Archive of eight TLSs, each signed "H. G. Rickover," totaling thirteen pages, various US Navy ship letterheads, dating from 1966 to 1969. All to Lola Pierotti, the secretary and eventual wife of Vermont Senator George Aiken. Rickover expounds in great detail on sea trials of the Navy's growing fleet of nuclear submarines and ships, frequently offering fascinating remarks on their namesakes and histories. Specifically, he announces successful sea trials of the USS Francis Scott Key, Queenfish, Mariano G. Vallejo, Sturgeon, Ray, Truxtun, Tautog, and Grayling. In overall fine condition. Each is accompanied by its original mailing envelope.
Excerpts and highlights:
October 10, 1966: "We have just successfully completed the first sea trials of our 39th Polaris nuclear submarine. The USS Francis Scott Key was built by the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation…This ship honors the memory of the author of our national anthem…The song's popularity, I think, is due entirely to Key's words. He wrote a hymn to the American flag. He caught the mystique the flag has for us, who are a nation not by consanguinity, not by a long common history but by a devotion to an abstract concept, the concept of what the ideal society should be, the concept of liberty under law."
October 25, 1966: "We are returning from the first sea trials of the USS Queenfish (SSN 651), our twenty-fifth attack type nuclear submarine. The ship completed all tests, including full power operation, both surface and submerged…When all nuclear submarines presently authorized by Congress are completed, the United States will have a nuclear submarine fleet of forty-one Polaris and sixty-two attack submarines, and a small submarine capable of exploring the ocean bottom."
November 14, 1966: "We are returning from the first sea trials of the USS Sturgeon (SSN 637)…This is the third United States submarine of this name…The second, SS 187, commissioned 25 June 1938 and stricken from the Naval Register in 1946, won ten battle stars during eleven patrols in World War II. She was responsible for sinking nine Japanese ships for a total of 41,350 tons."
April 24, 1967: "We are returning from the first sea trials of the USS Truxtun, our second nuclear-powered guided missile frigate. During these trials the ship demonstrated her ability to develop full power and to meet all maneuvering requirements including emergency reversal from full speed ahead…The Truxtun is the Navy's fourth nuclear surface ship. The aircraft carrier Enterprise, the cruiser Long Beach, and the frigate Bainbridge are all presently deployed off Vietnam."
May 14, 1968: "We are returning from the first sea trials of the USS Tautog (SSN639)…The first USS Tautog (SS199) was commissioned 3 July 1940. Within minutes after the start of the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Tautog's machine guns downed a Japanese torpedo plane headed in the direction of the Navy Yard. By this action, she earned the distinction of making the first single-handed combat kill by a U.S. submarine in World War II…The new Tautog's primary wartime mission is to operate offensively against enemy submarines and surface ships, and to conduct surveillance operations." In fine condition.
