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A little history.... USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered warship, was launched in Groton, Connecticut on January 21, 1954. I was barely 1-month old at the time. Nautilus was the brainchild of Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover, the irascible and uncompromising director of Naval Reactors: [Side note: Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy”, Rickover's total of 63 years of active duty service make him the longest-serving naval officer, as well as the longest-serving member of the U.S armed forces in history. For more on Admiral Rickover, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover ] In naval exercises with surface forces, it soon became apparent that nuclear power would revolutionize undersea warfare. Nuclear-powered subs could sustain high underwater speeds (greater than 20 knots) and remain submerged indefinitely. Underway on nuclear power: On August 3, 1958, Nautilus again made history by becoming the first vessel to transit the North Pole In February, 1975, as a college senior, I was interviewed by Admiral Rickover and accepted into the Navy's Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) program. After being commissioned an Ensign, I endured six-months of intensive classroom instruction at Navy Nuclear Power School (Mare Island, CA), followed by another six-months of "hands-on" training at the S1W prototype reactor, west of Idaho Falls: On completion of my nuclear training, I attended submarine school in Groton, Connecticut and then joined USS Nautilus in the middle of her 1977 deployment to the Mediterranean. Nautilus loading torpedoes alongside a sub tender in La Maddalena, Sardinia (Summer, 1977): My first assignment on-board was as Sonar Officer, which was followed by assignments as Reactor Controls Officer and Electrical Officer. Operating out of Naval Submarine Base New London, Nautilus participated in numerous training exercises over the next two years, playing "rabbit" for US and Allied naval forces. Nautilus in Halifix harbor (ca. December, 1978), following wargames with the Canadian Navy She also performed fundamental research into underwater sound transmission. Here she is with an acoustic transmitter array mounted aft of the sail, for the Navy's "Mobile Acoustic Communications Study (MACS)" In 1979, the Navy decided to take Nautilus out of service, and we relocated to Mare Island Naval Shipyard via the Panama Canal for decommissioning. Nautilus arrives at San Diego's Ballast Point en route to Mare Island (June, 1979): I formally earned my "Gold Dolphins" as a qualified submariner during the transit from San Diego to Mare Island: Over the next nine months, Nautilus spent most of her time in drydock at Mare Island Naval Shipyard for reactor defueling and modifications for her future as a museum ship: It was during this period that I built my first model of Nautilus, using the old Aurora kit. Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980: ex-Nautilus is now designated a "historic ship", and can be toured at the Naval Submarine Base Museum in Groton, CT