41 Cold War Sentinels - USS George Bancroft SSBN-643

George Bancroft was one of the great figures of nineteenth-century America, a historian, diplomat, and the founder of the United States Naval Academy. More than a century later, the Navy honored him by giving his name to a vessel that represented the cutting edge of Cold War deterrence. USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643) was a Benjamin Franklin-class ballistic missile submarine, part of the legendary “41 for Freedom.” From 1966 until 1993 she carried out seventy deterrent patrols, armed first with Polaris, then Poseidon, and finally Trident missiles. Her mission was never to fire, but to wait in silence, ensuring that no adversary would dare launch a nuclear strike. In this episode we tell the story of the man who gave the Navy its Academy and the submarine that bore his name, together leaving a legacy of leadership, vigilance, and commitment to the defense of freedom.