The USS George C. Marshall was never built to be admired. She was built to be trusted. Like her namesake, she existed for moments when patience mattered more than drama and restraint mattered more than applause. In the Cold War Navy, that was not a slogan. It was a job description.

Commissioned in 1966, the USS George C. Marshall (SSBN-654) was a Benjamin Franklin class fleet ballistic missile submarine and part of the Navy’s most consequential experiment in quiet power, the forty one boats collectively known as the “41 for Freedom.” Their mission was brutally simple. Stay hidden. Stay ready. Make sure no rational enemy ever believed a first strike could succeed.