USS Irex (SS-482), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the irex, one of the oceanic fishes belonging to the family carangidae. Her keel was laid down on 2 October 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 26 January 1945 sponsored by Mrs. Allen J. Ellender, wife of Senator Ellender of Louisiana, and commissioned on 14 May 1945 with Commander J. D. Crowley in command.