REGULUS MISSILE DETERRENT PATROL AREA
WHAT NO PICTURES!! Shipmates, the graphics will come later, but I want you to understand that this is not a typical submarine web page, because it is not about a typical submarine. Since her inception Halibut had always been involved in top secret programs, and since all nuclear powered submarines (in themselves) are highly classified, there is little official information, photographs, or other memorabilia available for publication. Halibut participated in two highly classified programs which were of great value and extreme importance to the government of the United States. Her first career was between 1961 and 1964 when she made 7 Regulus Missile Deterrent Patrols. Her second career was after she had been refitted to perform other "Special Operations" (others have written about these latter times).
Halibut was a product of the Cold War. Conceived during a time when President Eisenhower's "Massive Retaliation" policy was enforced as a "big stick" to deter the Soviet Union's worldwide expansion. Then the crux of our massive nuclear retaliation depended on the bomber aircraft of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC), to deliver thermo nuclear weapons directly upon our perceived enemy's territory. The United States Navy, since Alfred Thayer Mahn's inspired thesis on sea power, had always played the leading role in projecting our nations strategic power. It now found itself without a modern weapons system with which to play in the big game. Although Halibut was not yet conceived, this was the gleam in its father's eye. After much experimentation the Navy finally got into the Strategic Power game with a submarine launched guided missile- Regulus I. Some WW II submarines were refitted to launch Regulus I, and a new class of diesel powered submarines were redesigned (designated SSG) and laid out as guided missile launching platforms. However, with the unqualified success of the new nuclear powered submarines, the Navy decided to build no more diesel powered submarines; canceled the entire class of SSG's; and began a class of nuclear powered submarines (designated SSG(N)) to launch Regulus guided missiles. The U.S. Navy's Regulus I strategic guided missile program came to fruition in September 1959 when a diesel powered submarine initiated Regulus Deterrent Patrols, and ended with Halibut's last patrol in 1964. Concurrent with the SSG(N) program there were other submarine launched missile systems under development, which would supersede both Halibut and Regulus. Therefore, she, and her entire class, became victims of a more advanced technology.
A submarine is conceived in man's mind, is built and commissioned, sails, and men come and go to serve in her. She is unheralded and finally sent to the shipbreaker. Should this be Halibut's epitaph? No- because she and her crewmen were pioneers. As an SSG(N) she was the first nuclear powered missile carrying submarine ever to make extended submerged missile deterrent patrols. Her single crew blazed the trail and set the standard for the entire line of "boomers", with their two separate crews, which would become the bulwark of the United States' strategic weapons systems. While on Regulus missile deterrent patrol Halibut added another aspect, which the boomers could not match, by performing other Special Operations in her patrol area.
Halibut's time as an active SSG(N) on Regulus Missile Deterrent Patrols has been chronicled in a new book- The Cold Warriors. The author writes under the nom de plume Seafarer. I don't know why, it has not yet been fully explained, but I have read the book and want to share part of Halibut's story on the web. "Story Boards", each containing an excerpt from the book and a graphic, are linked. After following all of the links the reader will know much more about Halibut and her deterrent patrols.
THE COLD WARRIORS®
CHAPTER HEADINGS:
PROLOGUE
THE NUKES
THE BITCHIN' LIBERTY
RETURN OF THE HALIBUT
THE BEACH
ON PATROL
ON STATION
THE BOAT
THE GIRLS
THE NON-PATROL
IN RETROSPECT
to get underway on patrol click on the Dolphins:
The Cold Warriors© ®1996 is copyright and registered 1996 no part may be reproduced in any form without the permission. Excerpts herein have been used with permission of the Author.