USS Andrew Jackson

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USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619) was a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. She was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837).

Construction and commissioning

The contract to build Andrew Jackson was awarded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California on 23 July 1960 and her keel was laid down on 26 April 1961. She was launched on 15 September 1962 sponsored by Nancy Patterson Pigott, wife of Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, and commissioned on 3 July 1963, with Commander Alfred J. Whittle, Jr. in command of the Blue Crew and Commander James B. Wilson in command of the Gold Crew.

She was long, wide, and had a draft of . She displaced when surfaced, and when submerged. Her top speed was above , and she had a maximum depth of . She had a complement of around 120 men, and was armed with 16 Polaris missiles and four torpedo tubes. She was propelled by a S5W Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor powering two turbines which generated , driving one propeller.

Operational history

File:Firing of Polaris missile by the USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619).jpg

President Kennedy watching USS Andrew Jackson launch a Polaris A-2 missile.

Following commissioning, Andrew Jackson sailed via the Panama Canal to the United States East Coast. On 1 October and 11 October 1963, during shakedown training out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, she successfully launched Polaris A-2 ballistic missiles. On 26 October 1963, she sent Polaris A-3X missiles into space in the first submerged launching of its type; she repeated the feat on 11 November 1963. On 16 November 1963, six days before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy—embarked in the missile range instrumentation ship —observed Andrew Jackson launch another Polaris A-2 ballistic missile from a point off Cape Canaveral and congratulated Commander Wilson and his crew for "impressive teamwork."

USS Liberty incident

There is speculation amongst survivors of the 1967 Israeli attack on USS Liberty and their supporters that a U.S. Navy submarine observed and filmed the attack through their periscope. The working theory is that the submarine was either the Andrew Jackson or . The Andrew Jackson was assigned to Submarine Squadron 16, Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet from 1964 to 1973, where she conducted patrols out of the American naval base at Rota, Spain. This would mean she could, in theory, have been in the vicinity of the attack when it occurred. There is no confirmation of this theory and it remains speculative.

In 1988, the LBJ Presidential Library declassified and released a document from the Liberty archive with the "Top Secret—Eyes Only" security caveat (Document #12C sanitized and released 21DEC88 under review case 86–199). This "Memorandum for the Record" dated 10 April 1967 reported a briefing of the "303 Committee" by General Ralph D. Steakley. According to the memo, General Steakley "briefed the committee on a sensitive DOD project known as FRONTLET 615," which is identified in a handwritten note on the original memorandum as "submarine within U.A.R. waters." Further Freedom of Information Act requests returned no information on any project called "FRONTLET 615." This has lent credence to the theory that a U.S. Navy submarine was present during the attack.

The 1981 book Weapons by Russell Warren Howe says that Liberty was accompanied by the Andrew Jackson, which filmed the entire episode through its periscope but was unable to provide assistance.

Decommissioning and disposal

Andrew Jackson was decommissioned on 31 August 1989 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on the same day. Ex-Andrew Jackson entered the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program in Bremerton, Washington. Recycling of Ex-Andrew Jackson was completed 30 August 1999.

References

• Public Domain This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.