USS Stonewall Jackson
1963 James Madison-class submarine
USS Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634, active 1963–1995), a James Madison-class fleet ballistic missile submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Confederate States Army General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (1824–1863).a
Construction and commissioning
The contract to build Stonewall Jackson was awarded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, on 21 July 1961 and her keel was laid down there on 4 July 1962. She was launched on 30 November 1963, sponsored by Miss Julia Christian McAfee, great-granddaughter of General Jackson, and commissioned on 26 August 1964, with Commander John H. Nicholson in command of the Blue Crew and Commander Richard A. Frost in command of the Gold Crew.
Service history
Stonewall Jackson departed Vallejo on 3 September 1964 for her shakedown cruise to Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Blue Crew completed training with a successful Polaris ballistic missile firing on 2 December 1964 and was relieved by the Gold Crew. Following the Gold Crew's successful Polaris missile launch on 16 December 1964, Stonewall Jackson returned to the Pacific Ocean to complete shakedown operations. She began post-shakedown alterations and repairs on 13 February 1965, then made final preparations at Bangor, Washington for an overseas deployment. In April 1965, she began her first strategic deterrent patrol.
In June 1965, the Gold Crew relieved the Blue Crew at Apra Harbor, Guam. For the next five years Stonewall Jackson conducted deterrent patrols from Apra Harbor.
In the spring of 1970, Stonewall Jackson was reassigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet.
“USS Stonewall Jackson” enters the record as 1963 James Madison-class submarine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Stonewall, Jackson and James can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “USS Stonewall Jackson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.