USS Lafayette SSBN 616
by David Barth, October 19, 2008
The keel of the USS Lafayette, SSBN 616, was laid down on 17 January 1961 at Groton, Connecticut, by the Electric
Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation. Electrical power was supplied by nuclear submarine Nautilus (SSN 571),
specifically for the keel-laying ceremony. French Ambassador to the United States, Herve Alphand, was
present.
Lafayette was launched on 8 May 1962, sponsored by Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of President John F. Kennedy.
She said, first in English, "I christen thee Lafayette," and then, in French, "Je te baptise Lafayette," before breaking
a bottle of champaign across a bar attached to the bow.
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, attired in a chartreuse Oleg Cassini coat and matching Breton hat, breaks the ceremonial
bottle of champagne on a skeg beneath the bow of Lafayette (SSBN-616) during the launching ceremony at Groton on 8 May
1962, while Capt. Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr., Naval Aide to the President, and Roger Lewis, President and Chief Executive
Officer of General Dynamics Corp., look on. (USN Photo BN 1061173)
Lafayette was commissioned at Electric Boat on 23 April 1963, with Commander Patrick J. Hannifin (Blue Crew) and
Commander James T. Strong (Gold Crew) in command. At that time, both commanders held the rank of Commander.
Lafayette departed Groton for shakedown training and missile trials off Cape Canaveral, Florida. On 2 July 1963, the
new ballistic missile submarine fired four A-2 Polaris missiles, two fired by the Blue Crew and two by the Gold. Of
those four evolutions, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth, and Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, accompanied by Rear Adm. Ignatius J. "Pete" Galantin, Director
of Special Projects, witnessed two. "I was very impressed by the high degree of training and morale of the crew of the
Lafayette," Secretary MacNamara declared upon his return to Washington later that day. He added, "I was also favorably
impressed by the high degree of perfection in the mechanism involved in the Polaris weapon system."
Returning to Groton in August 1963, Lafayette underwent post-shakedown availability and loaded out for her maiden
Strategic Deterrent patrol.