Bluegill was a Gato-class submarine, SS-242. Electric Boat at Groton laid her down on 17 December 1942. Mrs. W. Sterling Cole sponsored her at the launch on 8 August 1943, and the Navy commissioned her at New London on 11 November 1943. Eric L. Barr, Jr. had her from that day.
On her first patrol she met the light cruiser Yubari on 27 April 1944, after Yubari had landed troops at Sonsorol. Bluegill fired six torpedoes. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships says two of them struck. Yubari's own record counts one torpedo, and she sank the next morning. The destroyer Samidare charged. Bluegill's four stern torpedoes missed, and she went deep. Samidare was not sunk that day. A Navy Unit Commendation covers the patrol.
On 29 May a landing party from the boat raised a flag on Pratas Island. No ship was sunk in that landing.
She was decommissioned in reserve at Mare Island on 1 March 1946. She was recommissioned on 3 May 1951, taken out of commission on 7 July 1952 for a hunter-killer conversion, and recommissioned on 2 May 1953.