Tiru—laid down on 17 April 1944 at Vallejo, California, by the Mare Island Navy Yard—remained uncompleted for three years as a result of the curtailment of the submarine building program at the end of World War II.

In the fall of 1947, the Navy decided to complete Tiru as a "GUPPY II" (Greater Underwater Propulsive Power) snorkel boat.

Tiru returned to Pearl Harbor for a major overhaul, entering the shipyard on 4 May 1959 for a fleet rehabilitation and modernization (FRAM) conversion to a "Guppy III".

Quick reaction averted a more serious tragedy and earned four crew members — one officer (Lieutenant Commander W. Earle Smith Jr.) and three enlisted men — the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

She conducted sea trials until 14 June 1966 when she departed Hawaii for the Naval Torpedo Station at Keyport, Washington, for an alignment and testing of her weapon system.

The submarine departed the West Coast on 9 July, bound for Hawaiian waters, and made port at Pearl Harbor nine days later to commence pre-deployment operations.

Three days later, she sailed to commence ASW exercises in the Coral Sea with warships of the Australian, British, New Zealand, and United States Navies.

Once repaired, Tiru left Yokosuka on 9 January 1967 for Chin Hae, South Korea, and while in transit provided services for an Iwakuni-based patrol plane squadron.

Departing the western Pacific on 4 October after a tour which had included a transit through the Vietnam War zone, Tiru returned to the West Coast; and her home port was changed to San Francisco, California, while she became a unit of SubDiv 52, SubRon 5, SubFlot 1.

An extensive search by Guam-based SAR forces had thus far turned up nothing, but Tiru located the five people—two of them Japanese nationals—and rescued them, despite darkness and high seas.

Soon after Tiru's arrival at Guam on 14 April 1970, the Japanese consul visited the submarine to express his government's appreciation for the ship's rescue mission.

Later transferred to SubFlot 6, SubRon 4, SubDiv 41, during 1972, Tiru operated in the Caribbean Sea and off the lower East Coast of the United States, with two deployments to European waters, into 1975.

The sale was never completed, and on 19 July 1979 Tiru was sunk as a target by the submarine Silversides at 36°N 73°W / 36°N 73°W / 36; -73, about 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.