USS Pickerel (SS-524), a Tench-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for a young or small pike.

After sea trials, Pickerel departed New London, Connecticut, on 10 August, and headed for Hawaii via East and Gulf coast ports, and the Panama Canal and arrived Pearl Harbor on 28 September where she joined SubDiv 11.

Much of Pickerel's early years are documented in Paul R. Schratz memoirs Submarine Commander: A Story of World War II and Korea, where Paul as Pickerel's commissioning captain walks the readers through putting a new modernized GUPPY Tench-class Fleet submarine through its paces.

Pickerel alternated North Pacific with WestPac duty through 1963 with the exception of a conversion period during 1962 for GUPPY III modernization.

Pickerel operated out of Pearl Harbor during 1964 until 28 December, when she departed en route Yokosuka to begin a WestPac tour as a unit of the Seventh Fleet.

The United States Department of the Navy's Naval Historical Center maintains that Pickerel became Primo Longobardo (S 501) and Volador became Gianfranco Gazzana Priaroggia.