Figure 1: Launching of the USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, 14 August 1965. Official US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) underway at sea, circa June 1966. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) in the Atlantic Ocean, 13 July 1967. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Ship's insignia for USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), adopted in 1966 when she was first commissioned. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: An HH-64A Sea Knight helicopter hovers over USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) as it lowers a crewman on board, 1 September 1977. Photograph courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Center by PH2 James Bishop. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Air waves generated by an HH-46A Sea Knight helicopter causes the water to ripple over USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), 1 September 1977. Photograph courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Center by PH2 James Bishop. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: The deck crew of George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) gather in the lines as an HH-46A Sea Knight helicopter hovers over the submarine. Photograph courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Center by PH2 James Bishop. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after the famous African-American scientist, the 7,300-ton USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) was a Benjamin Franklin class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine that was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on 15 June 1966. The ship was approximately 425 feet long and 33 feet wide, had a top speed of more than 20 knots (the actual top speed was classified), and had a crew of 100 officers and men. George Washington Carver was armed with 16 Polaris (and later was armed with Poseidon) nuclear missiles and four 21-inch torpedo tubes.
George Washington Carver was assigned to strategic deterrence patrols several months after being commissioned in June 1966. Based at Holy Loch, Scotland, the ship carried out a total of 73 patrols in the Atlantic area up until mid-1991, when she was transferred to the Pacific for her final tour of duty.
In October 1992, George Washington Carver was prepared for inactivation and was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 18 March 1993. The ship was sent to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, where she was scrapped as part of the US Navy’s Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. Scrapping was completed on 12 March 1994.
Nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines like George Washington Carver are at the tip of our nuclear deterrence and ships like these have served our nation for many years now. We should never take it for granted that, even today, ballistic-missile submarines are silently roaming the seas, prepared at a moments’ notice to strike against any enemy on any continent. They are the last (and most devastating) word when it comes to power projection and can deliver incredible destruction within a few minutes. Few countries on this planet have the capability of even building ships like this and it is hard to believe that American nuclear ballistic-missile submarines have only be around since 1959, when USS George Washington (SSBN-598) was commissioned. Fortunately, the US Navy was at the forefront of nuclear submarine design and manufacturing back at its inception in the 1950s, and remains so to this day.