On 18 December 1972, the Gold Crew successfully launched one Poseidon C-3 missile in support of Lewis and Clark's Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO).

On 19 June 1981, Lewis and Clark successfully fired four Poseidon C-3 missiles in a Follow-on Operational Test.

Deactivated while still in commission on 1 October 1991, Lewis and Clark was decommissioned on 27 June 1992 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 August 1992.

Her scrapping via the U.S. Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Bremerton, Washington began on 1 October 1995 and was completed on 23 September 1996.

Lewis and Clark's sail and fairwater planes and the top of her rudder are on display at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina, part of a memorial to the officers and men of the U.S. Navy Submarine Service who served during the Cold War.