Rest Your Oar, Mr. Carter – a Tribute to Jimmy Carter’s Naval Career

Today’s post is by Nathaniel S. Patch, Reference Archivist at the National Archives in College Park, MD and Subject Matter Expert for Navy Records.

In remembrance of the passing of James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., many will celebrate his time as the 39th President of the United States, the former Governor of Georgia, peanut farmer, volunteer and humanitarian.  What has often been overlooked is his naval career, which occurred during a period of transition for the US Navy in a post-World War II world and the onset of the Cold War. President Carter’s naval career took a circuitous path, bringing him into contact with  programs regarding  changing technological developments in the Navy.

President Carter was born in October 1924 in Plains, Georgia. He entered Georgia Southwestern College pursuing a degree in Engineering in 1941. He later entered the naval reserve in December 1942. Through the course of the war, he transferred from Georgia Southwestern College to Georgia Institute of Technology, and then in 1943 he entered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He graduated from the Academy in June 1946 with a degree in Engineering. He graduated 60th out of a class of 821. He was commissioned as an Ensign (ENS).

After graduating from the Academy, Ens. Carter married his girlfriend and future First Lady Rosalynn Smith in July 1946.  They had met while Carter was attending the Academy in 1945 and was engaged in February 1946.  The two married on July 7, 1946, following his graduation from the Naval Academy, which was the beginning of a life-long partnership through President Carter’s naval, commercial, political, and volunteer ventures, and raising a family of three sons and a daughter.

Records and Jimmy Carter’s Naval Career

To track President Carter’s naval career, I used several different kinds of resources available at the National Archives and at the Naval History and Heritage Command’s museums. Beyond what is available in President Carter’s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), I used the references to his duty assignments from his service record to review the records of those commands. Most of the operational records are available at the National Archives in College Park, while others are available at the Submarine Force Museum in New London, CT. Because these records are operational in nature, they do not provide details on Carter’s day-to-day duties, but they can be used to illustrate the activities occurring during his assignment on each vessel.  When these records mention President Carter, I have tried to note what he was doing and when. Most of the records available are the deck logs of the different vessels in Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Entries P 118-A1: US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50 (Named Vessels A-V), P118-A2: US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50 (Named Vessels V-Z), and P 118-B: US Navy Deck Logs, 1951-55 (NAID 594258). I will also refer to President Carter by his rank throughout the narrative and indicate when he receives his promotions.

First Duty Assignment – Life as a Married Officer

Following his wedding and honeymoon, Carter’s first assignment was to the newly formed Operation Development Group aboard the USS Wyoming (E-AG 17), a former World War I-era battleship that survived World War II. He reported aboard on August 10, 1946. Ens. Carter was assigned as one of the ship’s junior weapons and development officers (JW&JD Officer). He assisted with the testing of different anti-aircraft weapon systems. Because Wyoming was homeported in Norfolk, VA, the young Carters made their first home there too.^[1] 

Duty aboard the Wyoming was routine, with daily drama of late sailors reporting back from liberty and leave, and the ship periodically sailed out of port to Hampton Roads or off Assateague Island for a week or more to test different gun batteries. The Wyoming tested several different types of anti-aircraft weapons including 5”/38 cal. VT Fuse rounds, 3”/50 cal., 40mm and 20mm guns. From the deck logs, it appears that they were testing the guns against towed targets (sleeves) and drone aircraft. At one point, they also tested 5” and 3 1⁄4” Surface-Anti-Aircraft Rockets (SAAR) (rockets).

Ens. Carter assumed regular roles aboard ship as other officers did, like standing as the Officer of the Deck and participating in a recorder for a summary court martial. He also had to leave the ship on several occasions in the first few months of his coming aboard for additional training, such as Emergency Ship Handling School, Combat Information Center (CIC) School, and RADAR Material Maintenance and Testing School. Unfortunately, there is not much information connecting Ens. Carter with the weapons testing of the 5-inch, 38-caliber gun mounts.^[2]

1947 was the last year of service for the USS Wyoming as she was to be decommissioned before the year was out.  Prior to her being decommissioned, the Wyoming, as the then flagship to the Operational Development Force, conducted a demonstration for the 2nd Fleet on how to shoot down aerial drones with 5-inch guns using newly developed methods and VT fuses.  During the demonstration, the ship lost two sailors overboard in separate incidents. One sailor named Duncan, who was trying to take a shortcut to his post, slipped and fell overboard. Luckily for Ducan, he was wearing his life jacket when he fell overboard. The second incident did not fare so well.  On March 22, 1947, R. F. Northover, a coxswain, had slipped from his boat and disappeared. He had not been wearing a life jacket when he went into the water. His body was later recovered and identified on May 4, 1947.  Around that time the first hints of change began to appear when Captain F. S. Withington, Commanding Officer of the USS Mississippi (E-AG 128) came aboard for a brief temporary duty.^[3]  In June, there was another tragedy that happened while participating in another exercise with Task Force 81 composed of then in-service aircraft carriers, cruisers, and battleships for anti-aircraft practice. During the exercise, a drone control plane (modified Grumman F6F Hellcat) crashed. The pilot of the control plane went missing. After a long and exhaustive search by the Wyoming, Navy patrol planes, and Coast Guard planes, the pilot was never recovered.^[4]

In July, the Wyoming was preparing for her decommissioning. As early as July 8, large groups of the crew of the Wyoming were disembarking and being assigned to other duties or to receiving stations for separation. Most of the departing crew were sent to the USS Mississippi (E-AG 128), the new flagship of the Operational Development Force. The Wyoming was decommissioned on August 1, 1947.^[5]

For Ens. Carter, July 1947 was a busy month. Not only did he make the switch to the Mississippi on July 23^[6], but he did that as a first-time father. Rosalynn had given birth to their first child, a boy, John (Jack) Carter, at the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA just shy of their first anniversary.

Like the Wyoming, the Mississippi was another World War I battleship that had been repurposed for testing new fire control systems. The Mississippi was used as the Gunnery Development Ship and was the new flagship of the Operational Development Force.  Like her predecessor, she tested several anti-aircraft gun systems including 20mm and 40mm AA batteries, but also large turreted systems like 5-inch and 6-inch guns that were being considered for AA use. Three of the four 14-inch gun turrets were removed and, in their place, these ship/fleet protection weapon systems were installed for testing.^[7] 

Life aboard the Mississippi was not that different from serving on the Wyoming. The old battleship would spend weeks at a time in Norfolk, then sail out to Chincoteague Island and the surrounding area to test fire 5-inch 38 caliber guns and 5-inch 54 caliber guns at drones and other targets.^[8]

After Carter departed the Mississippi, the Navy came to the realization that guns were not going to be effective against jet powered aircraft.  Beginning in the late 1940s, research and development shifted from naval anti-aircraft artillery to developing surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) as part of Project Bumblebee. Eventually, a prototype weapon of the Terrier missile was fired from the Mississippi in 1953. She was the first ship to fire a Terrier missile, and she later conducted the evaluation of the RADAR homing missile, Petrel in 1956.^[9]

Change in Career – Submarine Force

In 1948, Ens. Carter, looking for a change in career, opted to volunteer for the Submarine Force. From July to December, Ens. Carter trained at the Submarine Force School in New London, CT to become a submarine officer.  It does not appear that Rosalynn accompanied him to Groton at this time because according to the December 1948 deck log of his first assignment after completing training lists her as being in Plains, GA.^[10] This is probably true because why move for training to potentially have to move again if Ens. Carter is not assigned to the Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet. 

When Ens. Carter departed the Mississippi, he left behind the changing world of fleet protection and he decided to enter the world of submarines, which had begun to pivot their mission to include an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role. In the post-World War II era, the submarines of the impending Cold War were quieter, stealthier, and deeper-diving, and fighting them would be nothing like it was during World War II. In the late 1940s, it was estimated that the Soviet Union would build 600-900 of these new stealthy submarines to potentially interdict any overseas support to Western Europe in a potential 3rd World War. To address this Soviet submarine threat, the US Navy developed a broad anti-submarine program that added submarine forces to the surface and aerial ASW assets. Amidst these changes, Ens. Carter entered into the Submarine Force when US submarines were being inducted into the Navy’s ASW program to address the new post-war Soviet submarine threat. In the infancy of the Cold War, the Far East flared up into a heated combat with the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the outbreak of the Korean War, which potentially could have been the opening act to World War III.

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Almost Two-Years before the Conning Tower

Ens. Carter’s first assignment in the Submarine Force would send him to the Pacific months before everything changed in China. Following the completion of Submarine School in New London, CT, Ens. Carter was assigned to the USS Pomfret (SS 391) under the command of Lieutenant Commander John B. Williams, Jr.  and homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  Ens. Carter was received aboard on December 29, 1948, after the boat had been in dry dock completing emergency hull repairs. He was assigned as the Electrical Officer and Aide to the Executive Officer (XO) Lieutenant Jesse A. Naylor.^[13]

The Pomfret, a Balao-class submarine, was built in 1943 and made six war patrols during World War II.  As the post-war era was becoming unsettled by the global ideological and political shifts towards communism, the US submarine forces were not only preparing for the next hot war but being cultivated to prevent them through reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.^[14]

Life on a submarine was very different from the hustle and bustle of an old battleship stuck mainly at port. Aboard the Pomfret, Ens. Carter was one of seven officers, one of which was on temporary duty in China and crew of about 76 enlisted sailors. And since the Pomfret was on active duty unlike the Wyoming and Mississippi, which were floating test platforms with a turnstile crew, the crew of the submarine was a bit more consistent. Ens. Carter still had a lot to prove as a submariner because he was coming from the surface fleet and coming to the Pomfret as a non-qualified personnel (NQP), or as they are called in the submarine force, a “Puke”. Until he became a qualified submariner by earning his Submarine Warfare Insignia, also known as, “The Dolphins”, he was  considered a green NQP by both enlisted sailors who already qualified  and veterans of several war patrols alike.  But you have to start somewhere, and starting on the right foot, one of Ens. Carter’s first official acts was as officer of the watch composing the Pomfret’s New Year’s Poem ushering in the year 1949.

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Not long after New Years on January 4, 1949, the Pomfret set sail for Hong Kong, China for what would be her 2nd Simulated War Patrol in the Western Pacific Area.^[16]  China was in a state of upheaval as the Chinese Revolution had continued and was heading towards its conclusion. The Nationalist Chinese evacuated to Taiwan and later became the Republic of China (ROC), while mainland China became the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under Mao Zedong.  With the revolution as a backdrop, one of the goals of the deployment was to qualify new crew members in submarines. On the first day of the deployment, the non-qualified personnel (NQP) were gathered up and the training officer laid out the training schedule with lectures and demonstrations.  Throughout the deployment, each crew member (enlisted and officers alike) learned and then had to demonstrate that they mastered each aspect and system of a Balao-class submarine to the approval of the senior official in order to be a chief petty officer (senior non-commissioned officer), chief of the boat (COB and senior of all the chiefs on the submarine) or senior officer in charge of that section or division.  This training was done to familiarize everyone on a submarine with each other’s work space and tasks so in the event of an emergency everyone’s position can be covered. Once the booklet was completed and all the sections filled out, the skipper then made the final determination if a sailor or officer was qualified.  If he signed off, then the Puke would receive their “Dolphins.”

Departing Pearl Harbor, the Pomfret sailed a well-known route to waters of the Far East that originated  from a by-gone era during the Second World War. The route began in Pearl Harbor, stopped at Midway Island, and then proceeded to Hong Kong.  Monday, January 10, 1949 disappeared from the Pomfret’s calendar when she crossed the international date line a bit before 2030 (8:30 PM) on Sunday, January 9, leaping into Tuesday, January 11, 1949.^[17] 

On January 18, as part of their mission orders, the Pomfret conducted a photo-reconnaissance of Okino Daito Shima (Okidaitōjima), finishing about midday the next and continued her way to Hong Kong.  Arriving in Hong Kong on January 22, and between the 22nd and 27th, they received officials from the Royal Navy (RN) and the US Consulate, and the officers attended several cocktail parties.  According to the patrol report, the rest of the crew behaved themselves on shore to the praise of the LCDR Williams.

On a serious note, their visit to Hong Kong was to participate in an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) exercise with the Royal Navy’s HMS Concord and elements of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Pomfret acted as the enemy submarine for the RN and RAF to locate and “neutralize.” The two-day exercise went without incident and the British failed to detect the American submarine.

Continuing on, the Pomfret sailed to Okinawa to participate in a multi-day ASW exercise with the US Navy.  Once again, the submarine was the live target for the ASW forces to find.  The ASW forces consisted of US destroyers and patrol squadrons.

Finishing the exercise on February 4, 1949, the Pomfret went to get her tanks topped off from the USS Tombigbee (AOG 11), but her departure to China was delayed because they realized that during refueling, the Pomfret took on 30,000 gallons of aviation fuel in addition to her 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel. While she was defueling the aviation fuel back to the Tombigbee, the Pomfret hosted the commanding general of the Ryukyus, Major General Eagle, US Army, and 300 other US Army personnel and visitors in a familiarization inspection.

The following day, the Pomfret set sail to Tsingtao, China. Since the end of World War II, Tsingtao had been an important port for the United States for demobilizing the Imperial Japanese Forces in China, and to support the Nationalist Chinese government with military and humanitarian aid.  In October 1945, The US Navy established the Nationalist Chinese Naval Training Center to train Chinese sailors. In January 1946, Tsingtao became the homeport of the 7th Fleet under Admiral Charles M. Cooke with one cruiser division, three destroyer divisions, an amphibious group, and a gaggle of fleet support vessels. Along with the 7th Fleet, the US Marines had the III Marine Amphibious Corps based in North China. The US Navy transported Nationalist Chinese forces from Tsingtao to North China, in part to relieve US Marine Corps units and Soviet military units participating in the demobilization of the Japanese, but also to fight the Chinese Communist forces.  In the following year, 1947, Mao’s soldiers began to encroach on Tsingtao and became hostile to the Marines stationed there to the point of open firefights between the Marines and the Communist Chinese.  By 1948, the Chinese Communists were calling for the United States withdrawal from China and cessation of aid to the Nationalists.  Despite the economic aid being provided to the Nationalists, the US government began to downsize their presence in China by withdrawing Marine units. The new commander of the 7th Fleet, Admiral Oscar C. Badger suggested a joint US-Nationalist defense force to defend Tsingtao, but the Truman Administration, seeing how the Chinese Civil War was turning, did not support the idea.^[18]  The beginning of 1949, when the Pomfret arrived in Tsingtao with Ens. Carter, was the start of the final collapse of the Nationalists trying to hold mainland China, suffering successive defeats by Communist forces.

After a brief ASW exercise with US Navy destroyers and a patrol squadron from Tsingtao, the Pomfret arrived in Tsingtao in the middle of a blizzard on February 9, an appropriate introduction to the Cold War.  For the next several days, the Pomfret continued to participate in ASW exercises with US naval forces from Tsingtao.  During the ASW exercises, one of the Pomfret’s stern torpedo tube shutters (the outer door to the torpedo tube) was damaged in a collision with YO 59 after losing control during a blast of high wind. The damage was slight enough that they could continue, but to fix the damage, they would have to have some dry-dock time.

In the latter part of the ASW exercise, the Pomfret also tested her mettle in making simulated attacks on an enemy task force trying to enter the harbor and against a US cruiser, the USS Springfield (CL 66).

The Pomfret also participated in a Hunter-Killer exercise with PBM aircraft and surface ships. The submarine was tasked to intercept and attack a convoy, and the Hunter-Killer group was assigned to defend them.  The Pomfret ran out of time in the exercise and fell short of the goal, being forced to submerge seven times by aircraft and was held down twice by surface ships.  Although Williams claims that no SONAR contact was established, the boat and crew were exhausted from the exercise.

Within the first two weeks of March 1949, a rescue exercise was planned in conjunction with the USS Greenlet (ASR 10). However, the Yellow Sea was both too cold and too rough, making both surface and diving maneuvers difficult. Instead of a rescue, LCDR Williams decided to give the junior officers a chance to practice approaching targets. When the seas were calmer, practice torpedoes were fired at targets.

On March 11, 1949, USS Pomfret in the company of the USS Greenlet set sail for Midway Island on a return voyage. The two vessels returned to Pearl Harbor on March 25, ending the 2nd Simulated Patrol. When the patrol started there were 45 qualified submariners aboard, and when the patrol ended there were 55 qualified. Sadly, it does not look like Ens. Carter completed his qualifications on this patrol based on LCDR Williams’ comment, “The three unqualified junior officers practically completed their qualifying notebooks.” But from the report it sounds like the crew of the Pomfret came together as the qualified submariners assisted in lectures and drills – “Qualified men in all departments were extremely helpful in giving on the spot instruction to small groups of non-qualified men to augment the general lectures, with the result that all hands benefited – some by teaching, some by learning.”^[19]

Following Pomfret’s one simulated war patrol to Chinese waters and a post-patrol overhaul at Pearl Harbor, the submarine and crew settled in a routine of anti-submarine, photo-reconnaissance and minelaying exercises.

One of the objectives of the US Navy in the post-World War II era was to develop a three-dimensional operational method for detecting and attacking enemy submarines. One of the technological advancements from World War II was quieter submarines with a greater submerged endurance, which made potential enemy submarines harder to detect and to interdict. During World War II, the advancements making submarines harder to detect also provided the prototype instruments to undo that advantage. In the late 1940s, the US Submarine Force began the development of the German passive SONAR, which consisted of several highly sensitive microphones and a way to process the data to detect and locate sources of sound at long distances in the ocean. Gruppenhorchgerät, or GHG became the basis for the American BQR-2 and later models. The aim of the project was to produce a purpose-built Hunter Killer submarine, so a submarine that hunts and attacks other submarines. But in the meantime, the US Navy had a fleet of World War II-era submarines that did not have those sophisticated passive SONAR sets, so the other aim of ASW exercises was to develop methods for older submarines to detect and attack other submarines.

During Ens. Carter’s (later LTJG Carter) assignment aboard the Pomfret, the submarine was homeported at Pearl Harbor with Submarine Squadron One (SUBRON 1) in Submarine Division Twelve (SUBDIV 12). During ASW exercises with other submarines, two boats went out, and one boat would be the target and the other would be the attacker. The exercise was two-fold because there was testing of the sound equipment on the part of the attacking submarine and the sound precautions of the target submarine who was trying to avoid being detected.

The Pomfret also exercised with surface vessels like destroyers and destroyer escorts, as well as aviation units like the components of Fleet Air Wing Two (FAIRWING 2) and Fleet Air Wing Four (FAIRWING 4). In both cases, the submarine would be the target to be sought, detected and attacked in simulation. The attacking agents, be it destroyers or aircraft, tested their new sound equipment to locate and determine a way to attack the simulated enemy submarine. Aircraft would drop sound buoys in the area where the submarine might be, which relayed sound information to the aircraft and other potential attackers.

In August 1949, the Pomfret sailed from Pearl Harbor to Mare Island Naval Shipyard for an overhaul, which lasted until the end of September. When the overhaul was complete, the Pomfret sailed to Seattle, WA to conduct ASW exercises. While in the Pacific Northwest in October 1949, the Pomfret had the opportunity to exercise with local Canadian Navy units in British Columbia.  The on and off again practicing with the Canadian Navy and FAIRWING 4 continued until mid-November when the submarine returned to Pearl Harbor.

In September 1949, while the Pomfret was being overhauled at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Ens. Carter was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) Carter.^[20]

In addition to anti-submarine exercises, the Pomfret also practiced photo reconnaissance missions around the Hawaiian Islands. The submarine would travel to periscope depth and used the periscope to take pictures of targets of interest without being detected. During both World War II and the Korean War, submarines went on photo reconnaissance missions to survey potential amphibious landing sites, to gather intelligence on enemy shore establishments, and to track and follow enemy shipping. To avoid direct action that would exacerbate the tensions in the Pacific, the Navy tracked ships in the direct shipping lanes that would offer the North Koreans support. By the Korean War, such reconnaissance missions on enemy shore establishments became more difficult because of improvements to surface scanning RADAR that could pick up a periscope.

Another World War II-era mission that continued into the Cold War was the prospect of using submarines to lay mines in enemy sea lanes.  Mines are not a direct weapon in the same way that torpedoes are – they are the weapons that wait. But there have been developments in mine warfare beyond the traditional horned moored mines that you see in movies. Modern mines that have acoustical triggers can release a small torpedo to seek out a sound source, be it a ship or submarine. In either case, using a submarine to deliver mines takes forethought and planning because it takes time for the submarine to get to her target zone and lay the mines. During the two years that LTJG Carter was aboard, the Pomfret practiced the procedures of laying different mines from both the forward and aft torpedo tubes.

The biggest changes to the Pomfret and LTJG Carter’s duties occurred during 1950. These changes included new responsibilities for LTJG Carter under LCDR Williams, commanding officer of the Pomfret, the Pomfret receiving a new commanding officer as well as a new homeport. Under LCDR Williams, LTJG Carter took on new responsibilities going from Electrical Officer and Aide to the Executive Officer^[21] to become the submarine’s Communications and Gunnery Officer and 1st Lieutenant^[22]. 1st Lieutenant in this context is a position within the officer’s staff coming after the Executive Officer (XO) in the chain of command.  Then shortly after the beginning of the Korean War, in July 1950, CDR Williams was relieved by LCDR Roy C. Smallwood, and then in August the Pomfret was reassigned from SUBRON 1/SUBDIV 12 to Submarine Squadron 3 (SUBRON 3)/Submarine Division 32 (SUBDIV 32) based in San Diego, CA. Under Smallwood, LTJG Carter assumed the positions of Communications Officer and Electronics Repair Officer^[23].

The reassignment of the Pomfret from Hawaii to California also meant that Rosalynn Carter had to prepare and move the family including her newborn son, James “Chip” Carter III (born in April 1950) from Honolulu to San Diego. They settled into their new housing by August 1950.

Swimming with the Hunter-Killers

The Carters’ time in San Diego was short, lasting only from August 1950 to February 1, 1951. (approximately 6 months) LTJG Carter received orders for a new assignment in Groton, CT to report to the new submarine USS K-1 (SSK-1), which was still under construction at General Dynamics, not far from the Submarine Base in New London, CT.  Rosalynn moved with him from sunny San Diego, CA to the frigid cold of a Connecticut winter.

LTJG Carter was assigned to Naval Inspector of Ordnance at General Dynamics as a prospective engineering officer. The K-1 submarine was a new type of conventional submarine specifically designed and built for anti-submarine operations against the Soviet Navy and other potential hostile nations who might use submarines to prevent the United States from supporting across the ocean.  The K-1 incorporated all the captured technology from Germany and Japan following World War II including high-capacity batteries, snorkel, SONAR absorbing materials, and passive SONAR array.  Unlike her sisters during the Second World War II, and the recent Greater Underwater Propulsion Power (GUPPY) conversions, the K-1 had a distinctive bulbous bow that contained the BQR-4 Passive SONAR, which would allow her to hear and locate submerged enemy submarines. The BQR-4 was an improved copy of the GHG, which uses an array of hydrophones, very sensitive microphones, to listen for noise of propellers or ships passing through the water.  The K-1 was a smaller submarine compared to her World War II sisters. She was only 196 feet long with four torpedo tubes forward and a crew of 37, whereas submarines of the Gato, Balao, and Tench-class submarines of World War II were on average 312 feet long with ten torpedo tubes (6 forward and 4 aft) and a crew of 60 to 70. The SSK-class submarine, of which there were only three (K-1 [later Barracuda], K-2 [later Bass] and K-3 [later Bonita] was the next phase of evolution towards a true ASW submarine.

The first part of LTJG Carter’s work on the K-1 was being part of the prospective crew because the boat had only come off the slipways when he arrived in Groton. His initial position within the Officer’s Staff of the submarine was to be the Engineering Officer.  The K-1 was a conventional submarine with diesel-electric engines, three General Motors diesel engines and two General Electric motors with a bank of 126 cell batteries. As the K-1 was being completed, LTJG Carter was learning about the engines.^[24]

The K-1 was commissioned on November 10, 1951 at New London Submarine Base located downstream from General Dynamics where she was built.  She was assigned to Submarine Development Group 2, which was the submarine unit tasked with developing and improving equipment and technique for using submarines in an anti-submarine capacity.  The K-1 was placed under the command of LCDR Frank A. Andrews.

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From November 1951 to March 1952, the K-1 went through her paces, conducting torpedo firing tests, mine laying tests, testing the snorkel, and more importantly, testing her passive SONAR to detect other submarines. The boat primarily was being tested around the Block Island Sound area. The USS Halfbeak (SS 352), GUPPY converted submarine, and occasionally the USS Grouper (SSK 214), a converted Gato-class submarine into the first “Hunter-Killer” submarine, were often the target of the K-1 during tracking and torpedo exercises.

In March 1952, K-1 participated in CONVEX III with Grouper.  CONVEX III was a coastal convoy exercise designed to test and demonstrate the new anti-submarine warfare developments. The exercise included ships, aircraft including blimps, and submarines protecting convoys against “enemy” submarines.  How the K-1 and other submarines of Submarine Development Group 2 were specifically used was not clear, but it is probably safe to assume that they were used in the protection of the convoys.  Even in the 1950s, the US Navy was still concerned about submarines threatening shipping lanes being used as commerce raiders like in World War II.^[26]

The exercise took place between the East Coast and Bermuda and was from March 13 to March 28. In the post-mortem critique of the exercise, it was determined that the protectors of the convoys scored more “kills” than the “enemy” submarines attacking the convoys.^[27]

The exercise not only introduced the K-1 and Hunter-Killer submarine (SSK), but they also introduced the recently deployed Neptune (P2V) patrol plane that would have a long career during the Cold War. There were many improvements in ASW from World War II. In terms of detection of enemy submarines, the most effective are passive SONAR and Magnetic Airborne Detection (MAD) and then combined with the new weapons like rapid sinking depth charges, Weapon Alpha (RUR-4), a surfaced launched anti-submarine rocket, and homing torpedoes. But despite these improvements, the judgment on the exercise was that a fully submerged submarine was a challenge to detect, and it was likely that an “enemy” submarine would announce their presence with an opening attack on a convoy.  Peacetime exercises like CONVEX III considered many aspects of submarine warfare, but wartime and actual combat would challenge any established theory of ASW.^[28]

When the exercise ended in late March, the K-1 and the Halfbeak sailed to Nassau, British West Indies before returning to New London.

The K-1 participated in another exercise, MINEX, from May 5 to May 16.  Details on the exercise were not disclosed, but it is safe to guess that it was related to mine warfare.  The exercise area was just south of Nantucket Island and east of Long Island.  Submarines were still being used to deploy mines in enemy waters in an indirect way of attacking their shipping by denying access to shipping lanes. But the exercise could also have been training on how a submarine could penetrate an “enemy” minefield submerged using SONAR like when American submarines entered the Sea of Japan through the Tsushima Straits during World War II.^[29]

After another period of downtime, the K-1 went on another extended exercise off the coast of Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay from the middle to the end of June. The kinds of operations were more of the same in the sense of testing sound equipment and listening for other submarines in the exercise.  At the end of month and the end of the exercise, the K-1 sailed down to Annapolis, Maryland and was shown to midshipmen. The five-day tour (July 2-6) ended when K-1 set sail down the Chesapeake Bay, and then navigated up the Potomac River to the Washington Navy Yard, then called the Naval Gun Factory. She was reviewed for another five days (July 6-11). After the administrative destination getaway in the Middle Atlantic, the K-1 returned to New London Submarine Base where she was put up on blocks for an overhaul lasting until August 1. During July 1952, without any official mention in the deck log until the following August monthly roster of officers, Jimmy Carter was promoted from Lieutenant Junior Grade to Lieutenant (LT). Additionally, LT Carter took on new responsibilities aboard the boat switching from being the Engineering Officer to, at first, the Gunnery Officer in July^[30] and then being both the Operations and Gunnery Officer in September.^[31]

The K-1 entered a period of inactivity at the New London Submarine Base throughout August and October 1952. During that period the Carter family welcomed their third son, Donnell, born in August.

“Why Not the Best?” Entering the Nuclear Submarine Force

While assigned to the K-1, LT Carter applied to the fledgling Nuclear Submarine Program led by the infamous Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the Nuclear Navy, in 1952. Carter submitted an anecdote to Hyman Rickover’s biographer, Norman Polmar, describing how the future President and Adm. Rickover’s future boss was very much intimidated by the then senior officer during his interview for the program.  Rickover started the interview asking about several things. Rickover never smiled and always looked the young officer in the eye. They discussed topics that Carter initially felt confident about, yet over several more probing questions, disabused Carter of any confidence in that topic. Eventually, Rickover asked about Carter’s experience at the Naval Academy. Carter felt accomplished that he graduated 60th out of a class of 820 candidates, and he boasted about his ranking. Undeterred, Rickover asked the young submarine officer if he had done his best? Carter started to say that he had done his best, but then stopped himself and thought about it.  He catered to his humility, and responded aloud that he had not always done his best. Rickover remained silent and turned in his chair away from Carter, ending the interview. But as Carter got up, headed to the door to leave, still facing away, Carter heard Rickover’s final question, “Why not?”^[32]

This interview haunted Jimmy Carter to the point that he embraced it during his 1976 Presidential Election Campaign using the slogan, “Why not the Best?” The words that Carter thought he heard Rickover utter at the end of his interview or how he remembered the end of the interview.

Despite the less than stellar interview, Admiral Rickover approved of LT Carter’s application into the Nuclear Submarine Program.  LT Carter was going to be a submarine engineer for a nuclear submarine, so he needed to learn about Naval Reactors; for that he had to go back to school.

On October 16, 1952, LT Carter was detached from the K-1 and reported to his new duty station the fledgling Naval Reactor Program in Schenectady, NY.

The Carters and their three children moved from Groton, CT up to Schenectady, NY where LT Carter worked with actual nuclear materials at the nearby Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory^[33] as part of his pre-commissioning training to become the engineering officer of the USS Seawolf (SSN 575), the second nuclear submarine.

During this period, the relationship between the US Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was still relatively separate, meaning that the naval officers assigned to nuclear power were more under the AEC than the US Navy. LT Carter was no different. The Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory was part of the Naval Reactors Program, but administratively under the AEC. LT Carter was studying to understand the nuclear reactor of the Seawolf, which originally had a liquid-sodium cooled S2G reactor.^[34] It was the only one of its kind to be installed on a submarine. It was replaced with water-cooled reactors in the 1960s. 

While going through Naval Reactor training, LT Carter and several others from Knoll, Idaho Falls National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) and Electric Boat Company, Groton, CT were sent to Chalk River, Canada to assist with the decontamination and clean-up of Canada’s experimental nuclear reactor NRX, which had gone into meltdown, but quickly resolved with flushing the reactor core with water to cool down the melted fuel.^[35]

The group practiced on a mock-up of the NRX at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory in Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, CA. They were divided into groups of 10 to 20 people and worked in one-week periods.  On site in Chalk River, the groups worked in radiation suits for very brief periods at time sustaining the maximum limit of radiation without being over exposed. Despite the safety precautions, Carter and the other American experts were watched for months afterwards for any signs of radiation poisoning.^[36]

In the Spring of 1953, LT Carter continued his pre-commissioning training by starting graduate studies in nuclear physics at Union College, also in Schenectady, NY.  LT Carter’s naval career took an unexpected turn in July 1953 when his father, James Earl Carter, Sr. passed away after succumbing to pancreatic cancer. LT Carter was faced with a difficult choice of either staying in the Navy to complete his goals or leaving the Navy to take up the farm in Georgia. He ended up deciding to pursue the latter, separating from the Navy in October 1953 and entering the naval reserve until 1961.  The return to Plains, GA may not have been under the best circumstances, but it eventually led Jimmy Carter to politics, becoming the governor of Georgia, and then becoming the President of the United States.

He never got to go aboard the USS Seawolf, but later as President of the United States, he went aboard the USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) in May 1977^[37].  In 2004 the US Navy took the unusual honor and named the third vessel of the new Seawolf-class submarines for Jimmy Carter.  Ordinarily, the naming of naval vessels after a person is normally a posthumous honor. In this case, they made an exception. The USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) is homeported in Bangor, WA.

A note on Jimmy Carter’s late wife, Rosalynn Carter here is not much in this narrative about her other than that she, like many other military spouses, traveled to the places where Jimmy was assigned and brought with her the expanding Carter family. There is not much written about her during this period, but from an outside observer, she had to have been a person of great resolve for not only being a military spouse, but a spouse to a submarine officer during a time of new technologies, some of which had yet to be properly tested. She had to hold ground and be the solid rock of the family when Jimmy was away on sea duty, where the environment of the depths was as hazardous as any potential enemy. It was also a time of unsettled peace, as noted during his time on Pomfret; the Cold War in the Far East was a little warmer than in most places, with China becoming the People’s Republic of China and opening of the Korean War. Despite all of this going on in the world, Rosalynn kept her family together during Jimmy’s deployments as they moved from place to place. Jimmy referred to Rosalynn as an equal partner in life. Despite the nature of her husband’s career that kept him often far from home, Rosalynn said that she liked the independence she gained by raising the children on her own. And after his service in the Navy, she was a partner and confidant, helping run the family business and his burgeoning political career, which took him to the governor’s mansion in Augusta, GA and to the White House in Washington, DC. As a partner to Jimmy and as the First Lady, she championed her own agendas, such as the Equal Rights Amendment and improvement of mental healthcare. After Jimmy’s term as President of the United States, she continued to stand by his side through his diplomatic and humanitarian efforts.  Rosalynn passed away in November 2023; perhaps now they can find themselves together again.

It is common in tributes to sailors and naval officers who have passed to say, “It is time to rest your oar.” It is time to put down your tools, shuck your mortal coil and discover one last mystery in life. The practice may have pre-dated World War II, but from World War II onwards, most authors using this metaphor are referring to a 1942 poem called Lost Harbor by Leslie Nelson Jennings published Footsteps of Departure. Since James Earl “Jimmy” Carter was the last of the US Presidents who served in World War II, a US Naval Academy grad and a submarine officer with almost four years in the force, I thought it fitting to include the second stanza from Lost Harbor by Leslie Jennings:

There is a port of no return, where ships

May ride at anchor for a little space

And then, some starless night the cable slips,

Leaving an eddy at the mooring place…

Gulls, veer no longer. Sailor, rest your oar.

No tangled wreckage will be washed ashore.

---

^[1] August 1946 to July 1947 deck logs of the USS Wyoming (EAG 17), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[2] August 1946 to July 1947 deck logs of the USS Wyoming (EAG 17), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[3] August 1946 to July 1947 deck logs of the USS Wyoming (EAG 17), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[4] August 1946 to July 1947 deck logs of the USS Wyoming (EAG 17), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[5] August 1947 deck logs of the USS Wyoming (EAG 17), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[6] July 1947 deck logs of the USS Mississippi (EAG 128), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[7] Peter, Allan F, “Ole Miss: The Battleship that Ushered in the Missile Age,” Sea Classics, March 2006 39.

^[8] July 1947 to July 1948 deck logs of the USS Mississippi (EAG 128), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[9] Peter, Allan F, “Ole Miss: The Battleship that Ushered in the Missile Age,” Sea Classics, March 2006 39.

^[10] December 1948 deck logs of the USS Pomfret (SS 391), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[11] Courtesy of the Submarine Force Museum

^[12] Courtesy of the Submarine Force Museum

^[13] December 1948 deck logs of the USS Pomfret (SS 391), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP

^[14] USS Pomfret (SS 391), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command.

^[15] December 1948 to December 1950 deck log of the USS Pomfret (SS 391), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP.

^[16] USS Pomfret (SS 391) – Report of Simulated War Patrol Number Two dated March 25, 1949, Pomfret (SS 391) 2nd Simulated War Patrol Report, January-March 1949, Submarine Patrol Reports, 1946-1963, Records of the Chief of Naval Operations, Record Group 38, NARA CP.

^[17] USS Pomfret (SS 391) – Report of Simulated War Patrol Number Two dated March 25, 1949, Pomfret (SS 391) 2nd Simulated War Patrol Report, January-March 1949, Submarine Patrol Reports, 1946-1963, Records of the Chief of Naval Operations, Record Group 38, NARA CP.

^[18] Edward J. Marolda, “Asian Warm-up to the Cold War,” Naval History Magazine, October 2011 25

^[19] USS Pomfret (SS 391) – Report of Simulated War Patrol Number Two dated March 25, 1949, Pomfret (SS 391) 2nd Simulated War Patrol Report, January-March 1949, Submarine Patrol Reports, 1946-1963, Records of the Chief of Naval Operations, Record Group 38, NARA CP.

^[20] September 1949 deck log of the USS Pomfret (SS 391), US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-50, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP.

^[21] Officer’s Roster, January-February 1949 deck log of the USS Pomfret (SS 391); US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-1950; Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24; NACP.

^[22] Officer’s Roster, July-August 1950 deck log of the USS Pomfret (SS 391); US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-1950; Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24; NACP.

^[23] Officer’s Roster, September 1950 deck log of the USS Pomfret (SS 391); US Navy Deck Logs, 1941-1950; Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24; NACP.

^[24] USS Barracuda [Formerly USS K-1] (SSK-1), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command.

^[25] November 1951 deck log of the USSK-1 (SSK 1), US Navy Deck Logs, 1951-55, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP.

^[26] “Professional Notes: ASW Defense Improved” USNI Proceedings, June 1952 Vol 78/6/592

^[27] “Professional Notes: ASW Defense Improved” USNI Proceedings, June 1952 Vol 78/6/592

^[28] “Professional Notes: ASW Defense Improved” USNI Proceedings, June 1952 Vol 78/6/592

^[29] May 1952 deck log of the USSK-1 (SSK 1), US Navy Deck Logs, 1951-55, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP.

^[30] July 1952 deck log of the USSK-1 (SSK 1), US Navy Deck Logs, 1951-55, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP.

^[31] September 1952 deck log of the USSK-1 (SSK 1), US Navy Deck Logs, 1951-55, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24, NARA CP.

^[32] Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, Rickover: Controversy and Genius, a Biography (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1982), 267

^[33] Polmar and Allen, 342

^[34] USS Seawolf (SSN 575), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command.

^[35] Peter Martel, Memoirs of a Hayseed Physicist (New York, Strategic Book Publishing, 2008), 64.

^[36] Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, Rickover: Controversy and Genius, a Biography (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1982), 621

^[37] Lieutenant James Earl Carter Jr., USN 39th American President, Naval History and Heritage Command.