Tag Archives: 41 for freedom

Just days short of 60 Years in the SSBN Program…

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Norfolk Naval Shipyard on Wednesday announced they have successfully completed the inactivation of the Moored Training Ship Sam Rayburn (MTS 635), an evolution that included prepping the boat for towing to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in spring 2025.

What is a MTS?

Long the last remaining boat of her class still afloat, the MTS 635 was originally commissioned 2 December 1964 as SSBN-635, part of the James Madison-class of Cold War-era fleet ballistic missile (FBM) submarines.

USS Sam Rayburn (SSBN-635) c. 1964, with her missile hatches showing their “billiard ball” livery

A member of the famed “41 for Freedom” boats rushed into service to be the big stick of mutually assured destruction against the Soviets, Rayburn was named for the quiet but determined WWII/Korea War speaker of the House, Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn.

After carrying Polaris SLBMs on a rotating series of deterrent patrols from the East Coast and Rota, Spain, Rayburn had her missile compartment removed in 1985 as part of the SALT II treaty and decommissioned, transitioning to her role as an MTS.In the meantime, all of her sisters were disposed of through recycling by 2000, leaving Rayburn to linger on in her training role. Similarly, MTS Daniel Webster (MTS-626), originally a Lafayette-class FBM decommissioned in 1990, has been in the same tasking.

However, all things eventually end. As the MTS role has now transitioned to a pair of recently sidelined 1970s-construction Los Angeles-class attack boats– La Jolla (SSN/MTS 701) and San Francisco (SSN/MTS 711)— Webster and Rayburn are ready for razor blades.

Today, she looks pretty rough, as one would imagine.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) successfully completed the inactivation of the Moored Training Ship Sam Rayburn (MTS 635) Nov. 6, marking the Navy’s first inactivation of a Moored Training Ship. Sam Rayburn served at Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU)—Charleston for more than 30 years as a Moored Training Ship training Sailors in the operation, maintenance and supervision of nuclear propulsion systems.

And NNSY had to do lots of work to get her to look that good!

Ensuring the 60-year-old ship was ready for the voyage and storage required installing more than 250 lap plates on the non-pressure hull given several areas had experienced corrosion. Extensive welding was performed to ensure the integrity of the hull and piping systems during storage. The project team also installed and tested all required tow equipment.

Polaris Surface Surprise

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Some 60 years ago this month, an important show of force for the Fleet Ballistic Missile Progam:

The Lafayette class ballistic missile submarine USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Kennedy, Florida, on 20 April 1964. This was the first demonstration that Polaris subs could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the surface. Just 30 minutes earlier, Clay had successfully launched an A-2 missile submerged.

USN Photo 1094722

The above tactic would come in handy if, say, the FBM was stuck in port and an emergency launch order came, or, for instance, if surfaced in the icepack.

The objects flying through the air around the missile are launch adapters designed to detach themselves automatically once the missile has left the tube. The sub’s slight port list is a standard part of surface launch procedures. The tall mast is a temporary telemetry antenna installed for operations at the Cape only.

The 15th of the famed “41 for Freedom” boomers, Henry Clay was launched on 30 November 1962 and commissioned on 20 February 1964.

Henry Clay was decommissioned on 5 November 1990 and her recycling was completed on 30 September 1997.

‘A New Kind of Navy Man Pioneering a New Concept of Sea Power in the Age of Space’

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Enjoy this great 27-minute circa 1960 film “Man And The FBM” covering the Navy’s Cold War Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine force and the UGM-27 Polaris nuclear-tipped SLBMs they carried. 

Keep in mind, the film was made just a few years after USS Nautilus took to the sea and only 15 since the first, comparatively puny, A-bomb was dropped from a propeller-driven bomber.

These first nuclear-powered FBM submarines, armed with long-range strategic missiles, were ordered on 31 December 1957, with the building attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) lengthened with a 130-foot section to accommodate 16 Polaris missiles.

Rear Admiral William F. Rayborn, USN (left), and Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN, Chief of Naval Operations. Examine a cutaway model of the ballistic missile submarine George Washington (SSBN-598), July 1959. Official U.S. Navy photograph. Catalog#: USN 710496.

Completed as USS George Washington (SSBN-598), she was commissioned on 30 December 1959, just short of two years later, the first of the “41 for Freedom” boats that kicked off the strategic missile deterrent patrol system still maintained today. Footage of the GW’s commissioning is included in the film. 

Seldom heard from, the 41 boats of the FBM program made an incredible 2,824 armed patrols during their time on earth, each typically about 65 days. This is about 502 patrol years at sea during the Cold War.

Enjoy!

57-Year Old SSBN Finally Retires

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Long the last remaining boat of her class still afloat, the Moored Training Ship Sam Rayburn (MTS 635) was originally commissioned 2 December 1964 as SSBN-635, part of the James Madison-class of Cold War-era fleet ballistic missile (FBM) submarines.

USS Sam Rayburn (SSBN-635) c. 1964, with her missile hatches showing their “billiard ball” livery

A member of the famed “41 for Freedom” boats rushed into service to be the big stick of mutually assured destruction against the Soviets, Rayburn was named for the quiet but determined WWII/Korea War speaker of the House, Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn.

After carrying Polaris SLBMs on a rotating series of deterrent patrols from the East Coast and Rota, Spain, Rayburn had her missile compartment removed in 1985 as part of the SALT II treaty and decommissioned, transitioning to her role as an MTS.In the meantime, all of her sisters were disposed of through recycling by 2000, leaving Rayburn to linger on in her training role. Similarly, MTS Daniel Webster (MTS-626), originally a Lafayette-class FBM decommissioned in 1990, has been in the same tasking.

However, all things eventually end. As the MTS role is now transitioning to a pair of recently sidelined 1970s-construction Los Angeles-class attack boats– La Jolla (SSN/MTS 701) and San Francisco (SSN/MTS 711)— Webster and Rayburn are ready for razorblades.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) recently welcomed the Rayburn in advance of her inactivation, from where she will be towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for recycling

Navy Photo 210405-N-XX785-003 by Danny De Angelis

“USS Sam Rayburn has proudly served the U.S. Submarine Force and Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program since 1964, and we now welcome it to America’s Shipyard,” said Shipyard Commander Captain Dianna Wolfson. “Performing the first inactivation of a Moored Training Ship will develop another important facet in our service to the Fleet, and we look forward to excelling in our mission as one team.”

Pitching Clay, or, the ’41 for Freedom’ can fight surfaced, too

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USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a Polaris A-2 SLBM from the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Kennedy (Canaveral), Florida on 20 April 1964. The objects flying through the air around the missile are launch adapters designed to detach themselves automatically once the missile has left the tube.

The goal of the Polaris program was to launch a ready missile by 1965, and Clay was one of the last pegs to make it a reality.

Catalog # USN 1094722. Naval History and Heritage Command

This was the first demonstration that Polaris subs can launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the surface. 30 minutes earlier the Clay successfully launched an A-2 missile submerged.

Clay’s port list is a standard part of surface launch procedures. The tall mast is a temporary telemetry antenna installed for operations at the Cape only.

Named in honor of founding father Henry Clay, perhaps best known as the “Great Compromiser,” the boomer was part of the Lafayette-class of ballistic missile submarines that were made in the “41 for Freedom” program in the 1960s, all subs named after famous Americans to include the honorary Yank, the Marquis de Lafayette. Clay was commissioned 20 February 1964 and was decommissioned 5 November 1990 for recycling.

Seldom heard from, the boats of the 41 For Freedom program made an incredible 2824 strategic deterrent patrols during their time on earth, each typically about 65 days. This is about 502 patrol years at sea during the Cold War.

For more on the program, check out this 2016 seminar at the National Museum of the United States Navy including archival footage from the Strategic Systems Programs Office. The video is narrated by VADM Ken Malley, former SSP Director.

Last walk of the half-century old Polaris subs…

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Back in the darkest days of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy ran the “41 for Freedom” program which put an amazing 41 Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarines of the George Washington, Ethan Allen, Lafayette, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin classes in active service in record time. These boomers carried (at first) 16 UGM-27 Polaris, then later Poseidon and finally (in some cases) Trident SLBMs and held the dead-hand switch on the mutually assured destruction concept throughout the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s.

USS Sam Rayburn c. 1964, with her missile hatches showing their "billiard ball" livery

USS Sam Rayburn c. 1964, with her missile hatches showing their “billiard ball” livery

Rapidly replaced by the much larger, more efficient, and better armed Ohio-class in the mid-1980s, these boats were scrapped wholesale. The last one on (active) duty, USS Kamehameha (SSBN/SSN-642) was kept around until 2002 only because she spent the last decade of her life as a frogman boat.

But wait, there’s more!

In 1990, USS Daniel Webster (SSBN-626), a Lafayette-class ballistic missile submarine (FBM), and USS Sam Rayburn (SSBN-635) a James Madison-class FBM, were withdrawn from service, stricken, their torpedo tubes disabled, their missile tubes filled with concrete and the tube hatches were removed.

So what good are they? Well, they still had an active S5W reactor and as such, were reclassified as floating moored training ships (MSTs) assigned to the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Training Unit, Goose Creek, South Carolina.

The moored training ship Daniel Webster (still with her hull number MTS-626 and an active nuclear reactor) begins its tow from Norfolk Naval Shipyard to Charleston, S.C. on 21 August 2012 for the final quarter of its 16-month dry docking engineered maintenance availability more than three weeks ahead of schedule as she sailed under tow from Charleston,SC. to a scheduled overhaul in Virgina on 26 Sept.2011.USN photo # N-SY521-001 courtesy of navy.mil. via Ron Reeves. Via Navsource. Click to big up

The moored training ship Daniel Webster (still with her hull number MTS-626 and an active nuclear reactor) begins its tow from Norfolk Naval Shipyard to Charleston, S.C. on 21 August 2012 for the final quarter of its 16-month dry docking engineered maintenance availability more than three weeks ahead of schedule as she sailed under tow from Charleston,SC. to a scheduled overhaul in Virgina on 26 Sept.2011.USN photo # N-SY521-001 courtesy of navy.mil. via Ron Reeves. Via Navsource. Click to big up

Over the past quarter century they have trained the submarine force’s (as well as the Royal Navy’s) nuclear watch standers Now, that too will come to an end as they are the last S5W’s around.

Last month the retiring Los Angeles–class attack submarine USS La Jolla (SSN-701), commissioned in 1981, arrived at Norfolk for her conversion to an MST. She will be joined in this mission by sister USS San Francisco (SSN-711) of the same vintage within the next few years. At that point, Daniel Webster and Sam Rayburn will retire after more than 50 years service, having entered the fleet in 1964.