Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the US, passed away on December 29 at the age of 100, leaving behind a lasting legacy in politics. However, his early years were shaped by his career in the US Navy, which honored him with a ‘top-secret’ submarine named after him – USS Jimmy Carter.
While many remember Carter for his tenure in the Oval Office, his contributions to the US Navy, particularly as a submariner, are also a key part of his story—a story that includes the USS Jimmy Carter, a top-secret submarine whose capabilities and intelligence-gathering missions remain a ‘top-secret’ till today.
Carter was a former naval officer and submariner who began his distinguished career after graduating with a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946.
Rising to the rank of lieutenant, he served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, where he gained extensive experience and proved his commitment to the Navy’s operations.
Carter was set to become the engineering officer for the USS Seawolf (SSN-575), one of the first submarines powered by atomic energy, when his father died in July 1953.
Following his father’s death, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia to oversee his family’s affairs.
In the early 1960s, he entered politics and eventually became the governor of Georgia. In 1974, he launched his presidential campaign, running on a platform of decency, equality, and freedom.
Carter served a single term as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981, a tenure most remembered for his human rights-focused foreign policy. However, even after Jimmy Carter’s presidency ended on January 20, 1981, his connection with the US Navy remained steadfast.
Among the many aspects of Carter’s legacy is a connection to the US Navy, which honored the former submariner in the late 1990s by naming a new attack submarine after him: the USS Jimmy Carter.
While Carter was undoubtedly pleased by the gesture, the full extent of the vessel’s capabilities remained a closely guarded secret for many years.
In fact, it wasn’t until the submarine was nearing its completion in 2005 that the former president learned the full scope of the ship’s capabilities, which, as detailed in The New York Times, included some of the most advanced and covert technology in the Navy’s arsenal.
US Navy’s Top Spy Submarine
The USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), commissioned in 2005, is an advanced Seawolf-class submarine—an undersea hunter-killer designed for special missions. But its true purpose went far beyond its conventional military function.
The submarine, a successor to the Los Angeles-class attack submarines, was built with a unique design to accommodate intelligence-gathering operations.
The USS Jimmy Carter is the final submarine in the Seawolf class, one of only three ever built, but its hull design differs from that of its sister ships. The Navy expanded the Carter’s hull by 100 feet to allow divers and unmanned underwater vehicles to conduct covert operations while submerged.
Unlike any other Navy submarine, it was equipped with small thrusters that allowed it to hover quietly for extended periods for espionage and surveillance missions.
The full capabilities of the submarine remained a secret, known only to a select few within the military. Yet, when Captain Don Kelso, the submarine’s commanding officer, visited Carter in his Georgia home in early 2005, the former president was briefed on the details of the vessel’s advanced functions.
“He was in awe,” said Captain Kelso, recalling the meeting. While Carter had always known that the ship was special, he was taken aback by the complexities of the submarine’s top-secret missions.
In a rare meeting between a former president and the crew of a military vessel, Carter developed a deep personal connection to USS Carter’s crew, even helping to design the submarine’s crest.
The emblem, which combined elements of his presidential background with his Navy service, was a nod to his early role in helping establish the Navy’s nuclear power program. The crest featured an atomic symbol and a spoked wooden wheel, symbolizing his surname, which means “wheel-maker,” and carried the Latin motto Semper Optima (“Always the Best”).
Carter’s involvement with the submarine extended far beyond the design of its crest. He maintained a close relationship with the crew in the years following its commissioning.
In fact, in the summer of 2005, Carter and his wife Rosalynn took part in a VIP cruise aboard the submarine. At the age of 81, Carter climbed a 25-foot ladder to board the submarine and even took the helm as it set out to sea.
Captain Kelso recalled that Carter thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the crew and experiencing the submarine’s capabilities that carried his name.
As Captain Kelso also shared, Carter remarked humorously that his submarine could easily “take out” the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier named after the man who defeated him in the 1980 presidential election.
Carter was the only US president to have served on submarines. Furthermore, the USS Jimmy Carter was one of only three US Navy submarines ever to be named after a living individual, further cementing his lasting connection to the Navy.
The submarine’s secretive missions continue to be shrouded in mystery. Today, only a few select officers and a handful of individuals ashore have access to information about its operations, which remain among the most classified in the Department of Defense.
The USS Jimmy Carter was designed for high-risk intelligence collection operations, including tapping underwater communications lines.
For Carter, the USS Jimmy Carter was a fitting tribute to his service in the Navy and his lifelong commitment to the defense of the United States. Though he would become best known for his presidency and humanitarian work, his deep military connections and his lasting impact on naval technology were integral to his identity.
- Contact the author at ashishmichel(at)gmail.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
