USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Ethan Allen.

USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608)
History
United States
Name	USS Ethan Allen
Namesake	Ethan Allen
Ordered	17 July 1958
Laid down	14 September 1959
Launched	22 November 1960
Commissioned	8 August 1961
Stricken	2 April 1983
Fate	Ship and Submarine Recycling Program
General characteristics
Type	Ballistic Missile Submarine
Displacement	approx. 7,900 tons submerged
Length	410 ft 4 in (125.1 m)
Beam	33.1 ft (10.1 m)
Draft	27 ft 5 in (8.4 m)
Propulsion	S5W reactor - two geared steam turbines - one shaft
Speed	16 knots surfaced, 21 knots (24 mph/39 km/h) submerged
Test depth	1,300 ft (400 m)
Complement	12 Officers and 128 Enlisted (two crews Blue and Gold)
Armament	16 fleet ballistic missiles, 4 x 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), lead ship of her class, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Ethan Allen.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Corporation of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 22 November 1960, sponsored by Mrs. Robert H. Hopkins, great-great-great-granddaughter of Ethan Allen. The ship was commissioned on 8 August 1961, with Commander Paul L. Lacy, Jr., commanding Blue Crew and Commander W. W. Behrens, Jr., commanding the Gold Crew.

On 6 May 1962, Ethan Allen, under the command of Captain Paul Lacy and with Admiral Levering Smith aboard, launched a nuclear-armed Polaris missile that detonated at 11,000 feet (3.4 km) over the South Pacific. That test (Frigate Bird), part of Operation Dominic I, was the only complete operational test of an American strategic missile. The warhead hit "right in the pickle barrel."

To make room for the new Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines within the limitations of SALT II, Ethan Allen's missile tubes (and those of other earlier ballistic missile submarines) were disabled, and she was redesignated an attack submarine with hull classification symbol SSN-608 on 1 September 1980.

Ethan Allen was decommissioned on 31 March 1983 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register two days later. The hulk was tied up in Bremerton, Washington, until entering the Nuclear Powered Ship-Submarine Recycling Program.

Ethan Allen in Fiction

• In Tom Clancy's novel The Hunt for Red October, the decommissioned USS Ethan Allen was destroyed with a fuel-air explosive to cover for the escape of the defecting Soviet Typhoon-class submarine Красный Октябрь (Red October). The destruction of Ethan Allen was intended to simulate the explosion and sinking of a nuclear missile submarine, although the Ethan Allen–class boats were considerably smaller than Typhoons.

• She also appears in the novel Footfall by Niven and Pournelle.

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.