany, and Portsmouth, England, before returning to Charleston on 9 October.

She resumed active service in the western Atlantic and West Indian operating areas on 5 April 1984 and remained so engaged through the end of the year.

On 24 April 1988 Bonefish was submerged, during an exercise with guided-missile frigate USS Carr, about 160 mi (260 km) off the Atlantic coast of Florida, when seawater began leaking onto cables and electric buses in a battery-supply cableway.

Anti-Submarine Warfare Operator (AW) Petty Officer Third Class Larry B. Grossman, an Aviation Rescue Swimmer (AIRR) and Navy Diver from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Seven (HS-7), with total disregard for his own safety, jumped from an H-3 helicopter into the ocean and spent more than three hours rescuing stricken sailors.

Petty Officer Grossman swam thousands of yards, without a mask or his own life preserver, and continued to rescue submariners in the choppy waters.

He received minor chemical burns on his body from the diesel fuel spilled in the ocean and remained overnight in the medical ward on the aircraft carrier for his injuries.

[2][3][4] The frigate USS McCloy, serving as headquarters of the rescue operation, pulled alongside Bonefish to remove the bodies.

Naval authorities deemed the damage to Bonefish to be too extensive to warrant repair and thus decided to decommission and scrap her.

The Navy decommissioned Bonefish on 28 September 1988, struck her from the Naval Vessel Registry on 28 February 1989, and disposed of her by scrapping on 17 August 1989.