Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

About the Ship's Name

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS John C. Calhoun (SSBN 630)

USS JOHN C. CALHOUN was the 13^th LAFAYETTE - class nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine. The JOHN C. CALHOUN was built to accommodate the Polaris A3 missiles and was refitted with the Poseidon missiles from 1969 on. In 1980, JOHN C. CALHOUN received upgrades to carry the Trident I missiles.

Decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on March 28, 1994, the JOHN C. CALHOUN was adjacently disposed of through the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash. Recycling was completed on November 18, 1994.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS JOHN C. CALHOUN. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS JOHN C. CALHOUN memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Name:

John Caldwell Calhoun was born 18 March 1782 in Abbeville District, S.C., educated at Yale, and admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1807. Following a term in the state legislature from 1808 to 1809 Calhoun entered the House in 1811, where he quickly became a leader of the "War Hawks" and supported nationalistic legislation after the War of 1812.

He served as Secretary of War under Monroe; was a candidate for President in 1824; but was elected Vice-President, serving under Adams and Jackson between 1825 and 1832. Breaking with Jackson largely over nullification, Calhoun served in the Senate from 1832 until 1844 and became a leading exponent of state's rights and philosopher of nullification.

After a year as Tyler's Secretary of State, in which he secured the annexation of Texas, he returned to the Senate. A brilliant thinker and dynamic statesman, Calhoun was too ill to deliver his last speech, on the Compromise of 1850; and it was read instead by Senator Mason, of Virginia, 4 March 1850. Calhoun died in Washington 30 March 1850, to stand as America's greatest state's rights theoretician and one of its most distinguished legislators.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS JOHN C. CALHOUN History:

USS JOHN C. CALHOUN was one of the ten JAMES MADISON-class fleet ballistic missile submarines built as part of the United States Navy's "41 for Freedom" force during the Cold War. She was named for John C. Calhoun, the early-nineteenth-century South Carolina statesman and former vice president, reflecting the practice of naming these submarines after prominent American political figures. The contract to build the submarine was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Newport News, Virginia, on July 20, 1961, placing her in the second generation of U.S. Polaris missile submarines designed from the start to carry the Polaris A-3 missile.

Her keel was laid at Newport News on June 4, 1962, and the hull took shape in the context of rapidly intensifying Cold War nuclear competition, only months after the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis had demonstrated the centrality of strategic nuclear deterrence. The new submarine was launched at Newport News on June 22, 1963, with Rosalie J. Calhoun, a great-great-granddaughter of the namesake, serving as sponsor at the christening ceremony, a link between the historic politician and the modern nuclear vessel. JOHN C. CALHOUN was delivered to the Navy on September 8, 1964, and formally commissioned on September 15, 1964. Commander Deane L. Axene took command of the Blue crew and Commander Frank A. Thurtell commanded the Gold crew, establishing the dual-crew structure that allowed the boat to spend a maximum proportion of her life at sea on deterrent patrols.

Following commissioning, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN conducted shakedown operations and training along the Atlantic coast of the United States. These evolutions were aimed at proving her nuclear propulsion plant, sonar and navigation systems, and the complex Polaris missile fire-control and launch equipment. Official Navy histories agree that after this shakedown period and associated training, she began operational deterrent patrols on March 22, 1965, assigned to Submarine Squadron 18, the Atlantic-based squadron responsible for a significant portion of the U.S. sea-based nuclear deterrent.

Before entering routine patrol service, the submarine participated in missile test launches on the Atlantic Missile Range off Florida. On February 15, 1965, the Blue crew of USS JOHN C. CALHOUN successfully launched a Polaris A-3 missile from the submarine at Cape Canaveral (then often referred to as Cape Kennedy), an event recorded in contemporary missile-firing data and later highlighted by the ship's veterans. Range records also show another Polaris A-3 launch attributed to SSBN 630 on March 1, 1965, further confirming her early role in qualifying the A-3 system and the crew for operational duty. These tests took place in the broader context of refining the Polaris system a few years after its first successful submerged launch and as the United States was expanding its strategic missile submarine force to provide assured second-strike capability against the Soviet Union.

With the missile system proven, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN moved rapidly into the pattern of extended deterrent patrols that defined her career. Veterans' and association records state that her Polaris operational history included a first deterrent patrol completed in mid-August 1965, reflecting the March 22 start of patrol service, and that the Gold crew's first patrol began on October 15, 1965, by which time the dual-crew rotation was fully established.

Throughout the latter half of the 1960s, the Blue and Gold crews alternated in taking the submarine on classified Polaris A-3 patrols in the Atlantic, while the boat's logistical and maintenance support centered on her stateside homeport at Charleston, South Carolina, and the advanced base at Holy Loch, Scotland. Holy Loch, supported by submarine tenders, had become the first overseas Polaris base and was a key node in sustaining continuous patrol coverage close to potential launch areas.

By the late 1960s, as Polaris A-3 reached maturity, the Navy began upgrading part of the "41 for Freedom" force to carry the new Poseidon C-3 missile, which offered more warheads and improved accuracy. USS JOHN C. CALHOUN was selected for conversion. On August 4, 1969, she entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, to commence a major overhaul and conversion to Poseidon capability. During this yard period, her missile control, navigation, and launcher systems were modified, and the missile tubes were adapted for the larger C-3 missiles. She also received other modernization and maintenance typical of a mid-life overhaul, all taking place as the United States was grappling with strategic arms talks and the continuing war in Vietnam, both of which increased the importance of a credible and survivable strategic deterrent. Yard records and veterans' timelines agree that USS JOHN C. CALHOUN completed her Poseidon conversion and yard availability at Mare Island on February 22, 1971.

After leaving the shipyard, she transited from the Pacific back to the Atlantic via the Panama Canal. In the spring of 1971, she entered a new series of demonstration and shakedown operations, this time to prove the Poseidon system. On April 19, 1971, the Blue crew successfully launched a Poseidon C-3 missile in support of these DASO trials, followed on June 7, 1971, by a similar C-3 launch by the Gold crew. These firings, conducted on the Eastern Test Range, confirmed both the upgraded weapon system and the proficiency of the alternating crews.

On September 16, 1971, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN, now one of the early Poseidon-equipped SSBNs, deployed from Charleston for her first operational Poseidon deterrent patrol. She was the fifth SSBN to go to sea with Poseidon missiles, marking her as part of the vanguard of the new system within the Atlantic strategic force. Operating again under Submarine Squadron 18 and supported from Holy Loch, she resumed the cycle of submerged patrols and tender-supported refits that had characterized her Polaris years, now with a more capable missile load reflecting the technological progression from Polaris to Poseidon.

This Poseidon era produced the best-known milestone of the submarine's career. On a patrol in the North Atlantic in the spring of 1972, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN was selected to conduct the U.S. Navy's 1,000th fleet ballistic missile deterrent patrol. On completion of that patrol, she surfaced west of Scotland and proceeded to Holy Loch. Official photo captions and later historical summaries identify the date of this arrival as May 18, 1972, when the submarine entered port with crewmen topside and tug assistance to mark the end of the Navy's thousandth undersea ballistic missile submarine patrol. The event was widely recognized within the submarine community and symbolized the maturation of the U.S. SSBN force less than a decade after the first Polaris patrols.

Following this milestone, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN continued Poseidon patrols and periodic missile tests. On November 2, 1973, her Blue crew launched four Poseidon C-3 missiles in the third Poseidon operational test series, contributing to the continuing evaluation of the reliability and accuracy of the C-3 system. Throughout the mid-1970s, her activities remained largely classified, but the public record and veteran accounts confirm an ongoing pattern of deterrent patrols, crew turnovers, and refits from Charleston and Holy Loch, fitting into the larger framework of U.S. and NATO efforts to sustain a secure second-strike capability during a period marked by detente, strategic arms limitation agreements, and continued Soviet naval expansion.

By the late 1970s, the Navy had decided to backfit a subset of the JAMES MADISON- and BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-class SSBNs to carry the new TRIDENT I (C-4) missile, pending the entry into service of the larger OHIO-class TRIDENT submarines. USS JOHN C. CALHOUN was among those selected. She entered the JAMES MADISON-class Trident I (C-4) backfit program, a class-wide modernization effort that ran from late 1979 into early 1982 and progressively rearmed selected boats with the new missile system. While assigned to Submarine Squadron 16 at Kings Bay, Georgia, she underwent the major refit in 1980 in which her ballistic-missile system was modified from Poseidon C-3 to Trident I, with the associated changes to her strategic weapons spaces and combat systems necessary to operate within the emerging Trident support infrastructure centered on Kings Bay. The physical conversion to Trident I capability was completed on August 26, 1980, and on October 28, 1980 her Blue crew conducted the Demonstration and Shakedown Operation, launching a Trident I C-4 from the Eastern Test Range to verify the performance of the upgraded ship and missile complex before she rejoined the operational deterrent force.

Following the successful DASO, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN deployed on November 24, 1980 on her first strategic deterrent patrol armed with Trident I missiles from Kings Bay, and a subsequent four-missile operational test series on August 13, 1981 marked the conclusion of the intensive evaluation phase of her conversion and confirmed her full integration into the Atlantic Fleet's Trident I patrol cycle.

Trident missile chronology further notes that on August 24, 1984, she launched two TRIDENT I missiles during another operational test, again contributing data to the evaluation of the maturing TRIDENT I program. Throughout this period, she operated as part of the TRIDENT backfit squadron at Kings Bay, participating in the broader deployment of sea-based deterrent forces as the United States fielded both backfitted JAMES MADISON- / BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-class submarines and new-construction OHIO-class boats.

By the mid-1980s, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN required a refueling overhaul to extend her reactor core life and allow continued service into the 1990s. On October 1, 1984, she began a refueling overhaul at Charleston Naval Shipyard, returning to the yard where many Atlantic SSBNs had undergone major work. The overhaul included replacement of the reactor core, refurbishment of propulsion and auxiliary systems, and further updates to combat systems and crew accommodations, reflecting lessons from two decades of ballistic-missile operations. Trident chronology records that this refueling overhaul was completed on July 23, 1986, when USS JOHN C. CALHOUN left Charleston Naval Shipyard.

As with earlier conversions, the post-refueling period was followed by new shakedown and test launches. On August 31, 1986, the Blue crew of USS JOHN C. CALHOUN successfully launched a TRIDENT I missile in support of the ship's demonstration and shakedown operation following refueling, confirming that the reactor, propulsion plant, and missile systems all functioned correctly after the extensive yard work.

On November 28, 1986, she deployed for operational patrol, resuming strategic service with an extended projected life and continuing to operate out of Kings Bay. On August 29, 1987, she conducted a notable missile event when she "ripple-fired" four TRIDENT I missiles in the 28th TRIDENT follow-on operational test, an exercise designed to verify the long-term performance of the missile and platform under operationally realistic conditions.

During her late-1980s and early-1990s service, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN continued deterrent patrols from Kings Bay as the strategic context shifted from late Cold War confrontation to the period of arms control agreements and eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. Veterans' accounts from this time mention routine TRIDENT patrols interspersed with port visits, including at least one liberty stop at Barbados in the Caribbean during an early-1990s deployment, illustrating that even strategic submarines occasionally made brief foreign port calls during transits. Other recollections describe embarkation of visiting veterans for orientation cruises from Kings Bay, reflecting outreach activities in the years before decommissioning.

Over the course of her career, USS JOHN C. CALHOUN received two Navy Meritorious Unit Commendations and a National Defense Service Medal, reflecting sustained operational performance rather than any single publicized action. As the United States and Russia implemented strategic arms reduction agreements in the early 1990s, the older JAMES MADISON-class submarines were progressively retired. For USS JOHN C. CALHOUN this process culminated in 1994. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on March 28, 1994, at Kings Bay, Georgia, where she had been operating as part of the TRIDENT backfit force.

Following decommissioning, she was towed to Bremerton, Washington, to enter the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. There, her reactor compartment and radioactive materials were removed and disposed of in accordance with U.S. procedures, and the remainder of the hull was scrapped. Recycling of USS JOHN C. CALHOUN was completed on November 18, 1994, closing the career of a submarine that had spent nearly three decades in continuous service as part of the United States' sea-based strategic deterrent.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS JOHN C. CALHOUN Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Ballistic Submarines list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.